Geek Review: Barbie

Barbie may be a beautiful, tall and slim blonde but she is also a president, a physicist, a supreme court judge and a doctor. But can Barbie, the doll created to be a plaything for little girls everywhere, be a feminist icon? Well, that’s what Greta Gerwig’s attempting to find out in her latest film, Barbie. 

Starring Margot Robbie as stereotypical Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken, Gerwig’s Barbie takes viewers on a journey in and out of Barbieland, to figure out what feminism means and holds a mirror to the real world we know – patriarchy and all. 

The movie starts with a perfect day in perfect Barbieland. Barbie wakes up, has a lovely warm shower, perfectly toasted breakfast and attends her social engagements. She watches another Barbie win a prize, she sits in court where Barbie wins the argument and goes to the beach with her fellow Barbies and Kens. Her Ken, the one played by Gosling, is desperate for her attention and the night ends with a fabulous party in her dreamhouse. But when she starts thinking of death, things start to change. Her morning routine is disrupted and her foot is – gasp – flat on the ground. A visit to Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) takes her on a car drive, boat ride, campervan, rocketship, skimobile and finally rollerblades to Venice Beach California where the plastic doll is tasked to fix the fabric of reality between Barbieland and the Real World. 

There’s no nicer way to put it but Robbie’s Barbie is delusional. Her entire being has been based around the idea that she makes life better for women but when she’s met with sexism and the gaze of men at every turn she makes, she begins to question just how impactful she must’ve been for young girls and women all this time. Ken, who has spent most of his life ignored by Barbie, finds power in today’s patriarchal society, brings what he learns back into Barbieland, and essentially flips the world on its head. 

If this sounds like a gender studies module to you – it’s because it kinda is. Barbie is the case study while Gerwig is the professor teaching you what mansplaining is, what it means to be a woman in today’s society, and how the patriarchy is not just harmful to the minorities it oppresses, but to the men who uphold it too. Those who cry woke for Barbie’s teaching of female empowerment probably don’t think critically enough because Gerwig’s point is simple – a world ruled by patriarchy will never be equal for women, and a world ruled by Barbies will never be fair for Kens. 

As one of today’s acclaimed feminist filmmakers, Gerwig explores these various topics through the lens of comedy. We laugh at Barbie’s fear of cellulite and the competitiveness between Gosling and Simu Liu’s Kens but Gerwig is just pointing out unrealistic standards of beauty and the fragility of masculinity. Gerwig balances the comedy and lessons brilliantly, that whether or not you’re watching the movie with your brain switched off or the wheels in your head ready for a good turning – the jokes will always be funny.

In addition, Barbie is fun and campy, such that the moment you enter the cinema, Barbie will transport you into the fabulous world of Mattel. There’s almost never enough pink on screen and the little dream houses, treehouses and fake beaches we’re used to playing with as kids are brought to life in the same toy-like ways. The Barbiecore aesthetic is fully on display in costuming, makeup, set design and visual effects and is complimented by a playful soundtrack by Dua Lipa, Nicki Minaj, PinkPantheress and Charli XCX. 

If the Barbiecore aesthetic isn’t your cup of tea or if films about feminism aren’t the usual genre of content you consume, then have faith in the cast of Barbie. The crew of actors, which includes Emma Mackey, Issa Rae, Hari Nef, Alexandra Shipp, Sharon Rooney, Nicola Coughlan, Ritu Arya, Ana Cruz Kayne, Dua Lipa, Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Scott Evans, John Cena, Will Ferrell, Michael Cera, America Ferrera, Ariana Greenblatt, Emerald Fennell, Connor Swindells, Jamie Demetriou and Helen Mirren, are the strongest part of the entire movie. Robbie is beautiful as Barbie and puts up a wonderful performance of a doll going through an existential crisis. Her most impactful moments were when Barbie starts feeling and experiencing human emotions that are foreign to her, particularly sadness, fear and anxiety. 

Gosling is perfect at Ken. Just like Barbie, he goes through a wave of change too. Where Barbie finds her sense of worth depleting and clouded by thoughts of death and despair, a lost and taken-for-granted Ken finds security and pleasure in power. Even when Ken is less of a sweetheart in the second act of the film, he is forever, at his core, a himbo with childlike wonder. Gosling leads in the movie’s comedy, and with a solo musical act of his own, this is Gosling in La La Land, but better. 

Liu, and Rae as President Barbie come as close seconds. As supporting characters, they support Gosling and Robbie’s Barbie and Ken with moments of self-awareness, comedy and action and are perhaps the only other Barbie and Ken that fans will remember most when they leave the theatres. That’s not to say that other cast members like Cera, Mackey and Ferrel are forgettable, but Liu and Issa Rae are much more integral to the story. 

Meanwhile, Ferrera deserves an honourable mention. Human characters are not delved into as much as the dolls are, but a particular monologue that Ferrera gives about what society expects out of women is so powerful that it quite literally, takes your breath away. 

Our only issue with Barbie – and we’re grasping at straws here – is that there is perhaps a little bit too much going on that the movie starts to unravel in the third act. The movie discusses female empowerment, patriarchy, capitalism and masculinity to great lengths, and we still have Barbie’s existential crisis to deal with. There isn’t a God per se in the movie (unless you consider Mirren’s narration in the film as God) but the movie weirdly enters spiritual territory at the very end, when Barbie learns of her origin. 

Whether life is fantastic in plastic, or in our flawed human society, Barbie can be enjoyed by kids, adults, those who love or hate Barbie for what she is, those who want to watch a film that makes the wheels in their head turn, and those who want to shut it off and have a laugh. Simply put, Barbie is for everyone. We’re all just Barbie girls, in a Barbie world.