#to send her back...what would happen if they didn't send her back...and Mattel was not funny enough (to me) to ignore the lack of stakes lo

[iphnh]

me when I first heard of Barbie: that sounds like a 2 hour commercial for Barbie

me when I saw the online reaction to the movie: hmm it might be worth watching

me after I watched Barbie: that was a 2 hour commercial for Barbie.

[cogentranting]

I went and saw Barbie and overall I liked it and I had a good time. But. I do have a couple pretty significant issues with it.

In short: 1. I think it's line of argumentation had gaps and its point got muddled. 2. Their depiction of the real world lacks nuance. 3. The idea of the Ken's fell short

Elaboration (with lots of spoilers) below

Generally speaking, I think what happened is this movie had a lot it wanted to say and by trying to say all of those things, a lot of the more interesting nuance ideas got lost and the less interesting very basic feminist idea of "women can do anything, and are complex; sexism is bad" took center stage instead. The gaps in the line of argument first stood out to me when America Ferrera's character had her big monologue because I didn't feel like the monologue made sense as a response to the existential crisis Barbie had been having to that point. Barbie's existential crisis didn't seem to be a part of anything that happened with the Kens taking over. And the Barbies plan to take back Barbie Land also didn't provide an answer to the existential crisis.

The movie partakes in a particular brand of feminism that very strongly sends across the idea that things are bad for women non-stop all the time. Sasha (the teenage girl) expressed it as "everything sucks for women. Men hate women, and women hate other women." Her mother makes a comment that's its more complicated than that and Ken even says that the real world wasn't like the idea of patriarchy that he brought to Barbie Land, but the movie doesn't really show a more realistic view of that. Barbie herself never gets a clearer picture of the real world-- all SHE sees of it is a constant stream of sexual harassment, cynical women tearing each other down, the Mattel board made entirely of men, and Gloria's rant/monologue about how hard it is to be a woman all the time. And, as my mother pointed out, a lot of the unreasonable expectations and societal pressures that are talked about, are put on men as well.

The movie explicitly states the idea that Barbie Land is an inverse of the real world (in a hyperbolized, stereotyped, cartoony way of course) with the roles of men and women essentially flipped. The movie is very clearly portraying the way things are in the real world as bad. Which would mean-- if you follow that line of logic through-- that the way the Kens are treated by the Barbies is bad. And, inasmuch as the Barbies have agency, the Barbies are to blame. Making Ken's reaction to the real world (where people notice him, where he gets more respect, where there are things specifically geared at him, where he can... own property and have a job) very understandable. And when the Kens take over Barbie Land, they essentially just do to the Barbie's what was done to them (which is also bad. Clearly.). But the response from the Barbies (including the main Barbie, AND the two humans) doesn't seem to really have any sympathy for the Kens or much self-reflection about their own part in it. And they recovered a little right at the end by having Barbie apologize to Ken and having President Barbie make some moves to even things out, but that felt a little like an afterthought. And more like "see how magnanimous the Barbies are" than literally the bare minimum. But they DO have that end part. THe end conversation between Ken and Barbie helped a LOT. I'm not trying to claim that the movie is anti-men or anything. But I do think how they handle men both in the real world and in Barbie Land is the weakest part of the movie and doesn't totally track with the point that the movie is trying to make.

I almost feel like there are two movies here. One about girlhood and womanhood and femininity that is about Barbie having an existential crisis and going to find herself through meeting Gloria as Gloria works through her own identity and relationship with her daughter. And one about gender dynamics where Barbie finds out that the real world still has problems with sexism and imbalance and then realizes that that imbalance exists within her own world as well and looks at the relationship between the Barbies and the Kens. And I think either one is good, but that by trying to put both into one movie they bit off more than they could chew and some themes, ideas and character arcs ended up being just a bit messy.

And that's how I would define my dissatisfaction on all three of these levels. It's not that they're BAD. It's that they're MESSY. Things are muddled or not fully realized, or are accidental implications.

But again, overall it's funny, it's a good time, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are killing it, and the production design of this movie is GORGEOUS.

[mrschwartz]

Mojo dojo casa house?

hogging this ask to share my opinions on the barbie film which i had promised i'd do!

i only watched it once so obv i'm gonna catch a lot more in subsequent viewings and might even change my opinion on some things but

at first view what impressed me the most were the production and costume designs! the barbieland set and the barbies' outfits are really impressive and fucking awesome, they helped a lot in the immersive nature of the film and to sell the premise. the commitment to the rules of the doll universe was fucking stellar, the walking on tiptoes, her floating down to the car, there not being any actual liquids or food

and like okay. the plot. phewwwwwww. it's metamodern and i get it, and while it certainly was Extremely self-aware it often seemed like said self-awareness was being actualized by someone with a very specific, not necessarily privileged but oftentimes limited, worldview. for example, america ferrera's speech was great but didn't it feel like feminism 101? i thought the film was going to commit to some more radicalized notions, i guess lmao

but i don't want to judge it based on my expectations, let me judge it for what it is! something that i have to give it credit for is the critic given to barbie dolls themselves, especially the ones from sasha (maybe it's bc i'm zillenial so i've been her lol). i wasn't expecting the film to open that discussion and that gave it a turning point that i think was much needed. what i will say is that i think too much importance was given to the historical significance of barbies lol ("you set feminism back 50 years you fascist!") but i think that's a given since the movie was produced by mattel iself

i would love to analyze this film for what it is and not mostly for the message it's trying to send (bc i'm The Biggest believer that stories don't have to have a moral lesson, and in fact are probably better when they don't tbh) but it truly only works when you take into account the discussion it's trying to sparkle. and good for it! it did its job, people are fucking talking about it lmao. we're in a weird cultural moment where people like me think the film would've benefitted from being more radical (by GOD not in a terf sense, terfs can die and burn lmao, but in a let's free the nipple and grow our body hair and raise boys and girls the same way sense) but conservative people think it IS radical for supposedly sending the message that women should hate men (???)

on that note. i'm Definitely not siding with the conservatives here (my god please god Definitely not) but the film kept hammering on the fact that we should fight the patriarchy (and i've seen people saying that you're missing the point if you don't realize that the film is us vs patriarchy and not women vs men) but i think that's giving too much credit to the film vnfjvnfjv like i said, it's feminism 101, so in the end the barbies still take back barbieland, no? they go back to the beginning of the film, this idyllic world where one gender rules all and occupies all of the space. and like I GET IT, it's a comment on how the opposite is what happens in our world, i'm not stupid lol. i'm just angry that the dichotomy IS there, is all i'm saying. the film criticizes the things women are associated with and the expecations we have to live with, but also plays straight into it when this world governed by women is all pink and glamourous and perfect lmao does my critic make sense? that particular message of the film feels very girl power 2014 tumblr core

speaking of which, anyone else not happy at all with the capitalist recuperation this film brought about? "let girls dress in pink and wear barbie merch to this blockbuster multimillion dollar movie!! this is our moment, if men can cosplay to watch mcu films then the girls can have this one!!" oh honey. "movies for girls" and "movies for men" much? there goes the polarization again. AND the commodification of something that Should be counterculture. thanks for contributing to both <3

all of this not to say that i didn't like the movie! i did it was great i laughed a lot! sometimes its self-awareness bothered me for how "biased" it was but most of the time the film really benefitted from it in its comedy! depression barbie made me HOWL lmao, and the kens serenating the barbies with an acoustic guitar gave me war flashbacks bc literally what woman hasn't been there, stuff like that

and. it did make me cry lol. the final scene when barbie is talking to ruth handler and finally understands what it's like to be human and more specifically a human woman really touched me bc it was a commentary on the personal. it wasn't getting at broad social subjects, it was all about internal conflict and acceptance. reminded me of the epiphany scene from soul and the parking lot scene from everything everywhere all at once. i feel like metamodern films rely a lot on these self-referential and social commentaries, but are also slowly walking towards looking inwards a lot, and that means so much to me. the examples i've observed so far in cinema are fucking beautiful, i hope it's here to stay