Barbie!

[Prrambulate]

Who’s watching this? I think it’s going to have a massive opening week in the UK.

I’m so intrigued. At once a very subversive film, penned by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach; on another level, a film so heavily marketed that it seems to have entered the cultural mainstream. I wonder how it will straddle those tensions.

Looks like I may have been wrong about it not doing well! It's great people are going with their daughters and having a good time with it.

I'm still undecided whether to go but on Reddit I was looking at the threads for both Oppenheimer and Barbie and I thought the Barbie thread was a lot more positive in their reviews so that's encouraging.

One thing I was going to ask is there were some comments about it being anti-men, treating men as slaves/ second class citizens etc, whilst I think there's a lot of films that portray women characters as such, how bad is it? Would any men/ boys really get the hump if they went?

Went to see it at 9am this morning with my 12yo DD. It was bloody amazing and very unexpected!

I think she is Barbie Handler. The original creators daughter and namesake

We are just back and have to echo everyone else, what a fab film! The trailer didn't give much away re the plot but it was so well done and Ryan Gosling's performance is v Oscar worthy.

@Mouldyfoodhelp my DP wasn't remotely offended by any of it.

I've just got back, loved it. The cinema was packed as well which haven't seen far ages!

I'm going to see it Sunday - can't wait.

Yes it was the busiest I've seen the cinema for years, even a good few years before covid since I've seen it that busy.

Went this morning with the DC. Practically empty cinema, one mum and daughter wearing pink. Not sure where all the people dressing up are - certainly not where we live! It was funny and sarcastic and had some great one liners, much of which went over the DCs’ heads. More an adult movie I’d say than for the kids, though with all the pink and sparkle, you can see why a 5yo might want to see it. Not sure if they knew who to pitch it at really. You’d assume it’s for kids but the 12A rating says otherwise.

I'm going to have to go against the grain here because I thought it was bloody awful! It was really boring and I found the supposedly feminist rant quite silly, negative and unnecessary. I'd ask what part people found sad but I appreciate it's impossible to answer without spoilers.

It's for young adults and adults imo, just because it's Barbie doesn't mean it's for children. I suspect it appeals a lot to people who grew up with Barbie for the nostalgia and I enjoyed the visuals and the storyline.

Just got back from watching it. Went with husband and our two adult children. We all thought it was awful. Very long and boring. Didn't laugh once. Didn't find it moving at all.

None of us can understand why it's getting so many positive reviews! Feels like we're in a parallel universe.

My partner (male) found it as hilarious as I did.

There were mixed groups in the audience when I went on Thursday, even groups of young men.

Power imbalance between Barbie and Ken, women and men is one of the main topics. And it is kind of overblown, as everything else in the movie.
It isn't anti-men, but it is kind of women-centric. Which means, that the number of named characters is roughly the same for men and women. If a man gets offended, he is part of the problem. It's not for young boys who have issues with pink colour, as they wouldn't get the irony.

I didn't until I read your post and now I do

This is the woman on the bench. Oscar winning costume designer!!

@EconomyClassRockstar "does a really good evaluation how both the matriarchy and the patriarchy suck."

What matriarchy?

Dd went ( in pink) said the entire audience was dressed in pink. She loved it. I’m going to go and see it.

Because people like different things? There are a lot of scathing reviews too, but this is always the case when there's a female lead in a film so not surprising. There are plenty of 'brilliant' films that I hate and that's fine.

I loved the sets and the clothes, not my style at all but thought attention to detail was incredible.

Jigsaw, thanks for explaining that people like different things and that it's fine. We are merely surprised that so many people like it when none of us did.

It was her answer that made me think...it was quite Barbie-ish! Also showed her mortality?
I could well be over thinking🤣

I thought it was absolute shite.

@3luckystars out of curiosity what didn’t you like? What were you expecting?

As a mainstream movie, it's a good start at opening the eyes to the patriarchal world women have to live in daily.

It certainly didn't raise the more serious disadvantages of being a women. But it was a good start.

Someone who has watched and not come away without being able to relate, or is dismissive of the film's message are dealing with some internalised misogyny.

I didn't love it. It needed to be a bit more. Funnier, or sadder, or less predictable? I don't know. It was a bit like a cross between Clueless and the tone/humour of the Lego Movie.

I hate Will Ferrell so that did not help.

Just got back from watching it with DD’s (17 and 19). Cinema was packed and lots of people had brought small children expecting it to be a kids film despite it being rated 12a, quite a few left half way through as their small children were bored and obviously didn’t get what it was about.

It was funny but probably not funny enough. It wasn’t awful, it was just ok. Both my dc enjoyed it.

I don’t know what I was expecting. The trailer looked funny, but I was bored out of my mind during it and would have left only I had children with me.

They didn’t like it either.