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.

Disappointed. I thought it was a lot of over sentimental drivel, I just didn’t get it.

I also thought the portrayal of the ‘real world’ when they first got there was ridiculous and unrealistic. A man came up and slapped her on the arse. Some builders made very lewd comments. As did some police officers who were arresting her.

There were some good jokes but most of them were around Ryan Gosling which is ironic when it’s supposed to be a women-first film.

This is a big win for Mattel most of all. We’ve come to the point where capitalistic enterprises greenwash by making meta jokes about how capitalism is bad, and people just eat it up.

The film looks great and Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie are fab but it’s a thumbs down from me.

I thought the jokes were lame and repetitive and there were so many inconsistencies and plot holes it was ridiculous. Also don’t understand who it was for, unsuitable for small children and not smart enough for adults. I’m a Greta Gerwig / Noah Baumbach fan so very disappointed.

Prrambulate, totally agree!

@ButterCrackers

did you get that it was an homage to 2001: a space odyssey?

As that’s a trope that’s been done to death in cinema I signs be surprised if anyone missed it.

I didn’t get that connection. I did see the reference to Monty Python The Holy Grail and the reference to the Oppenheimer film. I still didn’t like the picture.

I missed all those connections. But I've never seen them

I don’t think films that have this level of fantasy and meta references and surreal scenes can really be held to the standard of “plot holes”.
It’s a parallel world where dolls are real…

Sure, I get that. But is Barbie trying to say anything serious at all, or not? Do we engage sincerely with presentation of the ‘real world’, or with the many issues presented here, or not?

Irony and absurdism can also be a way of shrugging off any perceived critiques of the movie. The script is always one step ahead, always defying being pinned down in any way. I see it functioning as a defense mechanism in some ways.

I didn’t like that bit either i found it quite disgusting actually and inappropriate

Yeah, Barbie saves the day but nothing actually changes. The man gets all the laughs and Mattel have received a massive amount of advertising and sell a lot of merch. It's all very clever.

Off topic but I don't really keep up with producers etc appearance and couldn't tell you who even the biggest look like bar maybe Tarantino on a good day.

When looking up Greta I was shocked to see she was the woman co-star on Arthur

Irony and absurdism can also be a way of shrugging off any perceived critiques of the movie. The script is always one step ahead, always defying being pinned down in any way. I see it functioning as a defense mechanism in some ways

Agree. I enjoyed the first half of the film but I think the defensiveness makes the second half tedious - the film's not prepared to really go there with the issues Sasha raises about Barbie and instead relies on 'rousing' speeches and the 'doll becomes human' trope to generate emotion.

Saw it tonight with 10yo and 6yo (the latter got bored and didn’t understand a lot). Me and 10yo absolutely loved it! I’ve never seen such a perfect narration about the patriarchy and those sickened I to it. The America Ferrerra rant was epic

I have to say I got teary at the mother/daughter story - 10yo is starting to be embarrassed and withdrawing from her old mum and I’m it taking it well at all so it hit a nerve

Oh god yes Will Ferrel is AWFUL. I didn’t mind the suits though because the ‘no power’ shot (who played Robert Martin in Emma) was so funny

I also think the 17yo missed the point somewhat of Weird Barbie who was in the end not considered weird but brilliant, and was everyone’s friend and saviour.

Have you all had a sense of humour bypass?!

It kind of lost me when the "beach off" joke went on for a good minute.

OMG, why did no one tell me it had Indigo Girls song in it (Closer to Fine) !!

Ok, that's on my viewing list for sure. Done.

Half my group of 50-60 year olds liked it, 1 loved it. 1 hated it.

I thought it sort of dragged (I had no idea where the story was going so couldn't gage where we were in the film)

But I loved the dancing and the images (I had sindy and barbie)

I also thought, like watching women's World Cup, I am supporting the greater good. We want more women's sport and equality in coverage and I want more female led movies that make money. Not all will be great but you support them to get more made.

(I also wore a pink top which was fun)

And I also assumed "women on bench" would be the real designer of barbie (or her descendants) but nope, just a costume designer. That felt odd in retrospect.

Sounds the bad (or good , it depends) thing is, that the Barbie movie caught attention of people, who aren't it's target group.

It wasn't a children's movie - but some children could be ok there, parents just have to explain the gynecologist (which was brilliant ending, referencing the only thing which Barbie has never been reasonably able to do in Barbieland).

We enjoyed it immensely, but we recognised some of the movie references, and spent some time on trailers before (including official Barbie house video), so we had some idea what to expect in the Barbileland scenes and had more capacity to enjoy the execution.