Some Thoughts On ‘Barbie’
Sublime!
By this point everyone under the sun has written their reviews and critiques on Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’ in more eloquent and scholarly ways than I can achieve so this is a word vomit. Bear with me.
Welcome to Barbieland
God I ate this stuff up. ‘Barbie’ was at its best when it leaned into the camp and nothing embodied that more than the set design. Seeing life size versions of the Barbie houses and cars of my childhood was cathartic in a way I struggle to describe. This feeling extends towards the film’s soundtrack which had the ability to make me laugh and cry in a way that strikes at my most base emotions.
Even so, ‘Barbie’ never made you forget that you were watching a movie. It dedicated much of the first act to self-aggrandizing jokes about Mattel and the second-wave white feminism that stereotypical Barbie represents. However, through all of those comedic beats I felt in on the joke rather than exploited for profit. That could mean that Mattel has just gotten more intelligent about marketing and this whole thing is more insidious than I ever imagined but I guess that’s how the cookie crumbles.
Greta Gerwig Film School
This isn’t to say that the movie fully relied on meta-textual quips and production eye-candy. Gerwig is a student of cinema. It’s no secret that she was influenced by dozens of films from ‘Umbrellas of Cherbourg’ to ‘The Truman Show.’ She was influenced by the dance sequences in ‘Grease’ and hints of Michelle Pfeiffer’s “Don’t call me baby!” line in ‘Scarface.’ One of the most emotionally resonant scenes in the film — a conversation between Barbie and Ruth in a dreamscape — is shot like a Miyazaki movie. She opens with a quite stunning homage ‘2001: A Space Odyessey’ for God’s sake!
It’s one thing to use these film history influences and it’s another to make those influences work in the story. And if I haven’t made it clear, these influences completely worked.
A Brief Aside on Marxist Dialectics
One of the main reasons why this commercialist filmmaking didn’t rattle me with fear was because of Gerwig’s nuanced understanding about the power of film.
When studio systems and the entertainment industry were being built up in the 1930s, some of the most prominent critics of film as an artform were western Marxists (particularly those of the Frankfurt School). Scholars like Siegfried Kracauer, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, and Walter Benjamin wrote extensively on the dangers of film creating fascist mass media while also being a tool for social change.
In Dialectic of Enlightenment, Adorno and Horkheimer wrote that in film’s “attempts to manipulate the masses the ideology of the culture industry itself becomes as internally antagonistic as the very society which it aims to control.” In other words, film can contain two contradictory meanings at once. The medium that is used for authoritarian propaganda is the same medium that is used to empower peoples’ fight for justice.
Adorno and Horkheimer summarized this idea in one pithy quote: “The ideology of the culture industry contains the antidote to its own lie.” It’s not a coincidence that this sounds familiar as, in act two, the Barbies realize that “Kenland contains the seeds of its own destruction.”
‘Barbie’ can be intense corporate spon-con while also delivering an earnest and empowering message of individuality and the value of life. It’s all dialectics baby.
Barbie 2: Hot Wheels?
While I happily looked past much of that product placement and commercialism in the film, the one thing I couldn’t get past was the LITERAL Chevy car commercial shot halfway through the film. Gloria (America Ferrera) and her daughter, Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt), save runaway Barbie (Margot Robbie) from the evil Mattel businessmen. This sparks a high-speed car chase with Gloria driving a blue Chevy followed by two black Chevy vans. This montage was shot so differently (i.e. low angle camera rigs) than the rest of the film that it took me completely out of the story for a good 10 minutes.
It only took a little internet sleuthing to learn that the inclusion of Chevrolet in a Mattel production is not a coincidence. According to Chevrolet itself, the earliest idea for a Hot Wheels toy car was a 1967 Chevrolet Camaro. What company owns Hot Wheels? You guessed it, Mattel. Look out for the new Hot Wheels movie very soon.
Mothers and Daughters
Greta Gerwig solidified herself as a master of depicting female relationships with 2017’s ‘Ladybird’ and ‘Barbie’ is no different. The central relationship between mothers and daughters hit hard. If there was an award for best line of dialogue, “We mothers stand still so that our daughters can look back and see how far they’ve come” has got it on lock. Just beautiful.
The film also examines the intense weight of perfectionism, of hiding flaws and pandering to others, that seems inherently universal about the feminine experience.
This theme reminded me of this quote my friend gave me:
“The San Francisco therapist kept telling me I shouldn’t be terrified of creative experimentation.
“I don’t know what’s going to come out of me,” I told her. “It has to be perfect. It has to be irreproachable in every way.”
“Why?” she said.
“To make up for it,” I said. “To make up for the fact that it’s me.”
― Suzanne Rivecca
Barbie had to be perfect. Barbie had to save the world. Anything short would be a failure.
Margot Robbie’s Barbie encapsulated all of this in what I believe to be a massively underrated performance. The movie doesn’t work without her. The nuance and complexity that she gives to a plastic doll — from her dialogue to her physical acting — is nothing short of extraordinary.
…and Ken
The parallel journey that Ken goes on felt just as resonant to me. He got his worth, like many of us do, from external factors: his “girlfriend”, his job, his house, etc. Until he learned that true masculinity comes from who you are as a person. Talk about wholesome.
The whole cast of Kens were so effectively entertaining. Enough has been said about Ryan Gosling’s triumphant performance but it is truly incredible how versatile he is.
Greta Gerwig Is A Sellout
Lastly, one thought on this opinion that has been circling the internet…
SPARE ME.
I cannot believe this is a legitimate take that people are making when Christopher Nolan (who I love, no shade) made a literal Batman movie to gain the clout and capital to make his fun space/time movies.
From ‘Ladybird’ to ‘Little Women’ to ‘Barbie’ Greta Gerwig has maintained a true creative north star. She returns to central themes and layered relationships that are important to her as she grows in financial (and artistic) success. If you’ve got a problem with that don’t hate the player, hate the game.
Overall, ‘Barbie’ is not going to save the world. Thinking it was going to be a perfect and revolutionary piece of art is giving the film an impossible task. Yes, some jokes were too on the nose. Yes, Will Ferrell’s character was funny but in the completely wrong movie. Yes, Mattel as villains was super cringe and, ultimately, ineffective. ‘Barbie’ is not perfect. But it is a film that can inspire a younger generation through healing an older generation.
While using a lot of pink.
