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.

The problem is that you don't know that while you're watching, it's something you have to look up later (if you're bothered and if you are you end up disappointed/confused by the lack of relevance) which defeats the point they're trying to make - she's so successful but nobody has heard of her and she has zero connection to Barbie.
I think that's exactly the point.
And her connection to Barbie is that she loves costumes too and she's mates with the woman who chose to produce a Barbie film.

I really liked it.

Was it the deepest exploration of how patriarchy harms everyone and the difficulties of being a woman? No... of course not it’s a comedy film about a doll.

But they were the main themes of a big budget mainstream film, which is something and it was funny, especially if you’ve played with and/or watched kids play with those type of dolls. The kiss scene was hilarious, that there was no continuity with hairstyles even within scenes they’d just have a brand new one.

The guitar playing was amazing, didn’t realise that was such a universal experience.

and loads of stuff that would be really spoilery.

That would be a weird and rude point to make about a specific woman -successful but no one knows who you are (in fact they are dissatisfied when they do look you up)

I very much doubt that's what they were going for so I assume they just got this one wrong in how they shot it /wrote it.

Everybody laughed when Weird Barbie was mentioned because almost every woman/girl has owned or seen a Weird Barbie.

It doesn't matter who she was really. Barbie looked at her lived in face and told her she was beautiful. FInding out who she was adds another level but isn't essential.

I thought Kate McGinniss and Will Ferrell were brilliant..The script had so many zingers " I am the nephew of a woman aunt"..

I’m actually fairly amazed Mattel let all whole scene in tbh.

If we're going to nit pick the first commercially produced dolls weren't baby dolls. They were miniature fashion mannequins to show women the latest styles from France or wherever and probably handed on to little girls later - prototype Barbies in fact. I daresay before that girls had wrapped up a lump of wood or a turnip and nursed it like a baby but they weren't commercially produced.

https://costumesociety.org.uk/blog/post/walk-walk-fashion-baby-18th-century-fashion-dolls

I daresay before that girls had wrapped up a lump of wood or a turnip and nursed it like a baby but they weren't commercially produced.

They'd got slightly further than lumps of wood — the Romans had rag dolls.

Having said that, in Little House on the Prairie, Laura has a corn cob wrapped in a handkerchief, and that was in 1870! Pioneer children were probably outliers though.

There are loads of surviving dolls from before that - not being commercially produced doesn’t mean they had turnips, they had dolls.

The whole, there were only baby dolls before barbie was definitely hyperbole though.

I specified commercially made and was being flippant about lumps of wood. I think those baby dolls would have been home made though.

Ah, the flippancy clearly went over my head... also I’m Scottish and was also going, wtf scary ass doll would a turnip be?... and I’ve since realised that’d be the small white ones, not the huge orange ones I was thinking of 🤣🤣

We used to make and dress peg dolls! Quite fun!

Greta: "I love that scene so much. It’s a cul-de-sac of a moment, in a way – it doesn’t lead anywhere. And in early cuts, looking at the movie, it was suggested, 'Well, you could cut it. And actually, the story would move on just the same.' And I said, 'If I cut the scene, I don’t know what this movie is about.'

Ok im going to say it, I thought woman on a bench was clunky and didn't work for me. I can't see how Barbie would in any way think the woman was beautiful in the general definition sense, and why she eg hated the sandals but suddenly lines and age are beautiful. Interesting, amazing, etc etc. plus the cul de sac is annoying when all the movie should hang together. As for losing the sense of what the movie was about, with out it? Really?

I agree with you, overall I thought there was so many inconsistencies and the “plot” was virtually non existent. I know it’s a complete fantasy but I felt the writing was lazy and made it hard to go along with the conceit.

I love weird Barbie. I didn’t really like Barbie when I was a kid,I was a Tom boy and a bit of a rebel but occasionally someone would buy me one for Christmas/birthdays, so out came the scissors and the sharpies so I could give her a punk make over, Mohawk and tattoos and her own unique clothes. I think lots of girls did the same as Barbie dolls all looked the same and it got boring.

The first half hour was very entertaining, but in general I thought this was unfunny and obvious. I was cringing during America Ferrera’s big scene and the film as a whole was much too long. I couldn’t watch this again.

I didn't think it was all that to be honest. I think the message can through strongly, but the plot was a bit weak and apart from Barbie and Weird Barbie, you didn't really get a real sense of any of the characters. All message and no substance imo, but then it is a film about dolls at the end of the day, so maybe the lack of substance was intentional.

*came

I thought it was genius. Loved it!

I went with DP and 9yo DD and we all loved it. DD really did get most of the messages although I had to explain a couple of bits (I got “what’s a fascist?” and “what’s a gynaecologist?” which might be the first time those two questions have ever arisen during the same film). She was a little confused about why Ken was so lost at the end - I explained that all the Barbies have their own identities but Kens are just Ken and they shouldn’t rely on women to help them find their place in the world if they’ve got no interests or personality of their own - I did say “you know, like men” and she nodded vigorously 😂 She did concede that DP is more of an Allan than a Ken but he’s ok with that.

What a let down. Love America Ferrara though (sp?)

I loved it. Far more than I thought I would
'Too be frank, when I discovered the Patriarchy wasn't about horse, I kind of lost interest '.

I thought it was SO BRILLIANT

I liked how it really voiced a lot of truths, I LOL about being a mother "being fun, well at first anyway" and "eventually the Kens will have just as much power as women do in the real world". I thought it was important that a lot of the injustices of being a woman was spoken out loud without needing to apologise for, or lighten it.

Loved margot Robbie
Liked Ryan gosling but not as much as other roles
Loved the girl playing Sacha (the girl from green goblin?)
Actually really liked will ferrell, I felt him OTT at first but he was better as it progressed.
Was a bit Meh on america ferrara, I don't think she delivered her speech that we'll and found her performance OK
Disliked rhea pearlman. I don't like her in cheers either so I don't think I like her generally as an actress

The last line - Loved it but can tell Barbie is in thr US not UK, otherwise it would show her desperately dialling her dr at 8.01am.