Barbie Movie DVD Review

Barbie Movie is the rare film that's more than the sum of its pop-culture glitz. Gerwig and co-writer Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha, The Meyerowitz Stories) lure viewers with the promise of squeaky clean pop-culture fun, then Trojan-horse a strangely complex battle of the sexes. The result is a dazzling new instant classic that's as smart as it is fun.

The story is set in the parallel universe of Barbieland, a utopia where myriad dolls live harmoniously with a few Kens and their chums. Women rule this pink paradise, occupying positions from president to Supreme Court justices to doctors and surgeons. They have all the best toys and every night is girls' night. But as Barbie (Margot Robbie) discovers the real world — with its prickly cynicism, flat feet and cellulite-riddled bodies — she is met with obstacles that she must overcome in order to return home.

This Barbie-themed Pinocchio journey, full of inside jokes drawn from the doll's long history, has a distinctly feminist agenda. Its emotional centerpiece is a meeting between the ghost of Ruth Handler and Barbie herself, who asks for a chance to leave her dollhood behind. It's a touching, moving scene that's likely to bring tears to the eyes of many female audience members.

Using Barbie lore to explore gender and feminism isn't always successful. ซีรี่ย์จีน ซับไทย feel tacked-on and contrived, and the movie's human characters (particularly Gloria, a Mattel employee played by America Ferrera and her sardonic teen daughter, played by Ariana Greenblatt) don't feel as fully-formed as their plastic counterparts.

But a few scenes do zing. Whether it's an all-Ken fantasy dance number, a montage of Barbies in all kinds of outfits or a pair of thighs adorned with the four horsemen of the Barbie apocalypse — flat feet and cellulite — Gerwig and Baumbach aren't afraid to go dark. And they deliver a few genuinely funny moments along the way.

The film's biggest problem is that it doesn't quite know how to deal with the fact that it's a Barbie movie. It's not quite brave enough to be as edgy and risk-taking as it wants to be. At times it seems to be trying to smother its own message in the kind of self-congratulatory claptrap that makes it a bore.

The cast also includes Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon, Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir and Ncuti Gatwa. But it's Robbie who commands the screen as a Stereotypical Barbie, a role so perfect that Helen Mirren's narrator is sure to make a sardonic joke about it. But it's her performance that ultimately carries this Barbie movie into the realm of cultural treasure. It's just too bad that the rest of this film can't measure up to it.

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Pub: 22 Jan 2024 11:17 UTC

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