#critique of Barbie movies

[loganslowdown4]

Barbie movie eh?

I just had a vision that Thomas would maybe make a short or a movie review video as the Critic when he goes to watch the Barbie movie 😂😂💗

I really really hope so!

[the-eclectic-wonderer]

The Barbie movie really said. Yes you will grow up and childhood wonder will vanish. Yes you will grow up and learn to hate yourself, your body, your awkwardness. Yes you will grow up and lose your confidence and certainty and sense of purpose. Yes you will grow up and the world will seem a bleaker, lonelier place every day, and society will seem bleaker and lonelier every day, and you won’t understand what went wrong in the span of just a few years, what took you from a happy and secure young girl to a sad, uncertain, scared grown woman.

And yet. You will learn to find beauty again. You will find joy in not having a purpose, in building a purpose for yourself. You will find beauty in connection, with the people and the world around you. You will learn to love signs of ageing as proof of a life well lived, of experience and happiness. You will take that little girl by the hand and tell her “I know, this isn’t what you thought it would be, but it’s real. Let me show you how beautiful it can be.”

[they-them-pussy]

new metric for media literacy for film bros is if they understand the barbie movie.

the kens are first presented as accessories to their barbies and it's pointed out loud that they don't even have places to stay in barbieland. one of the barbies straight up asks "wait, where do the kens stay?". they're just arm candy made to look pretty and cool while the barbies run their world.

but that's fucked up!!! the film presents it as fucked up! that's why ken screams "YOU FAILED ME!" and why he is insecure in the first place because he wanted to be respected and seen as a person, not someone who only exists in relation to someone else. should he have done what he did? no!!! that's why it's part of the conflict! the root of both of their breakdowns was in their society in that the barbies are supposed to be perfect and the kens exist in relation to them! it's barbie and ken. he was a footnote. that's why barbie apologizes to him in the end and tells him he can be himself. she doesn't have to exist by some set of rules and neither does he! it's barbie and it's ken! sure, the resolution to the whole barbieland issue wasn't perfect, BUT KEN'S WHOLE ARC IS ABOUT HOW THEIR WORLD FAILED MEN. WHAT DO YOU MEAN THIS MOVIE WAS 'WOMEN GOOD MAN BAD'. WHAT ABOUT THE NUANCE

[nicollekidman]

Why are people mad at the barbie promo?

it's not a standard promotional cycle for a film that happens to involve mattel's famous toy. it is a massive brand push to revitalize a product for a new age, and the movie is the commercial. it is not normal to have promotion that includes collaborations with: airbnb, hair tools, many makeup companies, rollerskates, forever21, canned lemonade, ruggable, toothburshes, skincare, shoe lines, gap, pacsun, OPI etc etc etc............... like i'm going to go see the movie! it will in all likelihood be fun and enjoyable. but this rollout is explicitly mattel's first phase in what they hope is a HUGE endeavor to make "cinema" out of every one of their products, as a way to get more people to buy these products. regardless of how the barbie movie turns out, it is not actually good for anyone to have a failing film industry turn to self-cannibalizing commercial products for story. i hope everyone has a good time! i don't give a fuck if you want to buy a hot pink dress and go with your girlfriends and revel in your #womanhood or whatever. but the degree to which mattel has already had input in the actual movie + made people think that their massive push of product is some sort of cool innovative trendy Promotion (while having plans to do this to. 45 other producuts) is like. lol oh boy.

[deadliestpieceontheboard]

"The Barbie movie can't have anything meaningful to say because it's marketing for a doll". Cool, now try again without the nihilism.

[squishy-min-mochi]

I understand both the capitalist nature in which Barbie (2023) exists in, and the reasons why it was made— advertisement, product placement, money for big corporations; a western lens of the story being told.

But I also know who I am and what my morals are. I have a deep understanding and security within myself, enough to say that I really loved that movie, and it will likely be one of my faves for a long time. It’s message rang true and resonated with me in a way I’ve never felt before and for that, I am in awe of this film.

Love and criticism can co-exist— in fact it’s important that they do. It’s the love for something that allows space for understanding and critical analysis, and it’s the love for something that fosters a safe space for that media’s message.

I feel my blog is a safe space for Barbie lovers and for Barbie critics— but not for Barbie haters. I feel as if genuine hate for this film does not come from a good or flexible place of understanding or critique, and I unfortunately don’t have the capacity to experience the endless might and possibility of humanities hatred for something I adore.

Please, if Barbie wasn’t for you, then neither is this blog!! And that’s perfectly okay < 3

[daenerysbeauty]

I feel like if Barbie had been an exploration of an adult woman’s bond with her daughter’s neglected doll and an examination of motherhood/girlhood OR if it had been about how men can feel isolated due to patriarchal norms and in turn become radicalized proponents of patriarchy but men themselves are not bad and deserve to feel wanted and to display healthy emotions and self worth OR if it had been a critique of corporate, it would have worked, but the film crammed everything in and didn’t develop much of it

[oakwyrm]

I enjoyed the Barbie movie for what it was, but I have some thoughts.

[library-fae]

as a trans guy, watching barbie was a weird experience. i felt disconnected from every character except allan, and even then there was a disconnect

this decision of solely men as the patriarchy and women as the oppressed ignores so much of the nuances of race, gender, sexuality, disability and culture and how that impacts your treatment in society

am i a trans gay disabled man given the same amount of priviledge as a cishet abled white man?

[gojuo]

barbenheimer for people whose IQ is in the double digits at the very least

[first-ex-wife]

I think one of my favourite little moments of the Barbie movie was when Ncuti's Ken says that he misses his friend Barbie

I think it says a lot of different things in a really succinct moment, starting with how isolating upholding the patriarchy can be. you can also see this when the Kens turn against each other, of course, but the maintenance of this power erodes at friendships, and especially sacrifices these relationships in order to serve something that is perceived to be much more valuable: dominance

it also shows that while the Kens thought that they wanted Barbies who hung on their every word and served them, they didn't. oppressing and dominating the Barbies in this way stripped away core elements of their being. they weren't their smart, capable, wonderful selves anymore, they just existed as servants. upholding the patriarchy requires dehumanizing those seen as lesser or beneath you (as much as you can dehumanize a doll), and I think it's important that the Kens realize that this dehumanization is not worth stripping the Barbies of everything that makes them special. in the end, they want the women they've always known, been friends with and fallen in love with, not empty, vapid shells. and I love that this Ken loves this Barbie for who she truly is

I also really like the use of the word "friend" because it contrasts with what Ryan Gosling's Ken thought he wanted, to take the relationship to a more romantic place. I think this serves to show that Kens learn they love their Barbies platonically, and that they'd rather have her in their life in this way than try to pursue something romantic because it's what they're told they should want. overall, I think it really is one of the best feminist moments in the film and also just really touching when she goes to him and they can be reunited

[troythecatfish]

[robobee]

Genuine question, what is The Substance like? I'm interested in it but I'm worried it's actually scary or upsetting or anything like that. Is it?

well it IS a horror movie 😅😅 so it would be scary and/or upsetting either way. honestly I found it far more gross than anything else, very Cronenbergian, if you don't have a decent stomach for gore you'll definitely have a tough time with it. I do have one and I genuinely authentically gagged at a Specific Scene near the end too + covered my eyes at about 3 scenes, Shrimp Eating Scene included. that said did I find it SCARY? not at all.

it was a very good movie. entirely unsubtle but sometimes that's exactly what you need. it's masterfully shot and directed, though I would advise going into it expecting a fairy-tale esque fable rather than a realistic drama. it was way longer than I expected too its like decently over 2 hours

[peachgummycandy]

i love this. i love seeing other people resonate with the things that resonated with me while watching barbie. i love learning what stood out to different people. i love reading about things i didn't even notice but agree with wholeheartedly. i love seeing different opinions that are are all so valid because we all have different experiences, but also seeing how deeply similar our experiences have been, and the relief that comes with knowing that.

i get bored by memes pretty fast, but i will never get sick of reading these. please add more

[one-hell-of-a-sheep]

(I don’t know how to put things under a readmore so spoiler alert for the Barbie movie)

I think my biggest issue with the this movie was just its general political incoherence, of course the Barbie movie produced by Mattel isn’t going to be a groundbreaking work of feminist theory but I wish they had thought harder about what points they wanted to make and what the movie actually said about the issues.

One specific thing that really got to me was the sheer amount of dialogue where characters just stated the political perspectives we’re supposed to take away, which firstly, what happened to show not tell? And secondly, the rest of the movie often undermined those statements pretty egregiously. Case in point, 10 minutes after the “women shouldn’t have to constantly mother and apologize for men” monologue, Barbie is kindly and patiently consoling Ken as he cries about how being in charge is so difficult and he really only reinvented patriarchy because he felt friendzoned and emasculated. Also case in point, after opening with a whole spiel about how Barbie saved girls from the omnipresent pressure to be mothers, a big chunk of the story revolves around a mother-daughter story which imo could have been totally omitted without significantly affecting the film.

My problem really isn’t that it’s not a great feminist movie! I didn’t expect it to be! It is the Mattel Barbie movie! It’s a marketing vehicle dressed up as a feature film dressed up as political commentary! But it’s still deeply frustrating to me that the filmmakers did a bad job of making the point they were trying to make. There’s a lot of potential that this movie just would not have been able to live up to by virtue of its corporate identity, but even within those limitations, it could have been so much more. And yes, there were lots of really good and interesting story elements, it was visually excellent, it was entertaining, all of that, but I feel like the ways in which it was a good movie just made me more disappointed that it wasn’t better.

[mieczyhale]

"considering mattel is pro-israel i don't think they mind the genocidal barbie look"

y'all just be saying anything these days