‘Barbie’ Review – The Pink Meaning Of Life

Chris Sawin |

Jul 21, 2023

Margot Robbie as Stereotypical Barbie in Barbie (2023), Warner Bros. Pictures

In Barbieland, everything is perfect. All of the Barbies run everything, look beautiful without even trying, and own incredible houses, while the Kens mostly just beach without much point to their existence besides being by Barbie’s side.

The entire existence of Barbie changes when Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) begins having thoughts of death and getting cellulite. After seeking advice from Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), a Barbie that was played with too hard, Stereotypical Barbie is forced to travel to the real world, find the girl that’s playing with her, and make her happy again before Stereotypical Barbie turns weird forever.

From director Greta Gerwig (Little Women, Lady Bird) and co-writer Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story, Frances Ha), Barbie gets a really unusual spin that is as dumb as it is meaningful. The film has gotten a lot of attention before release since claims have been made that the film makes men look stupid. Barbie does just that, but that’s kind of the point.

The world of Barbie dolls is driven by females. It is a toy that was manufactured for little girls to break the cycle of the baby dolls they were forced to play with. The film even touches on this in its homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey in its opening moments.

When it comes to Stereotypical Barbie and Ryan Gosling’s Ken, who is in love with her, she just wants things to go back to normal. They believe that the entire world is run by dominant women and it’s an existence shattering experience once they arrive in Los Angeles and realize that men are the ones in charge.

With Ken, before he goes to the real world, he just wants to be by Barbie’s side. While Barbies have girl’s night every night and have these huge mansions, the running gag is you don’t really know where the Kens go when the sun goes down. Ken is introduced to patriarchy and horses and brings all of these masculine ideas back to Barbieland.

The storyline of the film leaves you feeling sympathy for both parties; Ken is sick of being pushed to the side while Barbie doesn’t always need a man or a relationship to feel powerful or even complete. Both Barbie and Ken go about their needs and desires all wrong, which results in pure and total anarchy.

As a PG-13 fantasy comedy, Barbie gets super out there at times — walking a thin line between being entirely corny and completely stupid, as well as having incredibly deep moments while also being laugh-out-loud funny. If The Nice Guys wasn’t enough proof for you, Ryan Gosling can be hilarious when given the right opportunity.

As Ken, Gosling puts his Mickey Mouse Club experience to good use with all of his dancing and singing in the film. But his ridiculous line delivery is almost always done with a straight face, which makes something like putting on two pairs of sunglasses or wearing an, “I am Kenough,” rainbow tie-die hoodie that much funnier.

But the real world aspect of the film is probably what will rub people the wrong way. As Barbie and Ken go on an expedition through the real world, the higher ups at Mattel are freaking out that one of their dolls just got up and walked into reality. Will Ferrell leads the pack of yes men as the CEO of Mattel, and they are literally a bunch of imbeciles.

They have no common sense or real motive, besides making money and not allowing women to be in power. Gloria (America Ferrera), an employee at Mattel, has a husband whose gag in the film is he’s good for nothing and struggles at speaking Spanish. He has no other purpose and no other lines of dialogue. This man’s shtick is to flounder about even when nothing is going on in his life.

Our introduction to Barbieland makes it seem as though someone is playing with all of these dolls and that’s why everything is so perfect; we don’t have any imperfections in our imaginations when we’re young and when we play with dolls or toys. That, the inclusion of Will Ferrell, and the awkward merging of an imaginary place with reality makes it seem like Barbie and The Lego Movie could exist in the same cinematic universe.

The writing of the film is absurd and kind of brilliant. Barbie lives in this world that is perfect because it’s mostly plastic and fake. The Barbie portal to the real world spits them out in Los Angeles; a place where people can be just as fake and plastic. At the same time, the film is very much about gender roles evolving over time.

Ken is in love with Barbie but that love isn’t reciprocated on her end. There’s no romance whatsoever in the film. Barbie is searching for not only her own self-identity but also something that feels like more than just being a hunk of plastic.

Barbie reels you in with its silly humor and fantastical ideas. The war of Kens during the last half hour of the film is an all-timer because a battle full of handsome maneuvers, like showing off their naked chest and manly noogies, turns into a full on dance off between Ryan Gosling and Simu Liu.

But the second half of the film leaves a thought-provoking message in your brain regarding both men and women. The Kens gaining respect little by little mirrors how women eventually earned their rights to be respected individuals — after being considered as only being useful in the kitchen or for making babies — except with the gender roles reversed and nude blobs instead of genitalia.

The Verdict

It feels like Barbie will be more enjoyable the more you think back on it. Ryan Gosling is outrageously funny and the film fully embraces ridiculous concepts while also intellectually tickling our brains as we question how socially we treat one another.

This is why Barbie is the most ludicrous, pinkest, and most significant film about toys possibly ever.

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