Barbie (2023) In the ever-at-a-boil culture wars we live in today, the reaction to "Barbie" was practically pre-ordained.
The GOP's Maga-Morons sensed the film's pro-woman, anti-patriarchy agenda which director co-writer Greta Gerwig cleverly candy coated to the highest gloss possible.
Gerwig and co-writer Noah Baumbach accomplished this feat with a truly dazzling balance of deadpan satire and just plain goofy fun.....especially in the film's first act, taking place entirely in the Barbie-verse where pink's the only primary color.
Of course the GOP trolls like Ted Cruz felt outraged and disrespected by "Barbie"s treatment of men, depicted as literally brainless mannequins After all, these are the guys who finally realized, with the Supreme Court's aid, their lifelong quest to become the Uterus Gestapo......., exerting dictatorial control over women's healthcare choices and forcing raped little girls to deliver their rapist's baby even if it kills them in the process.
But enough of them, let's get back to 'Barbie', a movie gifted not only with Gerwig's whip-smart sensibilities but with the most perfectly cast leads ever. Who else could bring the towering (on heels) iconic living doll to life but Margot Robbie.......whose eyes, (as always in every role she plays), possess a barely contained mania.
And who else could play Barbie's deliberately generic consort Ken but Ryan Gosling......generating laughter with the pure, sweet innocence of his dumb-as-a-rock one dimensional world view. (Gerwig and Gosling manage to delight their little girl audience with Ken's clueless antics while treating adult women to knowing digs at male entitlement.
Amid all the skilled satire on display, "Barbie" takes some major risks in its storyline's complex collision of Barbie World with the real world......and here's where some of the film's blatant,, determined messaging turns clumsy and obvious.
Nowhere is this more apparent and ham-handed than in the low comedy overplaying of the Mattel CEO (the overbearing Will Ferrell) and his rubber stamped board of directors. They look like discards from old Jerry Lewis movies, which were never too funny in the 50's and less so now.
Fortunately, Ferrell and his corporate clown car are kept enough at a minimum so as not to cause any lasting damage.....
.......which paves the way for the movie to spring its biggest of surprises....in the way its conclusion goes straight for the heartstrings......and finishes up with a final moment both hilarious and painfully perceptive.
So there's no great secret as to why "Barbie" steamrolled over Hollywood's exhausted, repetitive summer lineup of worn out franchise sequels (along with the equally one-of-a-find "Oppenheimer"). For a refreshing, bracing change of pace, the film offered something audiences haven't enjoyed in ages......a monumental crowd pleaser with both brains and heart.
Memo to studio lizards - take note of that before you greenlight the next- dead-on-arrival 280 million dollar budgeted superhero movie........
Even though this Barbie breaks out of the box she came in, the movie's still worth its weight in gold an original experience. . 4 stars (****.)
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