Directed by Greta Gerwig
On general release from July 21st, 2023

Reviewed by Dave Routley

A packed Saturday afternoon theatre and a Dad next to me quips “this is Oppenheimer right”. Yeah, that’s the film I wanted to see too. But I like being surprised and I wasn’t expecting a feminist lecture. Barbie shuns any shallow girl power statement; Barbie Land, where we begin, is a world of girl power gone wrong in quite a psychedelic way. Every woman has won a Nobel prize and the job of men is to ‘beach’ – this will soon be in the dictionary as a verb meaning ‘to look good on the sand even if you can’t swim’. Intrusive thoughts of death prompt Barbie to leave her beautifully designed, liquid free world to confront the real humans whose greed and insecurities made her who she is.

What raised this film to a higher level, for me, was the way it also punctures the false empowerment of patriarchy. “I lost interest in patriarchy when I found out it isn’t mainly about horses” says Ken on his painful journey to self knowledge (performed by the often scene stealing Ryan Gosling). This is deep stuff for most of the adults, never mind the kids. The Barbie – Ken dynamic is the crux of this meta-toy story. Each must find themselves outside of the others gaze, in a way which is even suggestive (to me) of the psycho-anarchistic ‘love from strength’ lesson of Max Stirner.

The remaining problem here is the medium itself. Humans have permission to be imperfect, but the most powerful communication channels are in the hands of an ultra-professional, super knowing, ‘this will entertain the kids and the grown ups’ cliché. The coolness and funnyness might just negate the truth and leave the youth immune to less elaborately packaged messages. Maybe films, like Premier League football, have just got too good and this will make life more boring somehow. Has human culture run it’s course? The eight year olds I talked to were undecided. A cracking film though.