This really helped to lexicalize why I didn't like the Barbie movie as much as everyone said I should. All of my lefty friends said it was some deeply meaningful subversive piece of genius when it just felt kinda shallow and telling the same idea and story that could be told a million times better in any other story in a way that doesnt only pretend to actually say anything, and that doesn't sacrifice 90% of what is being talked about for unimpressive metaaesthetics.
Loving these movie reviews! I'd have liked to hear your take on Allan. I feel like an Allan quite often in a self-hating way, and I think a lot of your audience probably does as well.
1. The idea that Barbie is harmful to girls is overblown. Video games are almost certainly more harmful to boys and young men than barbie dolls are to girls, but society has a sort of "who cares" approach to that fact, and I personally love video games despite that. The film is correct to expose this idea as a sort juvenile feminist critique of capitalism. In addition, the film correctly mocks the idea that the "women can be anything" tagline is a lie and that this sort of inspiration has absolutely failed to elevate women to that vision. The story doesn't really dive too much into if Barbie dolls themselves are good or bad for women and girls because it isn't really about that but rather is making larger points about feminism.
2. Regarding cellulite, Barbie's original goal is to be perfect again. She wants to return to the way things were, initially. There is very clearly a shift however when Barbie becomes "woke" to the real world and it is revealed that she can't really go back. You are either ignorant and perfect or you are woke and you are ugly and weird. The whole point of the film is her coming to terms with the understanding that her initial goal, to be perfect again, was a sham that rested on delusion and ignorance, and that she should embrace being ugly and weird. What you are describing as a sort of inconsistency here is actually an arc that the character goes through.
3. Regarding Barbie's hell being rich girl hell, not patriarchy, I think you are half right. Barbie's main struggle at that point in the film, and her reason for being sad and basically giving up, was that she could never be perfect again. It makes sense then that Ferrara's speech would resonate with her, because Ferrara was explaining the struggles of trying and failing to meet the expectations society placed on them. Barbie's hell was not patriarchy, true, but it was the despair of never meeting the expectations she placed on herself, and Ferrara's speech ends in her expressing how tired she is with seeing other women struggle with this. I think more confusing than why this resonated with Barbie, is why it resonated with the still brainwashed Barbies. Pivoting to real life, if you were to explain to an ardent traditionalist, who likes bringing their husband beer and washing his feet while he is busy running the world, that they are actually oppressed, I doubt it would resonate with many of them. The film overestimates how well the feminist message would resonate with women content with the patriarchy, in my opinion, not with women who are miserable due to the expectations placed upon them.
4. "Smash to credits before anything gross or weird happens" I think Barbie just announcing she has wet fleshy bits now that can be vectors of infection / disease and thus need medical checkups *IS* about as gross and weird as you can get for a film of this kind. I actually give it credit for kind of touching the boundary of an appropriate choke for a theater that is going to have parents with their kids.
1. There has never neen any study showing that video games are harmful to kids and I also don't think that intuitively makes sense, so I disagree.
2. I understand that Barbie goes through an arc and realizes being perfect is not a good goal. My problem here is with the structure of the script. If the point of Barbie's arc is that you have to take the bad with the good that comes with being human, Barbie should either be propelled towards the good things about being human (food and sex) or away from the bad things about being Barbie (loneliness and boredom). Instead she is trying to escape being human by going to the real world, which makes no sense. She should be trying to escape being a doll by going to the real world, and THEN she gets cellulite, which makes her realize she is going to die if she continues on her quest to become human.
Or her initial quest can be to get rid of her bad thoughts, or fix her feet or cellulite or whatever, but the real world is not the first destination for that journey. For that she would need... "plastic surgery." So she is shipped to manufacturing for a warrant leg replacement, and THEN sees something outside that makes her escape into the real world, etc.
As it stands I don't think her arc structure makes any sense.
3. I was referring to her initial hell, the hell that is being Barbie and living in Barbieland.
4. The movie is PG-13. You can have bare butts, sex, periods, gynecologists, and death in a PG-13 movie. I think they really chickened out.
This really helped to lexicalize why I didn't like the Barbie movie as much as everyone said I should. All of my lefty friends said it was some deeply meaningful subversive piece of genius when it just felt kinda shallow and telling the same idea and story that could be told a million times better in any other story in a way that doesnt only pretend to actually say anything, and that doesn't sacrifice 90% of what is being talked about for unimpressive metaaesthetics.
Loving these movie reviews! I'd have liked to hear your take on Allan. I feel like an Allan quite often in a self-hating way, and I think a lot of your audience probably does as well.
My review of your review, bulletized:
1. The idea that Barbie is harmful to girls is overblown. Video games are almost certainly more harmful to boys and young men than barbie dolls are to girls, but society has a sort of "who cares" approach to that fact, and I personally love video games despite that. The film is correct to expose this idea as a sort juvenile feminist critique of capitalism. In addition, the film correctly mocks the idea that the "women can be anything" tagline is a lie and that this sort of inspiration has absolutely failed to elevate women to that vision. The story doesn't really dive too much into if Barbie dolls themselves are good or bad for women and girls because it isn't really about that but rather is making larger points about feminism.
2. Regarding cellulite, Barbie's original goal is to be perfect again. She wants to return to the way things were, initially. There is very clearly a shift however when Barbie becomes "woke" to the real world and it is revealed that she can't really go back. You are either ignorant and perfect or you are woke and you are ugly and weird. The whole point of the film is her coming to terms with the understanding that her initial goal, to be perfect again, was a sham that rested on delusion and ignorance, and that she should embrace being ugly and weird. What you are describing as a sort of inconsistency here is actually an arc that the character goes through.
3. Regarding Barbie's hell being rich girl hell, not patriarchy, I think you are half right. Barbie's main struggle at that point in the film, and her reason for being sad and basically giving up, was that she could never be perfect again. It makes sense then that Ferrara's speech would resonate with her, because Ferrara was explaining the struggles of trying and failing to meet the expectations society placed on them. Barbie's hell was not patriarchy, true, but it was the despair of never meeting the expectations she placed on herself, and Ferrara's speech ends in her expressing how tired she is with seeing other women struggle with this. I think more confusing than why this resonated with Barbie, is why it resonated with the still brainwashed Barbies. Pivoting to real life, if you were to explain to an ardent traditionalist, who likes bringing their husband beer and washing his feet while he is busy running the world, that they are actually oppressed, I doubt it would resonate with many of them. The film overestimates how well the feminist message would resonate with women content with the patriarchy, in my opinion, not with women who are miserable due to the expectations placed upon them.
4. "Smash to credits before anything gross or weird happens" I think Barbie just announcing she has wet fleshy bits now that can be vectors of infection / disease and thus need medical checkups *IS* about as gross and weird as you can get for a film of this kind. I actually give it credit for kind of touching the boundary of an appropriate choke for a theater that is going to have parents with their kids.
Everything else I kind of agree with.
1. There has never neen any study showing that video games are harmful to kids and I also don't think that intuitively makes sense, so I disagree.
2. I understand that Barbie goes through an arc and realizes being perfect is not a good goal. My problem here is with the structure of the script. If the point of Barbie's arc is that you have to take the bad with the good that comes with being human, Barbie should either be propelled towards the good things about being human (food and sex) or away from the bad things about being Barbie (loneliness and boredom). Instead she is trying to escape being human by going to the real world, which makes no sense. She should be trying to escape being a doll by going to the real world, and THEN she gets cellulite, which makes her realize she is going to die if she continues on her quest to become human.
Or her initial quest can be to get rid of her bad thoughts, or fix her feet or cellulite or whatever, but the real world is not the first destination for that journey. For that she would need... "plastic surgery." So she is shipped to manufacturing for a warrant leg replacement, and THEN sees something outside that makes her escape into the real world, etc.
As it stands I don't think her arc structure makes any sense.
3. I was referring to her initial hell, the hell that is being Barbie and living in Barbieland.
4. The movie is PG-13. You can have bare butts, sex, periods, gynecologists, and death in a PG-13 movie. I think they really chickened out.