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".

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Happy Hacking!!!


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