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Barbie

January 15, 2024

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[avatar]by Blender Dumbass

Aka: J.Y. Amihud. A Jewish by blood, multifaceted artist with experience in film-making, visual effects, programming, game development, music and more. A philosopher at heart. An activist for freedom and privacy. Anti-Paternalist. A user of Libre Software. Speaking at least 3 human languages. The writer and director of the 2023 film "Moria's Race" and the lead developer of it's game sequel "Dani's Race".


From 2 years ago.
Information or opinions might not be up to date.


5 Minute Read



I was not sure if I wanted to see Barbie. I certainly didn't want to see it together with Oppenheimer. But the funny thing is, I still didn't review Oppenheimer, while here I am reviewing Barbie. I think I have the same reason here as with Nope as of why I avoided it. You know Nope was directed by a black man. And it was one of its main selling points. Barbie is directed by a woman. And everybody is talking about it. And it feels forced to watch a movie for that kind of reason. So I avoided Barbie until now. But since I had a Ryan Gosling marathon, I though that I might as well get into this film. And oh my god. I have thoughts! ↩ Reply

This movie is directed by Greta Gerwig who made other films too that I haven't seen yet. And now I have to see them all. It was written by her and her husband Noah Baumbach, who's style could be slightly recognized. He helped Wes Anderson write some of his movies. ↩ Reply

I had not a lot of hope. People were yelling at this movie for being "toxically feminine". It is technically an ad for a kids toy. And it is based on the dullest kind of source material ever. Get it? But if you look at those names above, you start to realize that you are not talking about some random executive writers and director. You are talking about Greta fucking Gerwig and Noah fucking Baumbach! Those two can make magic happen. ↩ Reply

Barbie is a political satire movie. Yes! It is not your standard dumb shit. It satirizes the feminism versus patriarchy situation that we currently have. A lot of people on the right of the political spectrum perhaps failed to realize that it was a satire. Or failed to see that it satirizes both men and women. Pay attention. It's important! ↩ Reply

For a kids movie is has a healthy amount of jokes about sex. And healthy amount of very sexy imagery. I mean of course. Given it's source material there is pretty much no way it would not be sexy. The humor, both in dialogue and visual humor are amazing. ↩ Reply

Greta is a fucking good director! She is not quite Spielbergian but she has her own kind of awesome style that I don't know if I seen before. I can describe it as a kind of light Wes Anderson ( so Wes Anderson, but without the symmetry ) combined with Edgar Wright. Which is an explosive mix. I very fucking love it. ↩ Reply

The movie also has a surprising amount of good music. There are two insane dance sequences. But one is just so good it got stuck in my mind. I almost forgot that Ryan Gosling can sing. But he is so good. He needs to record more music. He has one album that he recorded before that. There should be more. ↩ Reply

There is a very funny meta thing in the movie. It is both an ad for Mattel ( the company that makes Barbie dolls ) and it is both a satire of trying to be an ad for Mattel. For example. The bad guys in this film are the Mattel corporation. ↩ Reply

The movie has a fair share of references to Stanley Kubrick. Most people caught the opening sequence that literally has frames copied from 2001: A Space Odyssey. But there are also references to The Shinning. And so on. ↩ Reply

The movie has a very funny, but kind of sad character Allan played by Michael Cera, the sexiest and most wholesome man alive. I heard there are rumors that Warner Bros. and Mattel want to make a spin-off movie about Allan. Take my money! ↩ Reply

From the female characters Barbie herself, played by Margot Robbie is kind of boring, to be honest. She is the kind of perfect blank slate character that goes to do something, but ultimately is there just to meet other, more interesting characters. I mean, she is a dull. Get it? But Ken and Allan where both more interesting dolls. So I don't know. Though the weird Barbie played by Kate McKinnon is a fucking comedy gold. Also an interesting character in the movie is played by America Ferrera who has an interesting plot twist which I'm not going to spoil and a very cool monologue scene. About that monologue scene. I don't think it is only about women's experience. I am a guy and I can totally relate to everything she says there. Maybe it was the point. ↩ Reply

Happy Hacking!!! ↩ Reply


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[icon reviews]Breaking The Waves

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[avatar]  Blender Dumbass

👁 65



Lars Von Trier is an interesting filmmaker. He directs mostly very depressing movies that are very hard to watch. Breaking The Waves is an interesting case study in his filmography because on some weird level this is one of the rare examples of a Lars Von Trier film with a happy ending. Even though you could perhaps argue that the ending is nowhere near happy at all.


[icon reviews]Death Wish 2018 has a low rating due to politics

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[avatar]  Blender Dumbass

👁 10 💬 1



17% Rotten Tomatoes score. The movie got to be shit, right? Well when it comes to the Eli Roth's 2018 Death Wish ( the remake of the 1974 film with the same name ) you are not quite correct. In my estimate the film should be no less than 60%, based on its execution. Eli Roth is a good enough director to pull something like this off. And you can see that he is trying. The actors are also good. And the music by Ludwig Göransson is really fucking good. I mean this is the same guy who did the music for Tenet and Oppenheimer. He is really fucking good. Watching the movie, I saw that the movie is arguably a lot more watchable and a lot more satisfying than the 1974 original. What is different, is that the 1974 original was made in 1974. And since then the politics have changed.


#DeathWish #guns #film #review #movies #cinemastodon


[icon articles]The Police-Force Paradox

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[avatar]  Blender Dumbass

👁 12 💬 1



In 2011, French writer and director Maïwenn Le Besco went to the police station in Paris in order to try to get some information about how the police works. The research she ended up gathering, ended up portrayed in her 2011 film Polisse about which I already wrote a review. But one thing about this movie suck with me. And if the intention of the film was to shine light on the police-work, this means that to some extend that thing that stuck with me shows a certain, very depressing truth about the world that I don't know how to process quite yet.


#police #paradox #law #freedom #humanrights


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