Based on the Mattel fashion dolls bearing the name Barbie, the Greta Gerwig directed movie Barbie (2023) rings in a new year in movie reviews for Matt Lynn Digital. Written by Gerwig with Noah Baumbach, this live-action movie follows dolls and into Barbieland with a crossing over into the real world and back.
The character Barbie, also known as Stereotypical Barbie to distinguish from other Barbie characters in Barbieland, opens the movie living a seemingly charmed life as portrayed by Margot Robbie. Barbie lives among different versions of Barbie, Kens and discontinued models of dolls treated as examples of lesser versions of the Barbie dream, namely her as the character children play with at will.
Ken, also known as Beach Ken, was portrayed by Ryan Gosling. As with Barbie, other versions of the doll are present among the props for Stereotypical Barbie to enjoy her land. Like his counterpart, other actors/actresses inhabit Barbie and Ken in Barbieland. Ken longs for love from Barbie in the land, wherein Barbie gets to have fun at will while Ken drifts away without a real sense of love from Barbie, who is so focused on her own happiness that she cannot bring herself to see the needs for love and other fulfillment that Ken needs.
Inspired by drawings of dark realities as created by Mattel employee Gloria, portrayed by America Ferrera, Stereotypical Barbie begins to experience human imperfections that come with growing older. First, Stereotypical Barbie turns to Weird Barbie as portrayed by Kate McKinnon for support and guidance. Stereotypical Barbie agrees to driver her convertible into the real world, leaving President Barbie as portrayed by Issa Rae, behind. The point of entering the real world is to locate the child who most likely had prompted the feelings of loss that Stereotypical Barbie had only recently experienced begun to feel.
Beach Ken most certainly enters the real world at the same time Stereotypical Barbie enters the real world. While Ken comes to learn some things about his own journey in the real world, Stereotypical Barbie first meets Sasha, the daughter of Mattel employee Gloria. Stereotypical Barbie further meets Ruth Handler, the co-founder of Mattel, and in the CEO of Mattel. Sasha, Handler and the CEO were portrayed by Ariana Greenblatt, Rhea Perlman and Will Ferrell, respectively. The experiences Stereotypical Barbie, Beach Ken and the others take back to Barbieland have real effects in the real world and Barbieland that threaten to change things uncomfortably for Barbie, Ken and the real world. The depth of the story that follows include appropriate toy land features that blend into intensely real world considerations that were unexpectedly mature.
The movie Barbie manages a slightly subversive sense of itself and its comedic mystery in sharing what turns into the central dilemmas that get the characters to the place of understanding and resolutions needed for movies. The movie works for a wider range of audience than I was expecting, which was a pleasant development. Thus, I give Barbie as directed by Greta Gerwig 4.0-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.
Matt – Wednesday, January 3, 2024
Matt Lynn Digital 