‘Barbie’- Film Review: Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie, and All That Kenergy

Talk about a film that’s the complete opposite of Oppenheimer, right? But it’s not too shocking Barbie has become one of the most highly talked about blockbusters since they announced it. Since 2009, rumors of this project have had difficulty getting off the ground, with other actresses attached (Amy Schumer and Anne Hathaway) at one point. The closest we got was, unfortunately, direct-to-DVD animated movies that looked terrible and had scenes of people attending extravagant balls (if you watch Kurtis Connors, you get it).

I couldn’t care less about it if we had received a Barbie movie released when I was about to be a teenager. But now it’s 2023, and you better believe a guy in his late 20s has been unironically excited about Warner Bros. Pictures’s long-awaited live-action adaptation of the best-selling Mattel toy line.

Much like how Mario has always been synonymous with video games, everybody is familiar with Barbie dolls, first created by Ruth Handler in 1959. Since then, there have been millions of Barbies and collectibles parents have brought for their children. Despite being contentious, she is a cultural phenomenon supporting the idea that girls may be anything they desire when many top jobs were not open to women. Everything we’ve been seeing from the trailers and the marketing campaign had to live up to the hype, not set itself up for failure for an IP. Making a $145 million film that doesn’t feel like a commercial is more complicated than it appears. All I hoped for with Barbie was to be the next big smash like The LEGO Movie rather than a flop like Jem and the Holograms.

Some will come out of this saying, “This clearly wasn’t meant for me.” Who cares? I have never held a Barbie doll, which doesn’t mean I can still find meaning to this. However, that didn’t stop me from finding Greta Gerwig’s live-action adaption to be an excellent comic fantasy from start to finish.

What’s the Story: In the world of Barbie Land, the Barbies run things around, holding a variety of professions (doctors, writers, politicians, etc.). As for the Kens, they are there to enjoy the beach and worship their counterparts. One “Stereotypical” Barbie (Margot Robbie), in particular, is living her best life. She loves greeting her neighbors from her lavish Dream House, doing her morning routines, and dancing the night away with blow-out parties. All is fine and dandy until she has thoughts about death. The next day, something feels off, like having flat feet and cellulite. She visits the outcast Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) to find out why she’s going through this existential crisis. It turns out the owner who’s playing with her in the real world who’s depressed. To return to who she is, Barbie, and a stowaway Ken (Ryan Gosling), must travel to the real world in Los Angeles to find the girl she has this connection with.

Many of us were unsure what Gerwig would do next after following up two Best Picture-nominated films with 2017’s Lady Bird and 2019’s Little Women. Both of which I love. The fact she did something entirely different by doing Barbie shows how ambitious of a filmmaker she continues to be, stepping out of her comfort zone to deliver everything pretty in pink. Any hesitation on Gerwig’s part can rest easy knowing she made it big here in what is only described as a big-budget celebration of the doll and its association in a campy, irreverent way. Her imagination to make Barbie Land come to life is full of wonderment as if the actors set foot on a giant play set in a world we know is silly. But that’s okay.

Everything else that made this come to life is an achievement. The production design by Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer, Rodrigo Prieto’s cinematography, and the costume design by Jacqueline Durran, who won an Oscar for Little Women, perfectly captured how anyone would envision a Barbie movie.

The sharp and clever screenplay from Gerwig and her partner Noah Baumbach subverts our expectations about how it’s not the Barbie movie we had in mind. Just when I thought it would be a fish out of water story as she and Ken visit the real world, it’s so much more than that. Seeing how this took inspiration from The Truman Show, The Wizard of Oz, and even Elf, it’s surprisingly deep in commenting on specific issues. The interpreted theme it’s going towards might be heavy-handed to some, and it might be a lot to handle.

That said, it doesn’t have this saying women are good and men are evil. But this touches on issues we still face today about what society thinks we should do. They even mention why Barbie dolls have gotten a bad image to little girls, and I have to hand it to Gerwig for handled well enough for young adults. I didn’t expect to walk into this iconic doll to question her place in life. That’s too relatable thinking about that every day, including myself. At some point, does it matter what we’re doing as humans? What do we consider happiness?

So much of the comedy had me and the audience during the fan screening I saw it with laughing out loud. Many of the jokes will go over kids’ heads, especially the last line of dialogue I can’t get over. The movie instantly went in the right direction when the opening paid homage to the “Dawn of Man” sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey, an early sign we were in for something magical.

Robbie is one of those actresses who gets perfect casting in nearly every project she takes on. She was born to portray Harley Quinn in the DCEU, and I can say the same with the two-time Oscar-nominated Aussie stepping into Barbie’s shoes. This needed to have someone confident in pulling off a character who’s both charming and dramatic when the story calls for it and when she realizes the world isn’t always sunshine and rainbows—top 5 best performances of her career. Plus, she deserves a win after Amsterdam and Babylon (which I thought was great) bombed at the box office last year.

Alongside Robbie on the adventure is Ryan Gosling, who couldn’t be the perfect casting decision as Ken. The commitment he puts into this blonde himbo is just what everyone needs. Only some people play with the Ken doll. But we know he’s the man who’s always with Barbie and is madly in love with her. The only problem is she never reciprocates the same feelings as him. Once they set into the real world, he has an arc on what it means to be a man, leading him to learn what patriarchy is. Like Barbie on her journey, he doesn’t know what he wants to be. Seriously, it’s impossible not to find Gosling’s Ken stupidly charismatic. Barbie also proves he’s so funny, which we already noticed in Crazy Stupid Love and The Nice Guys. He steals every scene with one of his best performances in years. And if that’s not enough, he brings those singing chops from La La Land to deliver a pretty incredible song/ musical sequence (“I’m Just Ken”) that’s one of my favorite scenes.

With Robbie and Gosling in the forefront and being fantastic when on-screen together, they’re teamed up with a stacked ensemble that understands what movie they signed up for. For the variations of Barbies, there’s Issa Rea (President Barbie), Alexandra Shipp (Writer Barbie), Hari Nerf (Dr. Barbie), Emma Mackey (Physicist Barbie), and the McKinnon as mentioned earlier. Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, and Ncuti Gatwa also made for memorable Kens. The only guy not named Ken is Michael Cera as Alan, Ken’s sidekick. Though he wasn’t in it as much as I wanted, seeing him in a movie again with a hilarious moment between construction workers was great.

America Ferrera in Ariana Greenblatt as Gloria and her daughter Sasha tag along with Barbie later on. While their characters might feel unnecessary to the plot, with one of their developments feeling rushed, their performances made me forgive that minor issue. Ferrea needs to get talked about more, and we will remember her role after she gives this unexpected monologue on what it means to be human. It’s going to be talked about for the rest of the year. Someone in the audience even said something like, “Yes, Queen,” with small applause in agreement.

The music was also an unexpected hit. It’s a shame they couldn’t utilize Aqua’s version of “Barbie Girl” due to licensing concerns and had to settle for the Nicki Minaj/Ice Spice version (“Barbie World”), which I dislike. The rest of the album, on the other hand, features talented musicians such as Dua Lipa (“Dance the Night Away”), Charlie XCX (“Speed Drive”), and Billie Eilish (“What Was I Made For?”). And this will make you reconsider Matchbox Twenty in a variety of ways.

Would I call it a perfect time? Not quite. Not all the jokes made me laugh. But the audience I saw it with consistently laughed at the ones I didn’t think were funny. Aside from that and feeling about 15 minutes overlong, there was little interest in Will Ferrell’s subplot as the CEO of Mattel trying to bring Barbie back into the real world. It’s also not Ferrell’s fault because it’s the first time in forever that he’s in a great movie; it’s just that such scenes don’t serve a purpose when everyone else is more invested in Barbie or Ken.

For all I know, this could’ve been a total disaster for a movie leaning on nostalgia. But it wasn’t when it’s creativity smart that will have people talking for months. All eyes are looking at Barbie as a massive box office hit for this summer and studio, a treasure after seeing this summer’s biggest releases fall short of expectations. This movie is bound to become a classic in the film world, just like her two previous ones.

Overall, Barbie did the impossible by fulfilling those high expectations. Even when I know I’m not part of the target audience, Greta Gerwig puts together a gorgeous, empowering, and hilarious blockbuster to appeal to everybody. Margot Robbie is absolutely delightful as Barbie, and Ryan Gosling delivers one of his best performances in years as Ken. Not the most fantastic movie ever made, nor a masterpiece, but it will pleasantly surprise those who thought this wouldn’t work.