Barbie Spoiler-Free Review

I was fortunate enough to go to a press screening of Barbie. The invite said the dresscode was Barbie-inspired which obviously meant pink. I own zero pink items, but I figured one or two people might wear pink. EVERYONE WORE PINK. It was a sea of pink and I felt out of my depth, but I loved seeing everyone’s giddyness. This was an event and people were genuinely happy to take part.

Now, let’s chat about the film. I knew the film wouldn’t just be a fun Barbie movie with shenanigans and dance sequences. The first trailer parodied 2001: A Space Odyssey so I knew the film was going to have a little more substance than just your average popcorn flick. And it delivered. This film covered many themes, but the most prevalent to me was that of toxic masculinity, feminism, sisterhood and self identity. I imagine a lot of men will find a lot of the jokes (at the patriarchy’s expense) very heavy-handed, but I think it was extremely well done. It was a poignant meta film that I think people won’t forget anytime soon.

The set design was meticulous. I’m no Barbie expert but I imagine there were plenty of Easter Eggs present all over the film and I know Greta Gerwig would have taken special care to have these fan service moments in the film. Barbie does go off the rails at times, and really leans into the craziness that one would associate with a movie about Barbie, however, what the film gets right are the emotional beats with Margot Robbie and America Ferrara really stealing the show. Ryan Gosling delivers an incredible performance and just seems to be having so much fun. In fact, this entire film must have been so much fun to work on.

I throughly enjoyed both the film and the cinematic experience of watching Barbie! Great comedy and loads of fun but also thoughtful and heartwarming.

9/Ken