barbie movie review unplugged

Notice: All forms on this website are temporarily down for maintenance. You will not be able to complete a form to request information or a resource. We apologize for any inconvenience and will reactivate the forms as soon as possible.

• DVD & Streaming
• Action/Adventure , Comedy , Satire , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Caution

In Theaters

• July 21, 2023
• Margot Robbie as Stereotypical Barbie; Ryan Gosling as Stereotypical Ken; America Ferrera as Gloria; Ariana Greenblatt as Sasha; Kate McKinnon as Weird Barbie; Issa Rae as President Barbie; Emma Mackey as Physicist Barbie; Hari Nef as Doctor Barbie; Nicola Coughlan as Diplomat Barbie; Dua Lipa as Mermaid Barbie; Alexandra Shipp as Author Barbie; Ritu Arya as Pulitzer Barbie; Sharon Rooney as Lawyer Barbie; Ana Cruz Kayne as Supreme Court Justice Barbie; Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, John Cena, Scott Evans, and Ncuti Gatwa as Ken; Michael Cera as Allan; Emerald Fennell as Midge; Will Ferrell as Mattel CEO; Connor Swindells as Mattel employee; Jamie Demetriou as Mattel executive; Rhea Perlman as Ruth Handler; Helen Mirren as the Narrator

Home Release Date

• September 12, 2023
• Greta Gerwig

Distributor

• Warner Bros.

Movie Review

She’s just a Barbie girl living in a Barbie world—Barbieland to be exact. But life in plastic isn’t so fantastic right now.

Usually, every day is a great day for Stereotypical Barbie. She wakes up with perfectly coifed hair and fresh breath. Her shower water is the perfect temperature. Her heart-shaped toast pops perfectly onto her plate. And everything about her life makes her happy and fulfilled.

Until suddenly, for reasons unknown to Barbie, she starts thinking about death . And when she asks the other Barbies if they ever think about it, things literally screech to a halt.

Embarrassed, Barbie plays it off. The party resumes. But Barbie goes to bed that night ill at ease.

And the next day is decidedly not a great day. Barbie’s jolted awake by loud music, her breath smells foul, her shower is the wrong temperature, and her toast is burnt. Worst of all, Barbie’s feet, perfectly, permanently arched for high heels, go flat .

You’re malfunctioning , her friends tell her. You have to go see Weird Barbie.

So she does. But what Barbie learns doesn’t comfort her. Weird Barbie tells her that there’s a connection between Barbieland and the real world where humans live. What humans do with their Barbie dolls in the real world affects what happens to their counterparts in Barbieland.

For instance, if someone playing with a stereotypical Barbie doll in the real world feels sad and lonely, then Stereotypical Barbie might transform into Existential Dread Barbie or Depressed Barbie.

But Stereotypical Barbie doesn’t want to become Depressed Barbie. She wants things to go back to feeling normal .

To do that, she’ll have to travel to the real world and cheer up the girl playing with her. But, of course, Barbie has no idea that the real world isn’t what she imagined it to be.

You see, in Barbieland, female Barbies have positions of authority and prestige, like being the president or members of the Supreme Court. Or maybe a pilot or doctor. In Barbieland, women run everything, while the Kens, well, they don’t really do much.

But when Barbie and Ken (her boyfriend) get to the real world, it’s like nothing they’ve ever experienced before.

Good luck in reality, Barbie.

Positive Elements

You almost can’t talk about the Barbie film without addressing the original doll created by Ruth Handler in 1959. Barbie was designed after Ruth realized the only dolls on the market were baby dolls (intended for little girls to imagine themselves as future caregivers). And Ruth wanted her own daughter (whom the iconic toy is named for) to know she could be anything she wanted to be.

Now, as we know, the invention of Barbie didn’t suddenly make it possible for women to achieve all their goals. And there’s also some controversy surrounding Ruth Handler (more on both those topics in Negative Elements). But Barbie did spearhead a movement that allowed little girls to dream of whatever sort of future they wished.

So, for the past 64 years, Barbie has acted as the everywoman, representing women from multiple different career paths, ethnicities and even body types. (Though that last one only came about after years of parents complaining that the stereotypically thin Barbie was ruining their children’s self-esteem .)

And this film reflects that history. The cast is quite diverse and inclusive. And while there are some caveats in that (see Sexual Content), for the most part, it’s a good thing.

The film’s most poignant message isn’t delivered by a Barbie, though, but by Gloria, a mom from the real world. Gloria’s relationship with her teenage daughter, Sasha, is fractured due to Sasha’s feelings of hopelessness about the world (many of which Sasha blames Barbie and the company responsible for her, Mattel, for) and Gloria’s perceived contribution to it (since she works for Mattel).

But Gloria isn’t blind to Sasha’s concerns. She speaks into how women, including her daughter, often feel extreme social pressures. And women often have to navigate double standards in their relationships with both men and other women. Gloria tenderly voices how some of these expectations are admittedly self-imposed (often because of poor self-image). And she acknowledges that even someone who perfectly embodies all of society’s ideals—Barbie herself—can feel this way.

Then, she challenges that status quo.

At this point, we should note that the film employs extreme and satirical stereotypes to make some of the following points. But it does so because Barbie herself is an extreme stereotype.

Gloria realizes she’s part of the problem—it’s why she and Sasha have drifted apart. But she refuses to let the “sexualized capitalism” and “rampant consumerism” (Sasha’s words) enhanced by Barbie’s existence to continue to rule her life.

Gloria helps the Barbies learn that who they are isn’t determined by some CEO on the top floor of an office building in Los Angeles. Rather, each individual Barbie has the ability to choose who she wants to be and what she wants to do.

This new knowledge not only frees the Barbies from the societal constraints they thought they had to live by, but it helps them to recognize and reconcile with members of their community they had inadvertently ousted, such as the overlooked Ken dolls and discontinued Barbie dolls.

Speaking of Ken, he has an important moment of self-realization as well about his identity and what will ultimately fulfill him, leading him to become a much kinder and more gracious man.

In the end, Barbieland, much like the real world it reflects, doesn’t necessarily get everything perfect. But its residents’ desire to keep trying—to make the world a better place for everyone —is a pretty nice message.

Elsewhere, characters apologize when they realize they’re in the wrong. When things go poorly for Barbie (to the benefit of Mattel’s pocketbook), Mattel’s CEO tries in earnest to fix the problem since Barbie represents the dreams of little girls everywhere. Characters are encouraged to honestly express their emotions. They also learn that it’s OK to make mistakes and show vulnerability.

Spiritual Elements

There’s a reference to The Shining when two women begin experiencing each other’s emotions.

[ Spoiler Warning ] Barbie eventually meets the ghost of an old woman living, apparently, in Mattel’s headquarters. It’s none other than Ruth Handler, and she takes Barbie on something of a spiritual journey as Barbie ponders whether or not she wants to become completely human or remain a doll. Ruth is referenced as the “creator,” and, indeed, she has something like the wisdom one might expect of a creator deity.

Sexual Content

When Barbie first arrives in Los Angeles, multiple men stare and catcall her. Barbie, who’s never been objectified in her life, states how self-conscious this makes her feel. She opposes this behavior by announcing, “I don’t have a vagina.” Then she looks at Ken and adds, “And he doesn’t have a penis.” Ken is embarrassed by this statement and counters it with the lie that he does , in fact, have male bits.

Elsewhere, Weird Barbie (played with oddball aplomb by Saturday Night Live alumni Kate McKinnon) makes it clear that the lack of certain anatomy doesn’t deter her.

As the film progresses, Barbie and her friends are repeatedly objectified. We’re shown a montage of men putting their arms around women to “help” them with simple tasks. Many unhealthy stereotypes are portrayed to demonstrate other unwanted attention from men. And Barbies even trick some Kens through flirting, ultimately pitting the Kens against each other for the Barbies’ affections.

Barbies occasionally wear swimsuits and other outfits that bare some skin (including cleavage). Many Kens like to walk around sans shirt, and the camera makes sure we notice in Stereotypical Ken’s case. There’s a poster of some Miss Universe contestants in bikinis. We see one Barbie from the shoulders up as she showers and later wrapped in a towel. One of Barbie’s outfits has stars on her backside.

As mentioned above, Ken pines for a romantic relationship with Barbie. However, she only sees Ken in a platonic way. Therefore, whenever Ken tries to kiss Barbie, she rejects him. When Ken asks to spend the night at her house, she denies his request. And Ken admits that he doesn’t know what they would do if he slept over, only that it’s expected of couples.

We learn that some Barbie dolls were discontinued because of ill-advised concepts, such as a Ken doll called “Sugar Daddy” (because he has a pet dog named Sugar), a “Growing Up Skipper” doll whose breasts grow and “Earring Magic Ken,” which many consumers nicknamed “Gay Ken.”

Another doll, Pregnant Barbie Midge, had a short shelf life because, we’re told, the marketplace just thought the concept was too weird. (We see pictures in the credits of the original packaging that show a preborn baby in the credits.) Barbie historians will know that Midge’s husband was Allan, who also shows up here (though isn’t connected to Midge in the film) as an ally to Barbie, and basically the only male character who doesn’t look or act like a Ken.

Sexual orientation, per se, isn’t directly addressed in Barbieland itself. However, some Barbies and Kens are portrayed by members of the LGBT community, and this occasionally comes through in their portrayals. Some male characters here could be seen as being quite effeminate, too.

Parents should note that Hari Nef, a trans performer, plays one of the female Barbies. We see a same-sex couple flirting in the real world. During a dance sequence, several Kens embrace, and two kiss Stereotypical Ken on his cheeks. One of Mattel’s lowly office workers asks the question, “I’m a man with no power. Does that make me a woman?” Another double entendre repeated multiple times between Kens involves the phrase, “I’m gonna beach you off.” One Ken eventually says, “I’m gonna beach both of you off.”

So while there’s little here that’s explicit, some will identify LGBT subtexts in winks in certain moments throughout the film.

Someone describes Mattel’s office building as “phallic.” The CEO boasts about their “gender neutral” bathrooms. A man calls a woman “Jezebel” (a reference from the Bible used as an insult to imply a woman is licentious) after which many people question if they’re allowed to use that term anymore.

Violent Content

As Barbie is being objectified in the real world, she notes that there’s an undertone of violence (which Ken, pointedly, is impervious to since he’s a guy). Moments later, a man whacks Barbie on her rear, and she spins around to punch him in the face (which she’s arrested for).

Gloria also talks about this, pointing out how ridiculous it is that women are expected to tell men when they’re acting inappropriately, but not in a way that causes a scene or else they might become a target.

Dozens of Kens go to “war” against each other in a battle of the egos (which is the only thing that gets hurt in this fight). Using plastic lacrosse sticks and tennis rackets, they shamelessly whack each other into submission. One Ken is put into a headlock. Another receives a purple nurple. But the only real injury is a human’s arm, which winds up in a sling after he’s caught in the crossfire.

Stereotypical Ken gets jealous when he believes Barbie is texting another Ken. He snatches her phone from her to prove it.

Despite not appearing particularly strong or masculine, Allan gets into a fight with several Ken dolls, brutally beating them up. (But again, no lasting injuries, just bruised egos.)

Other slapstick pratfalls turn up, too.

One scene depicts several little girls smashing their baby dolls to bits after the creation of Barbie, an homage to a similar scene with monkeys and bones from 2001 . A girl plays roughly with her Barbie doll, chopping off its hair, coloring its face with permanent marker and then kicking the doll in the crotch after bending its legs into the splits. (As a result, this Barbie’s counterpart in Barbieland sports a choppy haircut, strange facial markings and is perpetually stuck doing the splits.)

A Barbie car “crashes” a couple of times. But the vehicle is undamaged and the passengers unharmed.

Several of Mattel’s top executives chase Barbie through their corporate office, leaping at her (and missing) in an attempt to stop her from escaping their custody.

Crude or Profane Language

The f-word is bleeped out in one scene. We hear a single use each of “h—” and “d–n.” God’s name is misused seven times and Christ’s name is abused once. In the credits, we hear rapper Nicki Minaj’s song “It’s Barbie B–ch,” with that titular line being repeated several times.

Drug and Alcohol Content

After traveling to the real world, Ken starts drinking “Brewski Beers” and demanding that Barbie and her friends to serve the drink to him and the other Kens. It appears that many executives have alcoholic beverages during a meeting. Someone drinks from a wine glass at a party.

Other Negative Elements

As I mentioned before, many of the good points addressed in Barbie come through the use of extreme stereotypes. But those stereotypes also create problems we have to address, too. Here’s what I mean:

Barbies believe that Barbieland is a perfect reflection of the real world, i.e. that women run everything . So when Barbie arrives on the scene, she assumes a woman is in charge. And she’s shocked to learn that none of Mattel’s top executives are female. (And Mattel’s current CEO blusters about two women who ran the company in the past.)

Additionally, the lack of female leadership makes an already vulnerable Barbie (made self-conscious by the overt objectification she experiences from men) feel even more helpless. And she’s heartbroken that women in the real world aren’t inspired by her and even seem to hate her.

In contrast, Ken loves the real world. He believes that men rule everything (after visiting an office building seemingly run by men) and strives to learn everything he can about patriarchy. He takes his knowledge of patriarchy back to Barbieland and begins using it to flip the gender dynamic there.

He and the other Kens “brainwash” the Barbies into believing they should serve men. They become incredibly condescending to the Barbies, demanding things like drinks and foot massages. And they change everything to “expand and elevate the presence of men” since Ken believes that’s what the real world does.

The film uses these exaggerated and obvious expressions of male chauvinism and sexism to show what many women experience, an element of the story that will likely resonate with many women. But unfortunately, that resonance often comes at the expense of men. Their portrayal here—even if it’s arguably intended for satirical effect—is often demeaning and belittling. We see men depicted as vain, selfish, self-centered, abusive and generally narcissistic, with precious few examples to the contrary. And even as men are called out for their bad behavior, similar behavior among the female Barbies is, at times, celebrated as women turning the tables.

Ken is, himself, the biggest example of a man who’s depicted as insecure and needy one moment, but ruthlessly willing to use women once he undergoes his own patriarchal transformation.

Before visiting the real world, it’s stated that Ken only has a good day if Barbie looks at him. He spends all of his time trying to impress her and win her affection. After his journey, he becomes your worst idea of toxic masculinity. And when the power is taken back by the Barbies, he’s reduced to a sobbing, pouting mess. (Though admittedly, he eventually confesses—whilst crying—that he never wanted to be in power to begin with. He just wanted Barbie to respect him and went about it in the worst way possible.)

We’re told, in a sense, that in order to stop “patriarchy,” women need to rise up and take over everything . In fact, Stereotypical Barbie is even encouraged to hurt Ken (emotionally) because of how he rudely treated her. Which is exactly what the Barbies do. And the Kens docilely submit to the Barbies.

Actions are taken to make amends and create a more equal society in Barbieland. However, the film still makes a point about men vs. women. Because when the Kens request to serve in Barbieland’s higher government, they’re pointedly denied since “Kens will have more power in Barbieland when women have more power in the real world.”

Families should also be aware of the unrealistic beauty standards upheld by this film. Yes, Barbie and Ken (the dolls) have become much more diverse over the years. And the film makes a lot of good points about how these are terrible standards (and while their focus is female-driven, you can’t look at Ryan Gosling as Ken and not see the unrealistic standards there, as well). But it doesn’t change the fact that the vast majority of actors and actresses cast in this film are still really pretty people. (A point not lost on the filmmakers since the narrator herself pokes fun at it.)

Gloria also speaks into the beauty conversation, commenting on how women are told to be “thin but not too thin,” but they can’t say they want to be thin but “healthy,” but they still need to actually be thin, according to society. Again, this is touted as a bad thing, but then one of the main reasons that Barbie visits the real world to “fix” herself is that she’s developed cellulite .

Barbie also tries to poke fun at depression and anxiety, and not in the kindest way. In addition to Barbie beginning to experience these emotions both for herself and through the human playing with her in the real world, we see an ad for Depression Barbie. The doll is depicted looking tired with no makeup and tangled hair.

A plastic Barbie dog (based on a real toy) “poops” plastic turds. Many Barbies gag and dry heave when they learn Stereotypical Barbie’s feet have gone flat. Barbie yaks after “drinking” expired milk. Ken uses a barf bag.

Sasha (Gloria’s daughter) calls Barbie a “bimbo” and a “fascist.”  (She’s also pretty rude to her mom on several occasions.) A few people lie. Some characters make bets. There are some racial comments. We learn Ruth Handler (Barbie’s creator) was arrested for tax evasion. Barbie and Ken are arrested after stealing clothes from a store (though they didn’t know they had to pay).

Ever since Barbie was first announced, I couldn’t help but think “Welp, I wonder how Hollywood is going to ruin my childhood this time?”

But the film defied my expectations, even as it had some problems I hadn’t expected.

Let’s hit on the things I thought would be the worst offenders first. I expected there to be a ton of unnecessary profanity and gross sexual content. There’s actually not a lot of gratuitous content here. Profanity is limited (a single f-word is bleeped out though, Nicki Minaj’s end-credits song is repeatedly profane), though God’s name is misused a number of times. And sexual content, while present, is mostly constrained to a handful of verbal suggestions and double entendres.

But let’s talk about why that is.

Barbie (the doll) has been a topic of sexual objectification almost since her inception. Women want to look like her. Men want to be with her. She’s the ideal of society’s beauty standards. And yet, she’s always been impervious to these ideas because, well, she’s a doll .

By bringing Barbie to life, she begins to embody what it actually means to be a woman. She voices how uncomfortable objectification makes her. She shuts down attempts to flirt with her. She discusses the impossible standards expected of women by society. And she begins to feel a sense of dread because even though she’s done nothing to warrant this treatment (and everything to prove she’s somehow “worthy”), she and the women around her are still subject to it.

But therein lies a serious problem with the film. At its core, I truly believe Barbie wants to teach girls to stand up for what’s right, to hold true to their beliefs and especially to support other women. And these are great aspirations. Unfortunately, the way the message is delivered shines Ken (and all men) in a really bad light.

Because Barbie uses extreme stereotypes to make a point, it fails to show how the average man behaves toward women. And it even sorta blames guys for all the negative emotions women have ever felt about themselves or other women.

The Kens of Barbieland are simpish and weak. Then they take power and become obnoxious and crass. So if Barbieland is supposed to be a reflection of the real world, then there’s no space for a man who respects women but also respects himself. And there’s also very little suggestion that men can use their strength and masculinity in selfless ways—ways that might protect and defend someone who’s genuinely vulnerable.

For families who are interested in this film, I believe these are navigable issues. That said, I would highly recommend that if your teenage daughter wants to see Barbie , go with her. Because if nothing else, the film can serve as a catalyst for conversation about societal expectations, feeling unworthy and yeah, the perception that our world is inherently male dominated.

Sending your teens off to see Barbie alone is definitely risking some indoctrination into the narrative that being a good man is synonymous with being submissive or weak . Or the idea that good men themselves are as rare as a unicorn. This narrative also suggests that women have to rise up and seize control if they want to be respected.

Those narratives aren’t true, of course. But without a little hand-holding, it might be hard for teens to remember that their value and worth isn’t based on their appearance, whether or not they have the respect of their peers or even on their accomplishments. (All things characters falsely believe at difference points throughout the film.)

Rather, the Bible tells us that we are valuable because we were made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26), because He loved us before He even created the universe (Ephesians 1:4), and because Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross for us that we might be redeemed through Him (Ephesians 1:5-7).

That might feel like a bit of spiritual draw for a movie that has absolutely nothing to do with faith. But for me, whenever I experience the anxieties that Barbie, Gloria and Sasha all face in the film, it brings me a lot of comfort to know that God made me for a purpose and that I am fulfilled through Him.

Emily Tsiao

Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.

Latest Reviews

Unsung Hero

Challengers

Boy Kills World

Weekly reviews straight to your inbox.

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors.

Now streaming on:

"Barbie," director and co-writer Greta Gerwig ’s summer splash, is a dazzling achievement, both technically and in tone. It’s a visual feast that succeeds as both a gleeful escape and a battle cry. So crammed with impeccable attention to detail is "Barbie” that you couldn’t possibly catch it all in a single sitting; you’d have to devote an entire viewing just to the accessories, for example. The costume design (led by two-time Oscar winner Jacqueline Durran ) and production design (led by six-time Oscar nominee Sarah Greenwood ) are constantly clever and colorful, befitting the ever-evolving icon, and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (a three-time Oscar nominee) gives everything a glossy gleam. It’s not just that Gerwig & Co. have recreated a bunch of Barbies from throughout her decades-long history, outfitted them with a variety of clothing and hairstyles, and placed them in pristine dream houses. It’s that they’ve brought these figures to life with infectious energy and a knowing wink.

“Barbie” can be hysterically funny, with giant laugh-out-loud moments generously scattered throughout. They come from the insularity of an idyllic, pink-hued realm and the physical comedy of fish-out-of-water moments and choice pop culture references as the outside world increasingly encroaches. But because the marketing campaign has been so clever and so ubiquitous, you may discover that you’ve already seen a fair amount of the movie’s inspired moments, such as the “ 2001: A Space Odyssey ” homage and Ken’s self-pitying ‘80s power ballad. Such is the anticipation industrial complex.

And so you probably already know the basic plot: Barbie ( Margot Robbie ), the most popular of all the Barbies in Barbieland, begins experiencing an existential crisis. She must travel to the human world in order to understand herself and discover her true purpose. Her kinda-sorta boyfriend, Ken ( Ryan Gosling ), comes along for the ride because his own existence depends on Barbie acknowledging him. Both discover harsh truths—and make new friends –along the road to enlightenment. This bleeding of stark reality into an obsessively engineered fantasy calls to mind the revelations of “ The Truman Show ” and “The LEGO Movie,” but through a wry prism that’s specifically Gerwig’s.

This is a movie that acknowledges Barbie’s unrealistic physical proportions—and the kinds of very real body issues they can cause in young girls—while also celebrating her role as a feminist icon. After all, there was an astronaut Barbie doll (1965) before there was an actual woman in NASA’s astronaut corps (1978), an achievement “Barbie” commemorates by showing two suited-up women high-fiving each other among the stars, with Robbie’s Earth-bound Barbie saluting them with a sunny, “Yay, space!” This is also a movie in which Mattel (the doll’s manufacturer) and Warner Bros. (the film’s distributor) at least create the appearance that they’re in on the surprisingly pointed jokes at their expense. Mattel headquarters features a spacious, top-floor conference room populated solely by men with a heart-shaped, “ Dr. Strangelove ”-inspired lamp hovering over the table, yet Will Ferrell ’s CEO insists his company’s “gender-neutral bathrooms up the wazoo” are evidence of diversity. It's a neat trick.

As the film's star, Margot Robbie finds just the right balance between satire and sincerity. She’s  the  perfect casting choice; it’s impossible to imagine anyone else in the role. The blonde-haired, blue-eyed stunner completely looks the part, of course, but she also radiates the kind of unflagging, exaggerated optimism required for this heightened, candy-coated world. Later, as Barbie’s understanding expands, Robbie masterfully handles the more complicated dialogue by Gerwig and her co-writer and frequent collaborator, filmmaker Noah Baumbach . From a blinding smile to a single tear and every emotion in between, Robbie finds the ideal energy and tone throughout. Her performance is a joy to behold.

And yet, Ryan Gosling is a consistent scene-stealer as he revels in Ken’s himbo frailty. He goes from Barbie’s needy beau to a swaggering, macho doofus as he throws himself headlong into how he thinks a real man should behave. (Viewers familiar with Los Angeles geography will particularly get a kick out of the places that provide his inspiration.) Gosling sells his square-jawed character’s earnestness and gets to tap into his “All New Mickey Mouse Club” musical theater roots simultaneously. He’s a total hoot.

Within the film’s enormous ensemble—where the women are all Barbies and the men are all Kens, with a couple of exceptions—there are several standouts. They include a gonzo Kate McKinnon as the so-called “Weird Barbie” who places Robbie’s character on her path; Issa Rae as the no-nonsense President Barbie; Alexandra Shipp as a kind and capable Doctor Barbie; Simu Liu as the trash-talking Ken who torments Gosling’s Ken; and America Ferrera in a crucial role as a Mattel employee. And we can’t forget Michael Cera as the one Allan, bumbling awkwardly in a sea of hunky Kens—although everyone else forgets Allan.

But while “Barbie” is wildly ambitious in an exciting way, it’s also frustratingly uneven at times. After coming on strong with wave after wave of zippy hilarity, the film drags in the middle as it presents its more serious themes. It’s impossible not to admire how Gerwig is taking a big swing with heady notions during the mindless blockbuster season, but she offers so many that the movie sometimes stops in its propulsive tracks to explain itself to us—and then explain those points again and again. The breezy, satirical edge she established off the top was actually a more effective method of conveying her ideas about the perils of toxic masculinity and entitlement and the power of female confidence and collaboration.

One character delivers a lengthy, third-act speech about the conundrum of being a woman and the contradictory standards to which society holds us. The middle-aged mom in me was nodding throughout in agreement, feeling seen and understood, as if this person knew me and was speaking directly to me. But the longtime film critic in me found this moment a preachy momentum killer—too heavy-handed, too on-the-nose, despite its many insights.  

Still, if such a crowd-pleasing extravaganza can also offer some fodder for thoughtful conversations afterward, it’s accomplished several goals simultaneously. It’s like sneaking spinach into your kid’s brownies—or, in this case, blondies.

Available in theaters on July 21st. 

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

Now playing

We Were the Lucky Ones

Robert daniels.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

Under the Bridge

Cristina escobar.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Matt zoller seitz.

Brian Tallerico

Simon Abrams

Film credits.

Barbie (2023)

Rated PG-13 for suggestive references and brief language.

114 minutes

Margot Robbie as Barbie

Ryan Gosling as Ken

America Ferrera as Gloria

Will Ferrell as Mattel CEO

Kate McKinnon as Weird Barbie

Ariana Greenblatt as Sasha

Issa Rae as President Barbie

Rhea Perlman as Ruth Handler

Hari Nef as Doctor Barbie

Emma Mackey as Physicist Barbie

Alexandra Shipp as Writer Barbie

Michael Cera as Allan

Helen Mirren as Narrator

Simu Liu as Ken

Dua Lipa as Mermaid Barbie

John Cena as Kenmaid

Kingsley Ben-Adir as Ken

Scott Evans as Ken

Jamie Demetriou as Mattel Executive

• Greta Gerwig
• Noah Baumbach

Cinematographer

• Rodrigo Prieto
• Alexandre Desplat
• Mark Ronson

Latest blog posts

The Movies That Underwent Major Changes After Their Festival Premiere

Netflix's Dead Boy Detectives Is A Spinoff Stuck In Limbo

Preview of Tributes at the 58th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

Pioneering Actor-Producer Terry Carter Dies

Common Sense Media

Movie & TV reviews for parents

• For Parents
• For Educators
• Our Work and Impact

Or browse by category:

• Get the app
• Movie Reviews
• Best Movie Lists
• Best Movies on Netflix, Disney+, and More

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

• Best TV Lists
• Best TV Shows on Netflix, Disney+, and More
• Common Sense Selections for TV
• Video Reviews of TV Shows

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

• Book Reviews
• Best Book Lists
• Common Sense Selections for Books

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

• Game Reviews
• Best Game Lists

Common Sense Selections for Games

• Video Reviews of Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

• Podcast Reviews
• Best Podcast Lists

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

• App Reviews
• Best App Lists

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

• YouTube Channel Reviews
• YouTube Kids Channels by Topic

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids Channels for Gamers

• Preschoolers (2-4)
• Little Kids (5-7)
• Big Kids (8-9)
• Pre-Teens (10-12)
• Teens (13+)
• Screen Time
• Social Media
• Online Safety
• Identity and Community

Explaining the News to Our Kids

• Family Tech Planners
• Digital Skills
• All Articles
• Latino Culture
• Black Voices
• Asian Stories
• Native Narratives
• LGBTQ+ Pride
• Best of Diverse Representation List

Celebrating Black History Month

Movies and TV Shows with Arab Leads

Celebrate Hip-Hop's 50th Anniversary

Common sense media reviewers.

Clever, colorful comedy with sophisticated themes, script.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Promotes idea that feminism is inclusive of all wo

Barbie is curious, empathetic, brave, and kind, an

The main Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosl

A big fight among a lot of characters involves use

Ken asks Barbie to spend the night. When she asks

One bleeped "motherf--," plus a few uses of words

Barbie and Mattel brands are in nearly every scene

The Kens have a lot of "brewskis" (beers), as well

Parents need to know that writer-director Greta Gerwig's all-star take on Barbie has a sophisticated message about feminism and the patriarchy (and, consequently, a screenplay that will likely go over younger kids' heads). The movie follows "Stereotypical Barbie" (Margot Robbie) and her handsome but insecure …

Positive Messages

Promotes idea that feminism is inclusive of all women -- and that being a woman is complicated and sometimes messy. Barbieland is welcoming, if naive about the ways the real world works. Encourages women to support one another, to be free of the many standards thrust upon them by society. Emphasizes importance of finding out who you are separately from your relationships with other people.

Positive Role Models

Barbie is curious, empathetic, brave, and kind, and she doesn't give up on her goals. She realizes that she doesn't have to be "perfect" to have value. Ken is insecure and shallow but develops meaningfully over the course of the story. The Barbies have power (until they fall under the sway of the patriarchy), and they eventually learn how to coexist with the Kens. Gloria is an observant, loving mother, and her daughter, Sasha, is smart and bold.

Diverse Representations

The main Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) are White and conventionally attractive -- to the point where traits like flat feet and cellulite are, albeit satirically, treated as disgusting. The rest of the Barbies and Kens in Barbieland are diverse and inclusive in many ways. There are Barbies and/or Kens who are of color, have a disability (one Barbie uses a wheelchair), and represent a range of body types, backgrounds, and professions. One Barbie is played by Hari Nef, who's trans, but her identity isn't referenced in the movie. Gloria is played by Honduran American actor America Ferrera, and her daughter, Sasha, is played by Ariana Greenblatt, who's Latina. The movie was directed and co-written by female filmmaker Greta Gerwig.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

A big fight among a lot of characters involves use of silly weapons and physical grappling; another fight includes a chokehold. Barbie runs away from the Mattel executives who want to "box" her; they chase her in a scene with a lot of slapstick. There's a high-speed pursuit, but no one is injured. The Barbie cars spin out and flip over, but no one gets hurt. Ken has a fall and is taken to an ambulance/clinic for treatment. Barbie admits to having persistent thoughts about death.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Ken asks Barbie to spend the night. When she asks why, he says because they're boyfriend and girlfriend, but he doesn't know what that really entails. Barbie makes a comment about her and Ken not having genitals. A character wonders what kind of "nude blob" a Ken is "packing." Suggestive pickup lines and double entendres. After the Kens take over, several Barbies are shown flirting with and serving the Kens, often scantily clad. The primary Ken is frequently shirtless; some of the other Kens are too. Ken tries to kiss Barbie a couple of times, but she tells him no or dodges it.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

One bleeped "motherf--," plus a few uses of words including "damn," "hell," "crap," "bimbo," "tramp," "stupid," "penis," "vagina," "crazy," "nut job," "jeez," "oh my God," "for Christ's sake," "freaking," "frigging," "shut up," "up the wazoo," the suggestive euphemism "beach you off," and catcalls and double entendres.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Barbie and Mattel brands are in nearly every scene of the movie, including references to real Barbie dolls and accessories. Other featured brands include Duolingo, Hydro Flask, Hummer, Suburban, Chevy, Birkenstock, and Chanel. Clips from movies like The Godfather and Pride & Prejudice are seen.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

The Kens have a lot of "brewskis" (beers), as well as red cups, and a party scene shows the primary Ken holding what looks like a wine glass. He also mentions being "day drunk" at one point.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that writer-director Greta Gerwig 's all-star take on Barbie has a sophisticated message about feminism and the patriarchy (and, consequently, a screenplay that will likely go over younger kids' heads). The movie follows "Stereotypical Barbie" ( Margot Robbie ) and her handsome but insecure (boy)friend, Ken ( Ryan Gosling ), as they venture into the human world and discover the shocking-to-them truth that Barbie dolls didn't actually solve the problems of sexism and patriarchal control. While there's no sex in the movie (the Barbies and Kens are frank about not having genitals), Kens are shown shirtless, Barbies get catcalled, and there are suggestive references to the dolls' bodies -- including Ken's "nude bulge" -- and how a male-dominated society expects women to be ornamental and helpful. There's a bleeped use of "motherf--" (plus "crap," "shut up," "oh my God," etc.), a couple of big brawls with silly weapons, slapstick chases, beer drinking, and near-constant mentions of Barbie-maker Mattel. Characters demonstrate empathy and perseverance, and Barbieland is populated by a diverse group of Barbies and Kens from a range of body sizes, abilities, genders, and racial and ethnic backgrounds. The supporting cast includes Simu Liu , Issa Rae , America Ferrera , Will Ferrell , Emma Mackey , and Michael Cera . To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (185)
• Kids say (208)

Based on 185 parent reviews

Ruined by Political Messaging and Cheap Potshots

It’s pg-13 and i think that’s about right. but you know your child., what's the story.

BARBIE opens with a Helen Mirren -narrated 2001: A Space Odyssey homage that explains how the advent of the Barbie doll changed girls' playtime forever, allowing them to imagine unlimited futures and roles beyond motherhood. Then viewers are taken to a parallel universe called Barbieland, where myriad Barbies live in harmony with a bunch of Kens and their pals Midge and Skipper. Since Barbies rule this idealistic, inclusive land -- serving as everything from president ( Issa Rae ) and Supreme Court justices to Nobel laureates, surgeons, etc. -- they believe that the real world is similarly woman- and girl-friendly. None is more sure of that than "Stereotypical Barbie" ( Margot Robbie ), who's always perfect from head to toe, hosting nightly parties and sleepovers and occasionally paying attention to Ken ( Ryan Gosling ), who does little more than stand around at the beach with the other Kens and yearn after her. But when Barbie starts to have thoughts about death, she loses her permanent foot arch and sprouts a spot of cellulite, forcing her to visit the wise but isolated "Weird Barbie" ( Kate McKinnon ). Weird Barbie explains that Stereotypical Barbie will continue to deteriorate if she doesn't cross over into the human world, find the girl who's playing with her, and cheer her up. So Barbie and stowaway Ken set off on a quest to Los Angeles. As Barbie tries to find her human, she realizes that the human world isn't at all what she expected. Meanwhile, Ken is in awe of how much more powerful men are in the real world than they are in Barbieland.

Is It Any Good?

Greta Gerwig 's delightful comedy adventure is bolstered by Robbie and Gosling's impeccable performances, a top-notch ensemble cast, and a witty screenplay. The two stars are perfectly cast in the iconic lead roles, humanizing the doll characters and nailing both the emotional beats and the comedic aspects of Barbie's and Ken's development. The sprawling supporting cast is also well selected, with memorable performances from Rae as the Barbie president, America Ferrera as truth-telling human mom Gloria, Simu Liu as Gosling's rival Ken, and Will Ferrell as the smarmy CEO of Mattel. Three young actors from Sex Education -- Emma Mackey , Ncuti Gatwa , and Connor Swindells -- make notable appearances in supporting roles, and Academy Award-winning filmmaker/screenwriter Emerald Fennell turns up as Barbie's discontinued pregnant friend, Midge. Overall, Barbieland is a pleasingly inclusive place, where the Barbies and Kens can be more than thin, White, and blond as they sing and dance in their carefully curated outfits.

This movie isn't like the many animated Barbie movies , and its sophisticated themes may land better with teens and adults than tweens and kids. But the contrast between the movie's serious societal commentary and the trippy, nostalgic comedy manages not to feel off-putting or off-balance. Ken's explanations about the benefits of the patriarchy (horses, hats, all the top jobs!) are laugh-out-loud funny, while Gloria's passionate speech about the ways women must and mustn't act in human society rings soberingly true. For all of the jokes, there's a ton of heart in the screenplay, with Robbie and Gosling both getting many scene-stealing, moving monologues. Their memorable portrayals carry the movie, but the behind-the-scenes technicians deserve awards, too, including production designer Sarah Greenwood for the film's pink-infused Barbie-core set pieces, music supervisor George Drakoulias for the Mark Ronson-produced soundtrack, Oscar-winning costume designer Jacqueline Durran for the hundreds of authentic Barbie and Ken costumes, and director of photography Rodrigo Prieto for the fizzy cinematography. An ideal mother-daughter pick and a collaborative achievement worthy of the hype, this Barbie is a keeper.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Barbie 's message: that society has sexist, contradictory, unattainable expectations for women. Do you agree? What are your thoughts about what it means to be a girl and a woman?

Discuss the way that patriarchy and feminism are explored or explained in the movie. Does Barbieland treat Kens the way women are treated in the human world? Why is Ken so delighted to return to Barbieland?

Although the movie is about a children's doll, it's not really aimed at young kids, with its mature themes and humor. Do you think a movie inspired by and about toys needs to be appropriate for little kids?

Talk about the relationship between human mom Gloria and her middle school-age daughter, Sasha. What changes about their connection once they meet Barbie?

Did you notice positive diverse representation in the movie? Why is that important?

Movie Details

• In theaters : July 21, 2023
• On DVD or streaming : October 17, 2023
• Cast : Margot Robbie , Ryan Gosling , America Ferrera , Will Ferrell
• Director : Greta Gerwig
• Inclusion Information : Female directors, Female actors, Latino actors, Female writers
• Studio : Warner Bros.
• Genre : Comedy
• Topics : Princesses, Fairies, Mermaids, and More , Friendship , Great Girl Role Models
• Character Strengths : Empathy , Perseverance
• Run time : 114 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : suggestive references and brief language
• Awards : Academy Award , Common Sense Selection , Golden Globe
• Last updated : April 24, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

Our editors recommend.

Turning Red

Toy Story 2

The Brady Bunch Movie

Legally Blonde

Barbie Princess Adventure

Little Women (2019)

Goofy Comedy Movies to Watch with Tweens and Teens

Best classic comedy films, related topics.

• Perseverance
• Princesses, Fairies, Mermaids, and More
• Great Girl Role Models

Want suggestions based on your streaming services? Get personalized recommendations

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

• Tickets & Showtimes
• Trending on RT

Barbie First Reviews: Hysterically Funny, Perfectly Cast, and Affectionately Crafted

Critics say greta gerwig's send-up of the iconic doll is a thoughtfully self-aware, laugh-out-loud comedy that benefits from a flawless margot robbie and a scene-stealing ryan gosling..

TAGGED AS: Comedy , First Reviews , movies

Here’s what critics are saying about Barbie :

Is the movie funny?

“ Barbie can be hysterically funny, with giant laugh-out-loud moments generously scattered throughout.” – Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com

“Often funny, occasionally very funny, but sometimes also somehow demure and inhibited, as if the urge to be funny can only be mean and satirical.” – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

“The entire screenplay is packed with winking one-liners, the kind that reward a rewatch.” – Devan Coggan, Entertainment Weekly

“One of the funniest comedies of the year.” – Ross Bonaime, Collider

Will fans of Greta Gerwig’s other movies enjoy Barbie?

“In some ways, Barbie builds on themes Gerwig explored in Lady Bird and Little Women .” – Lovia Gyarkye, Hollywood Reporter

“ Barbie balances the incredibly pointed specificity of the jokes and relatability of Lady Bird , with the celebration of women and the ability to show a new angle of something we thought we knew like we saw with Gerwig’s take on Little Women .” – Ross Bonaime, Collider

“Never doubt Gerwig.” – Devan Coggan, Entertainment Weekly

(Photo by ©Warner Bros. Pictures)

How is the script?

“It’s almost shocking how much this duo gets away with in this script, and in certain moments, like a major speech by America Ferrera’s Gloria, who works at Mattel, it’s beautiful that some of these scenes can exist in a big-budget summer film like this.” – Ross Bonaime, Collider

“One character delivers a lengthy, third-act speech about the conundrum of being a woman and the contradictory standards to which society holds us… [and it’s] a preachy momentum killer — too heavy-handed, too on-the-nose, despite its many insights. ” – Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com

“The moments that aren’t just laughing at and with the crowd, however, are shoved into long, important monologues that, with each recitation, dull the impact of their message.” – Lovia Gyarkye, Hollywood Reporter

Does it stick the landing?

“The second half of Barbie bogs down a bit.” – Michael Philips, Chicago Tribune

”It’s frustratingly uneven at times. After coming on strong with wave after wave of zippy hilarity, the film drags in the middle as it presents its more serious themes.” – Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com

How does it look?

“It’s a visual feast.” – Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com

“Highest honors to production designer Sarah Greenwood, costume designer Jacqueline Durran and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto.” – Michael Philips, Chicago Tribune

How is Margot Robbie as Barbie?

“She’s the perfect casting choice; it’s impossible to imagine anyone else in the role… Her performance is a joy to behold.” – Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com

“She gives an impressively transformative performance, moving her arms and joints like they’re actually made of plastic.” – Devan Coggan, Entertainment Weekly

“Anything Gerwig and Baumbach’s verbally dexterous script requires, from Barbie’s first teardrop to the final punchline, Robbie handles with unerring precision.” – Michael Philips, Chicago Tribune

“Robbie is simply incredible in the title role… She has often excelled in these types of roles where we see the power a woman truly has in her environment, but there might not be a better example of that than in Barbie .” – Ross Bonaime, Collider

What about Ryan Gosling’s Ken?

“For an actor who’s spent much of his career brooding moodily, here, he finally gets to tap into his inner Mousketeer.” – Devan Coggan, Entertainment Weekly

“Ryan Gosling is a consistent scene-stealer… He’s a total hoot.” – Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com

“Ken allows Gosling to go broad in a way that we’ve never seen him go before, and the result is charming, bizarre, and one of the most hysterical performances of the year.” – Ross Bonaime, Collider

Does it feel like a toy commercial?

“It’s Gerwig’s care and attention to detail that gives Barbie an actual point of view, elevating it beyond every other cynical, IP-driven cash grab.” – Devan Coggan, Entertainment Weekly

“ Barbie could’ve just been a commercial, but Gerwig makes this life of plastic into something truly fantastic.” – Ross Bonaime, Collider

“This movie is perhaps a giant two-hour commercial for a product, although no more so than The Lego Movie , yet Barbie doesn’t go for the comedy jugular anywhere near as gleefully as that.” – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

“The muddied politics and flat emotional landing of Barbie are signs that the picture ultimately serves a brand.” – Lovia Gyarkye, Hollywood Reporter

Are there any big problems?

“If the film has a flaw, it’s that Barbie and Ken are so delightful that their real-world counterparts feel dull by comparison.” – Devan Coggan, Entertainment Weekly

“The only segment of Barbie that doesn’t work as well as it maybe should is the addition of Mattel into this narrative.” – Ross Bonaime, Collider

“Because the marketing campaign has been so clever and so ubiquitous, you may discover that you’ve already seen a fair amount of the movie’s inspired moments.” – Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com

Who is the movie ultimately for?

“ Barbie works hard to entertain both 11-year-old girls and the parents who’ll bring them to the theater.” – Devan Coggan, Entertainment Weekly

“ Barbie doesn’t have that tiring air of trying to be everything to everybody. With luck, and a big opening, it might actually find the audience it deserves just by being its curious, creative, buoyant self.” – Michael Philips, Chicago Tribune

Barbie opens in theaters everywhere on July 21, 2023.

Thumbnail image by ©Warner Bros. Pictures

On an Apple device? Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Apple News.

Related News

Poll: Most Anticipated Movies of May 2024

‘Seen on Screen’ Podcast: A Celebration of Universal Stories 

Watch An Exclusive Pixar Studio Tour, Plus Inside Out 2 Secrets From The Set

Poll: Most Anticipated TV and Streaming Shows of May 2024

The Most Anticipated Movies of 2024

Movie & TV News

Featured on rt.

April 25, 2024

DC Animated Movies In Order: How to Watch 54 Original and Universe Films

April 23, 2024

The Best TV Seasons Certified Fresh at 100%

April 22, 2024

Top Headlines

• DC Animated Movies In Order: How to Watch 54 Original and Universe Films –
• The Best TV Seasons Certified Fresh at 100% –
• Best TV Shows of 2024: Best New Series to Watch Now –
• 25 Most Popular TV Shows Right Now: What to Watch on Streaming –
• 30 Most Popular Movies Right Now: What to Watch In Theaters and Streaming –
• Box Office 2024: Top 10 Movies of the Year –

‘Barbie’ Review: Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling Compete for Control of High-Concept Living Doll Comedy

Greta Gerwig loads plenty of food for thought in a hot pink pop fantasia, poking fun at patriarchy and corporate parent Mattel in her treatment of the iconic “girls can do anything” doll.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

• ‘The Three Musketeers – Part II: Milady’ Review: Eva Green Surprises in French Blockbuster’s Less-Than-Faithful Finale 1 week ago
• ‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’ Review: Henry Cavill Leads a Pack of Inglorious Rogues in Guy Ritchie’s Spirited WWII Coup 1 week ago
• ‘Challengers’ Review: Zendaya and Company Smash the Sports-Movie Mold in Luca Guadagnino’s Tennis Scorcher 2 weeks ago

Check out the brain on Barbie ! Sure, she’s just a doll, but that doesn’t mean she has to be an airhead. Therein lies “Lady Bird” director Greta Gerwig ’s inspired, 21st-century solution to bringing one of America’s most iconic playthings to life on the big screen. Combine that with the casting of Margot Robbie in the title role, and “Barbie” is already starting out on the right, perfectly arched foot. So what if this high-concept comedy falls a bit flat in the final stretch?

Popular on Variety

Barbie Land, as it’s called, is an inherently hilarious alternate reality modeled on the dream that Mattel has been selling American girls since the doll was introduced in 1959. It looks a lot like the one they’ve seen in countless commercials, where flamingo-bright Barbie Dreamhouses inspire envy as a diverse collection of perky, positive-minded dolls smile and wave at one another (represented here by such avatars as Alexandra Shipp and Dua Lipa, Issa Rae and Ritu Aryu, Hari Nef and Sharon Rooney). It’s a wild pop-art space, all but exploding with supersaturated color, where the doll heads appear lower contrast and backlit, obliging us to squint to make out the actors’ faces.

You half-expect to see a giant hand reach in from the sky to interact with these lifelike toys, but that’s not how it works. Instead, Gerwig enlists Helen Mirren as narrator to lay out the rules, pausing now and then to spotlight specific costumes, interject vintage TV spots or cast shade on discontinued products — such as Growing Up Skipper, with her inflatable bust; pregnant Midge; or questionable-taste offerings like Sugar Daddy and Tanner, a flocked dog that poops plastic pellets.

Although Robbie’s blond-haired, fair-skinned Stereotypical Barbie seems to possess some abstract notion of herself as a toy, there’s a major disconnect between inventor Ruth Handler’s best intentions and the state of things in the Real World (where the movie spends roughly half its time): “Thanks to Barbie, all problems of feminism and equal rights have been solved,” Mirren sarcastically summarizes. One evening, in the middle of a dance party, Stereotypical Barbie blurts out, “You guys ever think about dying?” The next morning, she’s horrified to find her feet have flattened and a patch of cellulite has appeared. What could be threatening her near-perfect physique?

The answer lies in the Real World, where Barbie and Ken (Gosling’s Ken, not the ones played by Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, John Cena and others) steer her pink Corvette, emerging at Venice Beach wearing matching fluorescent Hot Skatin’ ensembles. Yes, “Barbie” is one of those movies, like “The Smurfs” and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” where imaginary characters cross over to modern-day America — just infinitely more clever. Instead of using the premise as a setup for slapstick, Gerwig shows Barbie defending herself when some random guy slaps her butt, getting a knuckle sandwich in return.

At the same time Barbie is experiencing her rude awakening, Ken’s busy filling his empty head with all the possibilities that “patriarchy” entails. In Barbie Land, Ken’s job is a deliberately ill-defined afterthought (basically, just “beach”), whereas in the Real World, dudes rule — an idea he takes back to Barbie Land with pointedly absurd results, brainwashing all the women into behaving like obedient housewives. The film’s draggier second half gets both silly and unabashedly strident, as Stereotypical Barbie seeks help from Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), a damaged-goods doll with singed hair and messed-up makeup who serves as this girly-girl world’s Morpheus-like sage.

It’s upsetting (in a useful way) to see Barbie confronted with the overnight impact of rampant patriarchy, a concept that has rarely looked more off-putting than the frat-boy fantasy caricatured here. Think of it as the misogynist alternative marketed by old-school beer commercials, the polar opposite of Mattel’s mid-’80s “We girls can do anything. Right, Barbie?” campaign. While the Barbies plot to take back the government, Gerwig gives all the Ken dolls an over-the-top musical number, “I’m Just Ken,” which is so amusingly self-involved it risks subverting the very point the movie’s trying to make. If “Barbie” is all about centering and celebrating women, why let Ken steal the show?

Gosling is a good sport to play the slightly predatory, sartorially helpless pretty boy, as the spray-tanned ex-Mouseketeer parodies his popular “hey girl” persona, flexing both his muscles and a range of facial expressions all but lacking from his recent work. If Robbie’s Barbie sets an impossibly high bar for young women, then Gosling’s Ken reps an equally formidable male model, with his chiseled abs and cheekbones.

That factor hasn’t escaped Gerwig, who sets out to disrupt such unattainable aesthetic standards, calling out ways the doll’s idealized design can harm self-esteem and encourage eating disorders. She crams most of that critique into a single motormouthed monologue, which drew cheers at the premiere and which, on closer inspection, contains not a single controversial idea. In the end, the trouble with “Barbie” isn’t that it goes too far, but that it stops short, building to a conceptual scene between Barbie and her Creator (Rhea Perlman) that inadvertently underscores one of the movie’s few failings: It’s an intellectual experience, not an emotional one, grounded largely in audience nostalgia.

It’s kind of perfect that “Barbie” is opening opposite Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” since Gerwig’s girl-power blockbuster offers a neon-pink form of inception all its own, planting positive examples of female potential for future generations. Meanwhile, by showing a sense of humor about the brand’s past stumbles, it gives us permission to challenge what Barbie represents — not at all what you’d expect from a feature-length toy commercial.

Reviewed at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, July 9, 2023. MPA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 114 MIN.

• Production: A Warner Bros. Pictures release and presentation of a Heyday Films, LuckyChap Entertainment, NB/GG Pictures, Mattel production. Producers: David Heyman, Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley, Robbie Brenner. Executive producers: Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach, Ynon Kreiz, Richard Dickson, Michael Sharp, Josey McNamara, Courtenay Valenti, Toby Emmerich, Cate Adams.
• Crew: Director: Great Gerwig. Screenplay: Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach, based on Barbie by Mattel. Camera: Greig Fraser. Editor: Rodrigo Prieto. Music: Nick Houy.
• With: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman, Will Ferrell, Michael Cera, Ariana Greenblatt, Ana Cruz Kayne, Emma Mackey, Hari Nef, Alexandra Shipp, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Scott Evans, Jamie Demetriou, Connor Swindells, Sharon Rooney, Nicola Coughlan, Ritu Arya, Dua Lipa, Helen Mirren

More From Our Brands

See ne-yo showcase hits-filled songwriting catalog with tiny desk concert, inside the race to build ev charging networks in the u.s., nfl draft emphasizes diminishing role of running backs in offenses, be tough on dirt but gentle on your body with the best soaps for sensitive skin, how to watch thank you, goodnight: the bon jovi story online, verify it's you, please log in.

Advertisement

Supported by

‘Barbie’ Review: Out of the Box and On the Road

She’s in the driver’s seat, headed for uncharted territory (flat feet!). But there are limits to how much dimension even Greta Gerwig can give this branded material.

• Share full article

By Manohla Dargis

Can a doll with an ingratiating smile, impossible curves and boobs ready for liftoff be a feminist icon? That’s a question that swirls through Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” a live-action, you-go-girl fantasia about the world’s most famous doll. For more than half a century, Barbie has been, by turns, celebrated as a font of girlhood pleasure and play, and rebuked as an instrument of toxic gender norms and consumerist ideals of femininity. If Barbie has been a culture-war hot spot for about as long as it’s been on the shelves, it’s because the doll perfectly encapsulates changing ideas about girls and women: our Barbies, ourselves.

Listen to This Article

Gerwig carves a comic pathway into these representational thickets partly by means of mythology. In outline, the movie offers a savvy, updated riff on the Greek myth of Pygmalion, which has inspired myriad stories about men and the women they invent. In the original, a male sculptor creates and falls in love with a beautiful statue; in George Bernard Shaw’s play “Pygmalion” and in the Lerner-Loewe musical “My Fair Lady,” she’s a Cockney flower girl. In “Barbie,” by contrast, it’s the imaginations of the girls and women who play with the doll that give it something like life, a fitting shift for a movie that takes sisterhood as a starting point.

These imaginers first and foremost include Gerwig herself. The movie opens with a prelude that parodies the “dawn of man” sequence in “2001: A Space Odyssey” (with girls, not ape-men), and then shifts to Barbie Land, a kaleidoscopic wonderland. There, Gerwig sets the scene and tone with Barbie (Margot Robbie) — who calls herself stereotypical Barbie — soon floating out of her Dreamhouse, as if she were being lifted by a giant invisible hand. It’s a witty auteurist flourish. The Mattel brand looms large here, but Gerwig, whose directorial command is so fluent she seems born to filmmaking, is announcing that she’s in control.

‘Barbie’ | Anatomy of a Scene

Greta gerwig, the co-writer and director of “barbie,” narrates this musical sequence, including ryan gosling’s performance of the song “i’m just ken.”.

“My name is Greta Gerwig, and I am the co-writer and director of ‘Barbie.’” “(SINGING) I’m just Ken. Anywhere else, I’d be a ten.” “The thing that I can say most about this sequence is that this was the thing that I most knew what I wanted it to be, and no one else knew what I wanted it to be. Every time I look at this, it’s just the ridiculousness of how we did it, which is they’re obviously arriving on these pedalos on a beach that has no water. It’s a solid mass with these waves that are sculptures. And I had everyone in this scene pretend to be moving in slow motion except for Ryan, who’s singing. And I think I got four takes into it, and I thought, this just — is this so ridiculous that I’m doing pretend slow motion? But then I thought, I think I just have to commit. Now I’ve done it. There’s nothing else I can do. My stunt coordinator, Roy Taylor, who’s a brilliant, brilliant person, and he worked with my choreographer, Jenny White, because I wanted all the fighting to be somewhere between dancing and a kind of vaudevillian ridiculousness of a Buster Keaton or a Charlie Chaplin. I love that kind of physical comedy. So you see men tangoing in the background in addition to fighting. Because they’re Kens, they’re children. It all sort of goes together.” “Ah!” “Ah! Ah!” “Then we have our Barbies, who are sort of watching with their pink boilersuits, which I think Jacqueline Durran, who is the costume designer, she did the pink boilersuits because I wore boilersuits every day. And she was like, I’ve decided what the Barbies will wear when they’re taking back Barbieland. And I cried when I saw it because I was like, oh, it’s a tribute to me. So much of this sequence is the song that Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt wrote, which was not in the script. But I did ask them because they were writing the song that became Dua Lipa’s ‘Dance the Night.’ I said we need a Ken song, and I think it goes in the battle. And then they wrote this song from the perspective of Ken. And then I said, Ryan, are you up for singing this? And he said yes, ultimately. But initially, I don’t know. I think he was like, you never said anything about this at the beginning. But I think they sent me 30 seconds of an idea for the song, that I just loved. And then I was like, Can you make it 11 minutes long? Because I want it to go through this whole sequence. And then this part, this dream ballet part, Sarah Greenwood, who is a production designer, and Katie Spencer built this stage to echo the dream ballet stage from ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ because I love that movie. And that has one of the best dream ballets of all time because they have a dream ballet that is inside of another dream ballet, which, I think, when people are like, will anyone understand this? I was like, yes. There is a context for this. They’ll grasp it. And every Ken, every Barbie, is a dancer the whole time. And then I chose all the actors, too, because they were good dancers. Jenny White, who was my choreographer, she and I looked at a lot of different musicals, different dream ballets. But Busby Berkeley was a huge reference.” “(SINGING) I’m just Ken. Anywhere else, I’d be a ten.” “I kind of love that ‘we’re putting on a show’ element of this movie, which is very connected to theater and also the pleasure of making something in a childlike way. And we started with dance rehearsals, and I think it was a good way to put everybody in that mindset of it’s not about perfection. It’s about this joy. And they obviously embodied that. In a way, you want the audience to walk out and say, I’d like to go make something. I want to go play. I want to go set something up. I want to do a performance. And that’s how I felt when I watched a lot of movies when I was a kid, or theater. I instantly was like, I’m going to organize my own version of ‘Starlight Express’ right now.” “(SINGING) Nobody else Nobody else I’m just Ken.”

Written by Gerwig and her partner, Noah Baumbach, the movie introduces Barbie on yet another perfect day in Barbie Land, in which dolls played by humans exist in what resembles a toyland gated community. There, framed by a painted mountain range, Barbie and a diverse group of other Barbies rule, living in homes with few exterior walls. With their flat roofs, clean lines and pink décor — a spherical TV, Eero Saarinen-style tulip table and chairs — the overarching look evokes the era when Barbie first hit the market. It’s very Palm Springs circa 1960, an aesthetic that could be called bubble-gum midcentury modern.

Gerwig has fun in Barbie Land, and in her role as a friendly playmate, she works hard to ensure you do too. She takes you for a leisurely spin, cranks the tunes, stages some old-school, Hollywood-style musical numbers and brings in those eternal sidekicks, the Kens (with a scene-stealing Ryan Gosling chief among them). The production design (Sarah Greenwood) and costumes (Jacqueline Durran) offer ticklish pleasure but also underscore this place’s artificiality. Barbie, et al., are of our world and not, existing in a plasticky paradise that proves less hospitable when she begins having un-Barbie thoughts and experiences: She thinks of death, and then her feet, which are molded to fit high heels, go flat.

This change to Barbie’s body is played for laughs — the other Barbies are horrified — but it’s crucial to the plot and to Gerwig’s intentions. Once Barbie’s feet touch the ground, she seeks advice from a misfit version of the doll (the invaluable Kate McKinnon), who prescribes Birkenstocks and a trip to the real world. Soon, Barbie — with Ken riding shotgun — journeys into something like reality; that they land in Los Angeles reads like a puckish joke. There, Barbie is astonished to discover sexism, and Ken is delighted to discover patriarchy, contrapuntal revelations that generate further comedy and something like enlightenment.

Gerwig handles the transition between realms smoothly, but even in this bouncy, happy movie, reality proves a bummer. It’s amusing when Barbie points out a billboard filled with women, mistaking them for the Supreme Court because that’s what the court looks like in Barbie Land, just with more pink. She learns how wrong she was, which is to Gerwig’s point. But the weight of our world, emblematized at least for this viewer by the real Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade , proves unbearably heavy. However politically sharp, the gag is an unpleasant reminder of all the profoundly unfunny ways in which this world, with its visible and invisible hands, tries to control women, putting them into little boxes.

Mattel has long tried to reconcile Barbie with the real world. The toy’s origins lie with Ruth Handler, a founder of Mattel who wanted to make a doll for girls like her daughter, Barbara. Handler found her inspiration in Europe with an adult-looking German doll called Bild Lilli that Mattel reconfigured. Some buyers pushed back: “The idea of a doll with breasts was not received well,” Handler said in a 1994 Lilith magazine interview.

Barbie’s breasts and the rest of her continued to generate criticism, including from physicians who treat body dysmorphia . In recent years, Mattel has tried to make the doll more culturally relevant, adding careers and not just new merch to its product portfolio. “When a girl plays with Barbie she imagines everything she can become,” a 2015 Mattel ad promised during a period of sluggish sales. Its Fashionistas line introduced new facial shapes, eye colors and skin tones, followed by petite, curvy and tall versions, a diversity that has paid off . In 2019, Mattel announced that this Barbie movie was going forward with Robbie as the star.

As a performer, Robbie always pops onscreen, and her turn here as a classic blond bombshell who has more going on than that sexist stereotype suggests is charming and subtly phased; you can see the light turn on gradually behind her eyes. Like America Ferrera’s sympathetic Mattel employee, Robbie warms the movie, expanding and deepening its emotions. That’s particularly necessary because Ken’s comic obtuseness and arc — as well as Gosling’s deadpan and boy-band dance moves — recurrently draw attention away from the actress and her character. However narratively motivated, this upstaging of Barbie effectively suggests that only the Kens of the world need their consciousness raised.

The real world may initially bewilder Barbie, but she figures it out. That’s just what you’d expect given that Mattel partnered with Warner Bros. for this movie and is banking big on it . For her part, Gerwig figures it out by vibing on joy, tapping into nostalgia, showcasing her large cast (Will Ferrell, Issa Rae, Simu Liu, Dua Lipa, Helen Mirren, Michael Cera, etc.) and, for the most part, dodging the thorny contradictions and the criticisms that cling to the doll. And while Gerwig does slip in a few glints of critique — as when a teenage girl accuses Barbie of promoting consumerism, shortly before she pals up with our heroine — these feel more like mere winks at the adults in the audience than anything else.

Like “Air,” Ben Affleck’s recent movie about how Nike signed Michael Jordan, as well as other entertainments tethered to their consumer subjects, “Barbie” can only push so hard. These movies can’t damage the goods, though I’m not sure most viewers would want that; our brands, ourselves, after all. That said, Gerwig does much within the material’s inherently commercial parameters, though it isn’t until the finale — capped by a sharply funny, philosophically expansive last line — that you see the “Barbie” that could have been. Gerwig’s talents are one of this movie’s pleasures, and I expect that they’ll be wholly on display in her next one — I just hope that this time it will be a house of her own wildest dreams.

Barbie Rated PG-13 for playful fighting and peril. Running time: 1 hour 54 minutes. In theaters.

Audio produced by Kate Winslett .

Manohla Dargis is the chief film critic of The Times, which she joined in 2004. She has an M.A. in cinema studies from New York University, and her work has been anthologized in several books. More about Manohla Dargis

Explore More in TV and Movies

Not sure what to watch next we can help..

As “Sex and the City” became more widely available on Netflix, younger viewers have watched it with a critical eye . But its longtime millennial and Gen X fans can’t quit.

Hoa Xuande had only one Hollywood credit when he was chosen to lead “The Sympathizer,” the starry HBO adaptation of a prize-winning novel. He needed all the encouragement he could get .

Even before his new film “Civil War” was released, the writer-director Alex Garland faced controversy over his vision of a divided America  with Texas and California as allies.

Theda Hammel’s directorial debut, “Stress Positions,” a comedy about millennials weathering the early days of the pandemic , will ask audiences to return to a time that many people would rather forget.

If you are overwhelmed by the endless options, don’t despair — we put together the best offerings   on Netflix , Max , Disney+ , Amazon Prime  and Hulu  to make choosing your next binge a little easier.

Sign up for our Watching newsletter  to get recommendations on the best films and TV shows to stream and watch, delivered to your inbox.

‘Barbie’ May Be the Most Subversive Blockbuster of the 21st Century

• By David Fear

It’s tough to sell a decades-old doll and actively make you question why you’d still buy a toy that comes with so much baggage. (Metaphorically speaking, of course — literal baggage sold separately.) The makers of Barbie know this. They know that you know that it’s an attempt by Mattel to turn their flagship blonde bombshell into a bona fide intellectual property, coming to a multiplex near you courtesy of Warner Bros. And they’re also well aware that the announcement that Greta Gerwig would be co-writing and directing this movie about everyone’s favorite tiny, leggy bearer of impossible beauty standards suddenly transformed it from “dual corporate cash-in” to “dual corporate cash-in with a very high probability of wit, irony, and someone quoting Betty Friedan and/or Rebecca Walker.”

Editor’s picks

The 250 greatest guitarists of all time, the 500 greatest albums of all time, the 50 worst decisions in movie history, every awful thing trump has promised to do in a second term.

Every morning, Barbie (Robbie) wakes up in her beautiful, open-faced mansion, waves to the legion of other Barbies in their beautiful, open-faced Barbieland mansions, and greets the day with a smile. Early afternoons are reserved for listening to President Barbie ( Issa Rae ) make executive decisions, or watching a Barbie journalist win a Barbie Pulitzer, or cheering a Barbie Supreme Court that lays down the law for the good of all Barbiekind. Late afternoons are for going to the beach, where Ken (Gosling) endlessly competes for Barbie’s affections against Ken (Simu Liu) and Ken (Kingsley Ben-Adir), among other Kens. Nighttime is for extravagantly choreographed disco-dance parties , DJ-ed by none other than Barbie (Hari Nef), and — much to Ken’s dismay — all-girl sleepovers. Eventually, the cardboard backdrop will rotate from moon to sun, and it’s time for yet another day in utopia.

Jennifer Lopez Hunts Down AI Simu Liu in New ‘Atlas’ Trailer

The rnc’s convention playlist is full of artists who detest trump, taylor swift loved ryan gosling and emily blunt's 'all too well (barbenheimer version)'.

Once in our world, Barbie will encounter sexual harassment, gender inequity, the benefits of crying, the CEO of Mattel ( Will Ferrell ) and the mother (America Ferrara) and daughter (Ariana Greenblatt) who’ve introduced such morbid thoughts into her brain. Ken will discover horses, Hummer SUVs, and toxic masculinity . She returns with her new human friends to Barbieland in a state of dazed enlightenment. He comes back as a full-blown Kencel, spreading a gospel of full-frontal dude-ity.

Billie Eilish Would Like to Reintroduce Herself

Kanye west announces 'yeezy porn' amid reports of adult film company, neil young stuns at 2024 tour launch, unveils lost 'cortez the killer' verse, opioids came for country music. it’s fighting back.

Critical thinking isn’t mind corruption, of course. Nor is pointing out that you can love something and recognize that it’s flawed or has become inflammatory over time, then striving to fix it. It’s definitely not a bad thing to turn a potential franchise, whether built on a line of dolls or not, into something that refuses to dumb itself down or pander to the lowest common denominator. And the victory that is Gerwig, Robbie, and Gosling — along with a supporting cast and crew that revel in the idea of joining a benefic Barbie party — slipping in heady notions about sexualization, capitalism, social devolution, human rights and self-empowerment, under the guise of a lucrative, brand-extending trip down memory lane? That’s enough to make you giddy. We weren’t kidding about the “subversive” part above; ditto the “blockbuster.” A big movie can still have big ideas in 2023. Even a Barbie movie. Especially a Barbie movie.

Bon Jovi, Forever Young, Comes Face-to-Face With Mortality in 'Thank You, Good Night'

• By Joseph Hudak

'Challengers' Is Sex, Tennis and Zendaya in Full Beast Mode, Not in That Order

• MOVIE REVIEW

What’s Next for Harvey Weinstein After His New York Rape Conviction Was Overturned?

• By Nancy Dillon

'9 to 5' Remake in the Works From Jennifer Aniston

• way to make a living
• By Daniel Kreps

Harvey Weinstein Survivors Saddened by Overturned NY Conviction: ‘Disappointing for All of Us’

• 'Shocked'

Most Popular

Anne hathaway says 'gross' chemistry test in the 2000s required her to make out with 10 guys: that's the 'worst way to do it' and 'now we know better', 'the lord of the rings' trilogy returning to theaters, remastered and extended, louvre considers moving mona lisa to underground chamber to end 'public disappointment', sources claim hugh jackman’s worrying behavior may have something to do with his breakup, you might also like, new amc networks ceo kristin dolan’s 2023 pay reaches $14.5 million, fit responds to protest on campus as unrest at colleges continues, the best yoga mats for any practice, according to instructors, the bruce springsteen song that might unlock that ‘challengers’ love triangle, nfl draft emphasizes diminishing role of running backs in offenses.

Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.

Verify it's you

Please log in.

• Search Please fill out this field.
• Newsletters
• Sweepstakes
• Movie Reviews

Barbie review: Welcome to Greta Gerwig's fiercely funny, feminist Dreamhouse

The Barbie movie could’ve been another forgettable, IP-driven cash grab. Instead, the director of Little Women and Lady Bird has crafted a neon pink delight.

Devan Coggan (rhymes with seven slogan) is a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly. Most of her personality is just John Mulaney quotes and Lord of the Rings references.

When Warner Bros. announced plans to launch a Barbie movie, the entire premise sounded a bit like a game of Hollywood Mad Libs gone wrong: Quick, name a beloved indie director ( Greta Gerwig !), an unadapted piece of intellectual property (Barbie dolls!), and an adjective (neon pink!). Every new piece of information that trickled out on the (lengthy) press tour seemed stranger than the last. Gerwig ( Lady Bird , Little Women ) cited 2001: A Space Odyssey and Gene Kelly musicals as her biggest inspirations. Elaborate dance numbers were teased. Ryan Gosling gave a lot of quotes about something called " Kenergy ." What actually was this movie, and could it possibly live up to all that hot pink buzz?

The verdict? Never doubt Gerwig. The Oscar-nominated filmmaker has crafted a fierce, funny, and deeply feminist adventure that dares you to laugh and cry, even if you're made of plastic. It's certainly the only summer blockbuster to pair insightful criticisms of the wage gap with goofy gags about Kens threatening to "beach" each other off.

The film (in theaters this Friday) whisks viewers away to Barbie Land, a candy-colored toy box wonderland of endless sunshine. It's there that our titular heroine ( Margot Robbie ) spends her days, each just as magical and neon as the one before. There are always other Barbies to party with — including Doctor Barbie ( Hari Nef ), President Barbie ( Issa Rae ), and Mermaid Barbie ( Dua Lipa ) — as well as an endless supply of devoted Kens, led by Gosling's frequently shirtless boy-toy. It's a plastic paradise for Robbie's Stereotypical Barbie, the type of doll that immediately comes to mind when you think of Barbie.

But something's gone wrong. Her Malibu Dreamhouse malfunctions; her mind is clouded by un-Barbie-like thoughts of death; and her perfectly arched feet now fall flat on the floor. So, our heroine sets out to seek some answers from Barbie Land's pseudo mystic, Weird Barbie ( Kate McKinnon ), who says a rift has opened up between their world and the real world, and she must brave the long trek to Los Angeles to find the human playing with her doll to remedy the situation. You bet her ever-loyal Ken (Gosling) is coming along for the ride.

Once Barbie and Ken begin roller-blading around L.A., however, they both realize that they've essentially entered a mirror dimension. Where are the female presidents, the CEOs, the astronauts? Barbie was supposed to empower young girls to dream big, but she hasn't had the feminist effect she anticipated — and in fact, she might have made things worse. Gerwig tackles the doll's complicated legacy head on, exploring how Barbie's reputation here isn't one of leadership or creativity but of corporatized objectification. Barbie herself is horrified, facing crude comments and misogyny for the first time in her (plastic) life. But to Ken, this newfound idea of patriarchy is intoxicating, and he quickly enters a spiral of masculinity, luxuriating in trucks, cowboy hats, and the addictive thrill of power.

Gosling has already scored praise for his earnest himbo performance, and in truth, he steals the show. For an actor who's spent much of his career brooding moodily (see: Blade Runner 2049 , Drive , First Man ), here, he finally gets to tap into his inner Mouseketeer , dramatically draping himself at Barbie's feet or breaking into a shirtless power ballad called "I'm Just Ken." His Ken has very little going on inside his brain, but his heart is brimming with emotion: love and admiration for Barbie, a longing for masculine validation, and a wide-eyed curiosity about the world around him.

Robbie still remains the real star of Barbie . Physically, the blonde Australian actress already looks like she stepped out of a Mattel box (something the film itself plays on during one particular gag), but she gives an impressively transformative performance, moving her arms and joints like they're actually made of plastic. Robbie has brought a manic physicality to previous films including Babylon and Birds of Prey , but she now embraces physical comedy to the max. (At one point, she face-plants on the floor, limbs askew like a toy dropped by a toddler.) As Barbie begins to discover more about the real world, Robbie's performance gradually shifts to become more human. One of the most moving moments comes about halfway through the film, as Barbie perches quietly on a park bench, silently observing the humans around her.

If the film has a flaw, it's that Barbie and Ken are so delightful that their real-world counterparts feel dull by comparison. America Ferrera and Ariana Greenblatt play a frazzled mother and her sardonic teen daughter, who've drifted apart over time. Ferrera fills her days at her boring Mattel office job by doodling alternative Barbies, ones that are plagued by cellulite or haunted by thoughts of death. Her feminist daughter is dismissive of everything Barbie represents, dressing down Robbie with a pointed sneer. Ferrera admirably delivers one of the film's biggest emotional speeches, but surprisingly, the human characters never feel quite as lived-in as their plastic doll companions.

Still, Barbie works hard to entertain both 11-year-old girls and the parents who'll bring them to the theater. Gerwig co-wrote the script with her partner and longtime collaborator Noah Baumbach , and the entire screenplay is packed with winking one-liners, the kind that reward a rewatch. The fear is that Hollywood will learn the wrong message from Barbie, rushing to green-light films about every toy gathering dust on a kid's playroom floor. (What's next, The Funko Pop Movie? Furby: Fully Loaded? We already have a Bobbleheads movie , so maybe we're already there.) But it's Gerwig's care and attention to detail that gives Barbie an actual point of view , elevating it beyond every other cynical, IP-driven cash grab. Turns out that life in plastic really can be fantastic. Grade: A-

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly 's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

Related content:

• Everything you'd want to know about Barbieheimer, the summer's hottest trend
• Ryan Gosling's best Kenisms from the Barbie press tour, from #NotMyKen to calls for Kenergy research funding
• See Margot Robbie's Barbie pink carpet style and every doll-inspired look

Related Articles

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Barbie review – Ryan Gosling is plastic fantastic in ragged doll comedy

Greta Gerwig’s bubblegum-fun-cum-feminist-thesis indulges Ken but pulls its punches as it trips between satire and advert

A re Barbie dolls demeaning or empowering? Director Greta Gerwig and her co-writer Noah Baumbach opt for the latter theory in this beamingly affectionate and deliriously pink-themed fantasy comedy-adventure produced by Barbie’s corporate manufacturer Mattel, and starring Margot Robbie whose own superhuman blond beauty makes her the only possible casting as Barbie herself. It is maybe down to Gerwig’s confidence and generosity as a feminist film-maker that she gives all the best lines to Ryan Gosling, who is allowed to steal the whole film playing Barbie’s non-genitaled boyfriend, Ken.

Yet the film has to keep second-guessing and pre-empting the anti-Barbie impulse with a stream of knowing references and self-aware meta-gags, which acknowledge that, sure, yes, Barbie’s uber-blond-slim persona is arguably conformist and oppressive, but we know all that, we’re past all that; these charges are redeemed by Barbie’s ethereal innocence and there is in any case now a range of Barbies, diverse in terms of ethnicity and body-image – among whom Robbie is first among equals as Stereotypical Barbie – including a wheelchair-using Barbie. But even this is hedged with a quirky admission that the real world that imposed these changes is still itself imperfect and tokenist.

The result is a good-natured but self-conscious movie, whose comedy is rooted in that very self-consciousness, often funny, occasionally very funny, but sometimes also somehow demure and inhibited, as if the urge to be funny can only be mean and satirical. And so often Barbie winds up playing the bland comic foil to comic characters like the outrageous metrosexual Ken, obsessed with his “beach” habitat and longing for the patriarchy, and to Weird Barbie, the Barbie who has been abusively over-played-with and crayoned-over, always dishevelled on the floor doing the splits, played here by Kate McKinnon.

Barbie herself is living her best life in her perfect Barbie world, partying of an evening with Barbies who are political leaders, supreme court judges and Nobel laureates (including Dua Lipa and Issa Rae), and a castrato chorus of beach-bunny Ken clones (including John Cena and Simu Liu) and Ken’s gloomy beta-male mate Allan (Michael Cera) when suddenly she is assailed with the terrible thought of dying.

Weird Barbie tells her she must journey to the real world outside to sort this out and so she and Ken arrive in scuzzy Santa Monica in time-honoured fish-out-of-water style to discover that this existential anxiety has been psycho-cosmically transmitted to her from Gloria, a former Barbie owner, now a hardworking mom who is an assistant in the Mattel empire: a nice performance from America Ferrera. Gloria has a whip-smart, discontented teen daughter Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt) and those squeamish about spoilers or disloyalty might want to look away before the revelation that Sasha starts out fiercely and boldly critical of Barbie before being tamely converted. It is with this conversion that politics is definitively banished.

Ken is thrilled by male dominance in this real world and tries replicating it back in Barbieland, to Barbie’s dismay. Will Ferrell plays the Mattel CEO and chair of the all-male board and Rhea Perlman has a cameo as Ruth Handler, the creator of Barbie who reportedly named the doll after her daughter Barbara. (The movie does not acknowledge the alternative theory, that Barbie was named after Barbara Ryan, wife of Mattel’s chief designer Jack Ryan whose life-story gives us an actual #Barbenheimer connection: before designing Barbie for Mattel, he designed missiles for the Pentagon as an employee of aerospace giant Raytheon, an important player in the postwar military-industrial complex.)

after newsletter promotion

This movie is perhaps a giant two-hour commercial for a product, although no more so than The Lego Movie, yet Barbie doesn’t go for the comedy jugular anywhere near as gleefully as that. In interviews about Barbie, Gerwig has referenced Milton and Powell and Pressburger: judging from this, I would say the influences are Toy Story, Pinocchio and Clueless. It’s entertaining and amiable, but with a softcore pulling of punches: lightly ironised, celebratory nostalgia for a toy that still exists right now.

• Peter Bradshaw's film of the week
• Greta Gerwig
• Margot Robbie
• Ryan Gosling
• Comedy films

Comments (…)

Most viewed.

Barbie review: A pink, plucky, and poignant rumination on womanhood

Margot robbie and ryan gosling play iconic mattel dolls facing an existential crisis in greta gerwig's terrific high-concept comedy.

In 1959, a mere 64 years before the release of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie , Mattel’s signature doll hit store shelves for the first time and quickly became a Rorschach test for many girls and women as they transposed their own identity onto a plastic plaything. The small-scale doll was created by company co-founder Ruth Handler—pulling inspiration from Germany’s Bild Lilli doll—as a way to empower girls like her daughter Barbara (the brand’s namesake) to use their imagination in creating limitless worlds where they can be and do anything they want. It revolutionized play patterns for pint-sized consumers who weren’t just seeking the pretend solace of motherhood and domesticity. Yet for some adults, this tiny wonder represented an unattainable, manufactured version of perfection, subsequently transforming her into a lightning rod for controversy and feminist critique.

Related Content

Nevertheless, Barbie persisted, blessedly changing with the increasingly enlightened times, diversifying her size and skin tone to become a more inclusive toy line. Co-writer and director Greta Gerwig repackages these goods in Barbie , her hilarious and heartfelt homage to the brand . By lovingly lampooning corporate missteps along with celebrating the successes, the film’s self-effacing humor, out-of-the-box smarts, and emotional potency strike the right tone. Gerwig and her creative collaborators—including co-writer Noah Baumbach—not only give the formerly inanimate figure a sparkling personality and a pastel-shellacked pop-art playground, they also deliver genuinely meaningful sentiments surrounding the complexities of gender politics. It’s the year’s best tear-jerking, thought-provoking comedy.

Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) has always had the quintessential Best Day Ever. She’s awakened each morning by a song (Lizzo’s “Pink” provides her daily mojo), dines on perfect meals, wears the cutest fashions, and hangs out with her fellow Barbies (played by Issa Rae, Hari Nef, Emma Mackey, Alexandra Shipp, and Nicola Coughlan) and Kens (played by Ryan Gosling, Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, and Scott Evans). There’s also Ken’s friend Allan (Michael Cera) and Barbie’s pregnant friend Midge (Emerald Fennell), whose presence is purposeful even though their dolls were both discontinued. In the plastic fantastic Malibu-meets-Miami enclave of Barbie Land, all jobs are held by women while the men exist to frolic on the beach and the dance floor. It’s a fantasy utopia without walls or negativity.

That is until Stereotypical Barbie begins suffering from the throes of an existential crisis manifested in the form of bad breath, too-cold showers, flat feet, and pervading thoughts of death. Hoping for a quick fix, she pays a visit to Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), a spiky-haired, shaman-like Barbie that’s been “played with too hard.” Weird Barbie advises her to go into the Real World to find the person playing with her in doll form and cheer them up so life can return to normal. However, when Stereotypical Barbie and a stowaway Ken (Gosling) arrive in Southern California, they face fish-out-of-water hijinks while dealing with humans’ dysfunctional nature stemming from patriarchal toxicity, loss of adolescence, and adult disillusionment.

Since Gerwig and Baumbach are telling a story of a doll who has encapsulated all walks of womanhood over six decades, they find narrative weight in a multitude of supporting angles. In addition to Barbie’s main odyssey, there’s a mother-daughter story between surly tween Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt) and her deflated mom Gloria (America Ferrera) that’s touching and empowering. There are also heady statements about artistic creation, both in the visuals (one recalls Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam) and in Stereotypical Barbie’s relationship with her god-like creator, Ruth Handler (Rhea Perlman), who receives her share of ribbing. Initially defining the tertiary Barbies by their profession speaks satirically to all the one-dimensional female characters we’ve seen before in cinema, only here they’re given space to grow and acquire a richer sense of internality.

The filmmakers don’t pull any punches when skewering the commercialist underbelly of the brand. They allot screen time to a few ill-advised creations, like Tanner the pooping dog and Growing Up Skipper (“The doll who grows breasts!”). They make the all-male Mattel brass (led by Will Ferrell’s CEO) look like buffoons tripping over themselves and their faux-feminism to put Barbie and womankind back in a box—both physically and metaphorically. Still, at times it talks out of both sides of its mouth, celebrating what it also condemns. Crass commercialism is handled with a sly wink and a nod, playing to audiences’ nostalgic memories while simultaneously encouraging them to purchase new dolls.

The world-building in Barbie is exceptional. Production designer Sarah Greenwood and set designer Katie Spencer have created a candy-colored confectionary dream for Barbie’s environments, heightening the carefully constructed stylistic surrealism. They’ve coated it with vibrant pink paint, molded plastics, and tactile backdrops harkening back to classic Hollywood musicals. Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt’s pop soundscape bolsters the synthetic atmosphere in Barbie Land, but they thread the needle perfectly in the Real World, blending musical themes from Billie Eilish’s ballad “What Was I Made For?” to land the palpably moving moments.

Robbie nimbly handles the comedic rhythm of these worlds, igniting the spark of the dialogue and the slapstick as well as nailing the nuance and vulnerability of the grounded sequences. Her work sings in chorus with that of costume designer Jacqueline Durran, whose textures and tailoring augment the performance, and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, who illuminates the hidden facets within Barbie’s evolving psyche. Gosling’s portrait of Ken as a jealous, competitive himbo is absolutely divine, allowing him to show off his comedic chops, Gene Kelly-esque moves, and singing talents. (And abs!) Supporting cast members all shine, especially Rae, who plays President Barbie with crackling confidence, and Simu Liu, who plays Gosling’s adversary Ken with vigor.

It’s a tall order for Gerwig and company to deliver a feature that’s reverent and revelatory while speaking directly to the pressures of living up to an impossible feminine ideal. And yet they did it with crafty aplomb. Though a tad overstuffed with too many good ideas, pulling from loads of subtly identifiable cinematic references (everything from Powell and Pressburger’s 1946 drama A Matter Of Life And Death to the more recent The Truman Show ) , Barbie ultimately leaves us entertained, emotionally exhausted, and ready to play again soon.

Barbie opens in theaters on July 21

‘Barbie’: A candy-colored confection of knowing humor and bitter irony

Greta gerwig’s meta-movie asks: is the famous mattel doll a contradictory cultural touchstone or just a fun, nostalgic toy (the answer is yes).

How do you solve a problem like Barbie?

For six decades, the iconic Mattel doll has been the vessel for our aspirations, ambivalence, endless analysis and outright hostility. Beloved by generations of girls and women who played for hours with Barbie and her pals Ken, Midge, Skipper and Allan, using the impossibly proportioned “play-size” version of grown-ups to spin their own life narratives, Barbie is just as despised for perpetuating the worst of an inherently sexist culture, from her simultaneously desexed and hyper-sexualized physique to representing feminism at its most commodified and co-opted.

Is Barbie a vexingly contradictory cultural touchstone or just a fun, nostalgic toy? A vessel for self-expression and agency or an empty totem of sham liberation? Yes! says Greta Gerwig in “Barbie,” wherein the “ Lady Bird ” and “ Little Women ” director has a psychedelically, if occasionally uneven, good time trying to have it all ways.

16 ways we think about Barbie

In this hot-pink mess of a movie, we see Barbie in nearly every incarnation, from Stereotypical Barbie (played by Margot Robbie with a winning combination of sweetness and self-awareness) to President Barbie (underused and reliably amusing Issa Rae), Doctor Barbie (Hari Nef), Lawyer Barbie (Sharon Rooney), Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon, with her hair sheared off and her face marked up) and a flotilla of others, living together in Barbie Land, a delightfully gynocentric cul-de-sac community of sisterly support and undeferred ambition.

“Thanks to Barbie, all the problems of feminism and inequality have been solved,” coos Helen Mirren, who narrates “Barbie’s” clever “2001: A Space Odyssey”-inspired introduction. As Robbie’s Barbie performs her morning ablutions in her legendary Dreamhouse — taking an imaginary shower, drinking imaginary milk, floating down to the first floor without the benefit of the staircase Mattel forgot to give her — it’s clear that Gerwig’s “Barbie” will be a whipped confection of canonical faithfulness, knowing humor and bitterly pointed irony.

The combination mostly works, with a few exceptions. Pulling from such inspirations as “ The Truman Show ” and “Toy Story,” Gerwig — who co-wrote the script with Noah Baumbach — plunges her heroine into an existential crisis brought on by a dimly perceived real world that is encroaching on her plastic, reassuringly monotonous idyll. The plot of “Barbie” centers on Barbie — who’s inexplicably beset by thoughts of mortality and disappointment — setting out to find the person who’s been playing with her, so that the two of them can get back to their baseline of just dressing up and … dressing up again. Ken, her blond, bland maybe-boyfriend played by Ryan Gosling with flawless Malibu-era fatuousness, insists on coming along for the ride. “What if there’s beach?” he pleads when Barbie demurs. “You’re going to need someone professional to help with that.”

How Barbie primed us for a life of conspicuous consumption

The running gag in “Barbie” is that Ken’s job is “beach,” and Gosling leans into that superficiality with lunkheaded charm. Once they enter the real world — also known as present-day Los Angeles — the two dolls discover a weird mirror image. In Barbie Land, Ken comes to life only when Barbie looks at him; here, the gaze is all male, all the time: When it’s directed at Ken, it’s admiring, but when it’s directed at Barbie, it’s leering and predatory. While Barbie pursues her quest, Ken discovers a universe where men are in charge — an exhilarating new order vaguely involving trucks, beer, unlimited political power and horses. Lots of horses.

Barbie’s and Ken’s twin consciousness-raisings make for some genuinely hilarious set pieces in “Barbie,” which doesn’t hesitate to throw a little side-eye at its corporate sponsor. (Will Ferrell plays a smarmy Mattel executive with feckless gusto.) Most of the film’s funniest moments belong to Gosling, who along with his fellow Kens (Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir and others) morphs into an obnoxious, mansplaining dude-bro. (Only the perpetually sidelined Allan, portrayed by Michael Cera with adroitly subtle timing, doesn’t go Full Frat House.) Gosling commits to the bit throughout Ken’s radical makeover — up to and including a surreal Malibu Beach war that rivals the “Top Gun” volleyball scene for homoerotic camp and a dream ballet featuring Gosling singing a note-perfect power ballad called “I’m Just Ken.”

It all gets very meta in “Barbie,” to the point that, when Barbie is observing that no real woman could ever live up to her own idealized image, Mirren interjects to note that Gerwig might have reconsidered having Robbie deliver that particular line. Mirren might also have added that an entire cinematic language has developed around similarly distorted expectations: There’s a moment early in the film, when Barbie drives by a Barbie Land movie theater, that eerily resembles Robbie’s Sharon Tate cruising 1970s LA in Quentin Tarantino’s “ Once Upon a Time in Hollywood .”

The zaniness of “Barbie,” combined with Gerwig’s interest in skewering the patriarchy, sometimes makes the movie a baggy, tonally dissonant viewing experience. But for the most part, she achieves a pleasing balance between the silly and the serious; she makes sure to pay homage to some of Barbie’s most cherished accessories and costumes, all the while keeping up a running commentary on sexism, objectification, consumerism and the double-triple-quadruple bind in which women have historically been forced to navigate the world — while wearing attractive heels. (Gerwig surfaces subversive notions like “Cellulite Barbie” and “Crippling Self-Doubt Barbie”; at one point, she creates an ad for “Depression Barbie,” complete with a family-size bag of Starbursts and binge-watching PBS’s “Pride and Prejudice.”)

Those grievances come to a head in one of “Barbie’s” many speeches, this one delivered by a Mattel executive assistant named Gloria (America Ferrera), who connects the aspirations, ambivalence, endless analysis and outright hostility we’ve heaped on Barbie to the aspirations, ambivalence, endless analysis and outright hostility that weigh down real-life women. Given the hyperventilating anticipation greeting “Barbie,” one could extend that pressure to Gerwig’s movie, which despite its cheery mix of Day-Glo visuals, retro wardrobe, cheesy backdrops and winking laughs, sags into feeling more like a lecture than a lift.

Viewers who have nurtured a loving if complicated relationship with Barbie might feel seen by the end of the film. Whether they’ll feel satisfied is another question entirely — especially when it comes to the film’s letdown of an ending, which was no doubt perfect on the page but lands with a deflating, didactic thud. Then again, that gnawing sense of ambivalence was no doubt precisely what Gerwig’s “Barbie” was aiming for. “It gives you a lot to think about,” a male audience member was heard to remark after a recent screening. He didn’t mean it as a compliment. Mission accomplished.

PG-13. At area theaters. Contains suggestive references and brief strong language. 114 minutes.

• The Barbie-Taylor-Beyoncé summer offers a release of pandemic emotions August 6, 2023 The Barbie-Taylor-Beyoncé summer offers a release of pandemic emotions August 6, 2023
• 16 ways we think about Barbie July 15, 2023 16 ways we think about Barbie July 15, 2023
• Is there such a thing as too much Barbie pink? Jonathan Adler took questions. July 27, 2023 Is there such a thing as too much Barbie pink? Jonathan Adler took questions. July 27, 2023

• Discount Codes

‘Barbie’ review: Greta Gerwig’s grown-up toy story is fantastic fun

Don't miss this side-splitting satire starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling

T he pink tide is rising. And you can either sink – or swim to the nearest cinema and join Barbie ’s massive, box office-busting party. There’s definitely no chance of ignoring  Greta Gerwig’s summer mega-movie. Buses, bridges, city landmarks, even phone boxes, have all been commandeered for the advertising onslaught. Hit the shops, gym, bar or pretty much anywhere this month and you’re probably going to be met by Margot Robbie’s flawless face beaming back at you. For many that won’t be an unpleasant prospect, but is life in plastic really that fantastic?

We open on Barbieland as its perma-happy residents rise and shine for another glorious day. In this beachside utopia – think Venice Beach but with (even) more neon – the Barbies rule and the Kens drool. As the comforting voice of Helen Mirren narrates during a witty intro: “Barbie always has a great day. But Ken (Ryan Gosling) only has a great day when Barbie looks at him.” This sets the tone for Gerwig’s satirical comedy-adventure that rips into sexist societal shortcomings by flipping them on their polypropylene-molded head.

After a quick 30-minute tour of town in which we meet Robbie’s “Stereotypical Barbie”, Issa Rae’s “President Barbie” and even Dua Lipa ’s cameo-tastic “Mermaid Barbie”, things start to go wrong. First, the waffles burn. Then Barbie opens the fridge to find expired milk. Later, the shower runs cold and, worst of all, she can’t stop thinking about death. Barbie’s identity crisis has begun. To solve the problem, and return her life to pristine perfection, our peroxide pal must journey to the “real world” (via hilarious travel montage) and help fix a mother-daughter relationship that lies marooned on the angst-encrusted rocks of adolescence. What follows is a nuanced, rose-tinted comedy adventure, set to a stonking pop soundtrack featuring Lizzo and Billie Eiish , that somehow lives up to the immense hype. To borrow a pun from Ken’s coolest jacket (out of a long lineup), Barbie  is more than “kenough”.

Another thing to say about Barbie is that it is very, very funny. Robbie’s almost C-3PO-ish deadpan delivery provides plenty of laughs, but it’s Gosling who’ll end up as your favourite toy. With his hair dyed bright blonde, denim-dominated wardrobe, impossibly sculpted arms and chosen hobby of “beach”, he lands somewhere between David Hasselhoff and Britney-era Justin Timberlake . He’s much stupider though – and Gosling has the time of his life bouncing between slapstick silliness and Inbetweeners -esque buffoonery. Also enjoying themselves are fellow Ken Simu Liu, who feuds comically with Gosling’s jealous goon; Michael Cera as a rogue and hysterically odd “Allan”; and Will Ferrell, popping up to play the dim-witted CEO of Barbie manufacturers Mattel . Then there’s Kate McKinnon’s gloriously quirky “Weird Barbie”, a traumatised outcast who was played with “too hard” by her tween owner. If Barbie only wins one trophy next awards season, it should go to the casting director.

It’s not a total chuckle-fest though. The script contains unexpected subtlety, particularly during the tender moments which pack an emotional punch. Presumably, part of Mattel’s motive for bringing Barbie to the big screen was changing her outdated image of rigid beauty ideals and unrealistic body conformism. So sprinkled throughout are marketing messages (“Barbie means you can be anything”) that sound like they come straight from a press release. Gerwig is clever enough to deliver these with self-awareness and some sarcastic jokes (Mirren thanking Barbie for ending misogyny is a highlight), meaning the balance between reality and commercial is never lost. For a movie that ostensibly exists to promote a doll, this is laudable. Now come on Barbie, let’s go party.

• Director: Greta Gerwig
• Starring: Margot Robbie, Greta Gerwig, America Ferrera
• Release date: July 21 (in cinemas)
• Related Topics
• Billie Eilish
• Justin Timberlake

More Stories:

Good neighbours live in london: tiktok stars spin obvious influences into heartfelt anthems, ‘sand land’ review: a charming adaptation of akira toriyama’s legendary manga, porij – ‘teething’ review: an entrancing siren call to the dancefloor, ‘missing crown prince’ review: compelling palace intrigue bogged down by juvenile comedy, ‘tales of kenzera: zau’ review: a beautiful fusion of tragedy and adventure, fontaines d.c.’s daring comeback single ‘starburster’ is their most experimental work yet, you may also like.

• Back to Focus on the Family Podcast Network

Movie Review: Barbie

Warner Bros.’ latest foray into nostalgia is colorful, musical and … controversial as it explores feminism and masculinity in ways that are likely to leave viewers with very different reactions. 

Read the Plugged In Review

If you've listened to any of our podcasts, please give us your feedback .

Recent Episodes

• Movie Review: Unsung Hero
• TV Review: Bluey
• SiYP- 40 Percent of Teens Want to Cut Back on Their Screen Time
• Pop Culture Remix: Nothing Else But Miracles
• Movie Review: Ordinary Angels
• Movie Review: Irena’s Vow
• TV Review: 3 Body Problem
• The Screen in Your Pocket: Social Media is Being Sued
• Pop Culture Remix: The Spiffing Brit

Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

UK Edition Change

• UK Politics
• News Videos
• Paris 2024 Olympics
• Rugby Union
• Sport Videos
• John Rentoul
• Mary Dejevsky
• Andrew Grice
• Sean O’Grady
• Photography
• Theatre & Dance
• Culture Videos
• Food & Drink
• Health & Families
• Royal Family
• Electric Vehicles
• Car Insurance deals
• Lifestyle Videos
• UK Hotel Reviews
• News & Advice
• Simon Calder
• Australia & New Zealand
• South America
• C. America & Caribbean
• Middle East
• Politics Explained
• News Analysis
• Today’s Edition
• Home & Garden
• Broadband deals
• Fashion & Beauty
• Travel & Outdoors
• Sports & Fitness
• Sustainable Living
• Climate Videos
• Solar Panels
• Behind The Headlines
• On The Ground
• Decomplicated
• You Ask The Questions
• Binge Watch
• Travel Smart
• Watch on your TV
• Crosswords & Puzzles
• Most Commented
• Newsletters
• Ask Me Anything
• Virtual Events
• Betting Sites
• Online Casinos
• Wine Offers

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in

Barbie review: A near-miraculous achievement from Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie

While it’s impossible for any studio film to be truly subversive, this mattel-approved comedy gets away with far more than you’d think was possible, article bookmarked.

Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey

Get our the life cinematic email for free, thanks for signing up to the the life cinematic email.

Barbie is one of the most inventive, immaculately crafted and surprising mainstream films in recent memory – a testament to what can be achieved within even the deepest bowels of capitalism. It’s timely, too, arriving a week after the creative forces behind these stories began striking for their right to a living wage and the ability to work without the threat of being replaced by an AI. It’s a pink-splattered manifesto to the power of irreplaceable creative labour and imagination.

While it’s impossible for any studio film to be truly subversive, especially when consumer culture has caught on to the idea that self-awareness is good for business (there’s nothing that companies love more these days than to feel like they’re in on the joke), Barbie gets away with far more than you’d think was possible. It’s a project that writer-director Greta Gerwig , co-writer (plus real-life partner and frequent collaborator) Noah Baumbach, and producer-star Margot Robbie were free to work on in relative privacy, holed up during the pandemic away from the meddlesome impulses of Warner Bros and Mattel executives.

The results are appropriately free-wheeling: There are nods to Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Jacques Tati’s Playtime , deployment of soundstage sets and dance choreography à la Hollywood’s musical Golden Age, and a mischievous streak of corporate satire that calls to mind 2001’s cult classic Josie and the Pussycats . But while the absurdity of its humour sits somewhere between It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Pee-wee’s Big Adventure , its earnest and vulnerable take on womanhood is pure Gerwig, serving as a direct continuation of her Lady Bird and Little Women .

The fact that all of this is tied to one of the most recognisable products in existence – and that any success it enjoys will undoubtedly boost Mattel’s stock prices – underlines the fact that it’s largely impossible to embrace art without embracing hypocrisy. Capitalism doesn’t always swallow art whole; occasionally it thrives in spite of it. And that’s a complexity that feels particularly on brand for a director who had her Jo March, in Little Women , declare: “I am so sick of people saying that love is just all a woman is fit for. I’m so sick of it! But – I am so lonely.”

Barbie contains another Gerwig-ian speech, delivered beautifully by an ordinary (human) mum played by America Ferrera, about the hellish trap women have been forced into. Caught between girl-boss feminism and outright misogyny, women now have to be rich, thin, liberated, and eternally grateful without ever breaking a sweat – because when Barbie promised little girls that “women can be anything”, those words got twisted to mean “women should be everything”. Gerwig’s movie begins by playing a brilliant trick on its audience: Helen Mirren’s opening narration is self-congratulatory, a bit of canned PR about Barbie’s “girl power” legacy that grows increasingly tongue-in-cheek. “Thanks to Barbie,” she concludes, “all problems of feminism and equal rights have been solved”.

• Barbie vs Oppenheimer: Both films majorly exceed expectations as box office frontrunner emerges
• Is Barbie child-friendly? Here’s what to consider before bringing the family to see the PG-13 movie
• Barbie debuts strong on Rotten Tomatoes with 89 per cent score

We’re then introduced to our Barbie – ie “the Stereotypical Barbie” – who is chipper, confident, blonde, and, most importantly, looks like Margot Robbie. She is eternally adored by Ken ( Ryan Gosling ), whose job is “beach”. Not “lifeguard”, but “beach”. Barbie’s friends all have high-powered jobs: president (Issa Rae), author (Alexandra Shipp), physicist (Emma Mackey), doctor (Hari Nef), and lawyer (Sharon Rooney). Every morning, she steps into her shower (there’s no water), sets out her breakfast of a heart-shaped waffle with a dollop of whipped cream (she doesn’t eat), and then sets off in her pink convertible (she doesn’t walk downstairs, but merely floats). All is perfect. Then Barbie starts having irrepressible thoughts of death.

Barbie’s bid to fix that sudden, scary attack of humanity sees her visit “the Real World”, where she meets the all-male executive board of Mattel (among them Will Ferrell and a wonderfully dorky Jamie Demetriou), who think themselves qualified to determine what little girls like and need because they once had a woman CEO (or two, maybe). Meanwhile, Gerwig uses, through a hysterical farce centred around Gosling and his fellow Kens, the implicit matriarchy of Barbieland to explore how power and visibility shape a person’s self-perception. Gosling gives an all-timer of a comedic performance, one that’s part-baby, part-Zoolander, part-maniac, and 100 per cent a validation for anyone who ever liked him in 2016’s noir comedy The Nice Guys . There are (naturally) some exquisite outfits designed by Jacqueline Durran, some very funny references to discontinued Barbies (have fun reading up on the backstory behind Earring Magic Ken), and a few unexpected pops at fans of Duolingo, Top Gun , and Zack Snyder’s Justice League .

Barbie is joyous from minute to minute to minute. But it’s where the film ends up that really cements the near-miraculousness of Gerwig’s achievement. Very late in the movie, a conversation is had that neatly sums up one of the great illusions of capitalism – that creations exist independently from those that created them. It’s why films and television shows get turned into “content”, and why writers and actors end up exploited and demeaned. Barbie , in its own sly, silly way, gets to the very heart of why these current strikes are so necessary.

Dir: Greta Gerwig. Starring: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Simu Liu, America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman, Will Ferrell. 12A, 114 minutes.

‘Barbie’ is in cinemas from 21 July

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.

New to The Independent?

Or if you would prefer:

Want an ad-free experience?

Hi {{indy.fullName}}

• My Independent Premium
• Account details
• Help centre

• Work & Careers
• Life & Arts

Become an FT subscriber

Try unlimited access Only $1 for 4 weeks

Then $75 per month. Complete digital access to quality FT journalism on any device. Cancel anytime during your trial.

• Global news & analysis
• Expert opinion
• Special features
• FirstFT newsletter
• Videos & Podcasts
• Android & iOS app
• FT Edit app
• 10 gift articles per month

Explore more offers.

Standard digital.

• FT Digital Edition

Premium Digital

Print + premium digital, weekend print + standard digital, weekend print + premium digital.

Today's FT newspaper for easy reading on any device. This does not include ft.com or FT App access.

• 10 additional gift articles per month
• Global news & analysis
• Exclusive FT analysis
• Videos & Podcasts
• FT App on Android & iOS
• Everything in Standard Digital
• Premium newsletters
• Weekday Print Edition
• FT Weekend Print delivery
• Everything in Premium Digital

Essential digital access to quality FT journalism on any device. Pay a year upfront and save 20%.

• Everything in Print

Complete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders. Pay a year upfront and save 20%.

Terms & Conditions apply

Explore our full range of subscriptions.

Why the ft.

See why over a million readers pay to read the Financial Times.

International Edition

Barbie ’s Final Joke Is Also Its Most Meaningful Lesson

A confusing, beautiful, hilarious sequence perfectly captures the objective of the film itself.

Spoilers below.

Anyone, and certainly any woman—whether cis, trans, or otherwise—or non-binary person, will tell you that genitals mean a great deal to a great number of people, regardless of whether or not they should. Within hours of Margot Robbie’s Stereotypical Barbie stepping into Barbie ’s “Real World,” she enlightens a group of men heckling her with the simple truth that she has no genitals, and neither does Ken—so, hey, the joke’s on them. This fact does not seem to bother Barbie herself; it is Ken, rather, who appears humiliated by the revelation.

The film tickles these gendered defenses until they collapse, culminating in a confrontation in Barbie Land between the recently brainwashed Barbies and the newly educated Kens, who’ve decided to bring patriarchy back to Barbie Land in the form of beer and horses and the vocal inflections of Rob Thomas. But the fight does not end with Barbie restoring the Great Feminist Order to her world, where the Kens are free to beach each other off into oblivion; instead, she realizes just how flawed her understanding of gender was from the beginning.

She meets, once again, with her creator, Ruth Handler (as portrayed by Rhea Perlman), who takes her betwixt the membranes of the Real World and Barbie Land. This dimension—wherever or whatever it might be—has no clear beginning or end. It is the hazy white room of the In Between. I’d go so far as to say it’s an allegorical in-utero, its inhabitants not yet born but undeniably real, floating in contested territory. Here, Ruth presents Barbie with a deeper version of the choice first posited by Kate McKinnon’s Weird Barbie at the beginning of the film: Stay and remain one-dimensional, or leave and embrace chaos. Ruth makes the perils of this choice obvious. If Barbie stays, she’ll forever mimic a version of perfection she no longer believes in. If she leaves, she will no longer be an idea but a creature , one that can live but can also die. Her arched footprint will no longer be ideological but material, and the consequences will be much harder to ignore.

“We mothers stand still so our daughters can look back to see how far they’ve come,” Ruth tells Barbie, in one of the film’s more fascinating lines. She is referencing, of course, her relationship to her own daughter—Barbara Handler, whom Barbie was named after. But she is also referencing Barbie herself, whom Ruth imagined and designed and fought for and sold. By “looking back” at the found-footage sequence Ruth then presents, as if through a prophetic vision, Barbie can see how far she has come, both in the context of the film itself and in the greater cultural imagination over her six decades of iconography. Barbie means something different to a modern era than she did to the children of 1959. But she continues to influence them; she continues to raise them. It is a beautiful, complicated thing, just like the slices of life displayed in the home videos. And it poses a great responsibility, to which Barbie accepts the challenge. “Yes.”

Yet the film does not end here. The actual ending of Barbie takes place in one final sequence, as Barbie’s new human family (including America Ferrera’s Gloria and Ariana Greenblatt’s Sasha) drops her off at an unmarked office building. We don’t know exactly where Barbie is, only that she’s preparing for a momentous occasion in the Real World. Perhaps a job interview? Maybe the DMV? Gerwig gives us one last smirk as Barbie marches up to the front desk and announces, “I’m here to see my gynecologist.”

It’s a last laugh for the ages. But what makes it such a perfect line to end with is not only its humor but its significance. Barbie is a human now. She has, we can assume, human organs. The specific nature of those organs doesn’t matter. The mechanics of how she received these organs doesn’t matter either, no more than it mattered how Barbie could magically float from her rooftop to her pink Corvette any time a child picked her up to play. What matters is that she now carries the hallmarks of human womanhood, and she must learn how to live with them.

Now, I think it’s important to note here what Gerwig is not saying: that womanhood or motherhood are designated purely by the status of one’s reproductive organs. Rather, I believe she’s alluding to the opposite: that such statuses are complicated, such organs are complicated, and that they should be—because the complexity of humanity is a source of its beauty. At the end of the film, Stereotypical Barbie takes her first step to embracing that complexity by waltzing into a historic human institution of care and confusion, pleasure and pain: the gynecologist’s office.

As the daughter of a gynecologist, I have long associated my mother’s workplace with both the unsettling smell of antiseptic and the warmth of her laugh echoing from the examination room. I am not yet a mother, but I have one, and I have walked (and played) in the corridors where so many mothers are made—biological, adoptive, figurative, and otherwise. It should go without saying that Barbie does not need genitals to be a mother, nor does she need to give birth to have influence. But by giving Barbie organs, and by taking her to the place where such organs are cared for, Gerwig plants Barbie firmly in the complexity of our own human experiences. She is held up not just as an icon of our dreams (and insecurities), but as a mirror to our lived reality. There is enormous power in such an act, particularly for a corporate brand that has wielded such power over children’s aspirations.

As many critics have already pointed out, Barbie can’t fix Barbie. The film itself is flawed, compromised by its own subject matter and an explosive marketing campaign. There are parts of the movie I wish dug deeper, hit harder, and stayed longer. But I will remember that ending. I will remember the way it presented Barbie as a mother—not because she has organs, or children, or even a good gynecologist, but because she is so happy to be gloriously, undeniably human, and she wants to share that feeling with us. Going to the gynecologist is the best part of her day! She has raised so many around her; to see her thrilled to embrace the messy reality of womanhood gives us permission to do the same. Like Ruth, she seems to demand we turn around and assess how far we’ve come.

Movies & TV 2024

Inside the True Story of 'Under the Bridge'

'The Iron Claw' Will Begin Streaming in May

Will Shōgun Get Another Season?

Will There Be a Baby Reindeer Season 2?

All About Netflix’s New Series Calabasas

‘Princess Diaries 3’ Is Officially Happening

Sandra Oh Recalls Her Speech on 'Sympathizer' Set

Everything We Know about Season 2 of Fallout

A Streaming Guide to Hulu’s 'Under the Bridge'

When Do Episodes of 'We Were the Lucky Ones' Drop?

It’s True: 'Euphoria' Will Return in 2025

• Entertainment
• <i>Barbie</i> Is Very Pretty But Not Very Deep

Barbie Is Very Pretty But Not Very Deep

T he fallacy of Barbie the doll is that she’s supposed to be both the woman you want to be and your friend, a molded chunk of plastic—in a brocade evening dress, or a doctor’s outfit, or even Jane Goodall’s hyper-practical safari suit—which is also supposed to inspire affection. But when you’re a child, your future self is not a friend—she’s too amorphous for that, and a little too scary. And you may have affection, or any number of conflicted feelings, for your Barbie, but the truth is that she’s always living in the moment, her moment, while you’re trying to dream your own future into being. Her zig-zagging signals aren’t a problem—they’re the whole point. She’s always a little ahead of you, which is why some love her, others hate her, and many, many fall somewhere in the vast and complex in-between.

With Barbie the movie —starring Margot Robbie, also a producer on the film—director Greta Gerwig strives to mine the complexity of Barbie the doll, while also keeping everything clever and fun, with a hot-pink exclamation point added where necessary. There are inside jokes, riffs on Gene Kelly-style choreography, and many, many one-line zingers or extended soliloquies about modern womanhood—observations about all that’s expected of us, how exhausting it all is, how impossible it is to ever measure up. Gerwig has done a great deal of advance press about the movie, assuring us that even though it’s about a plastic toy, it’s still stuffed with lots of ideas and thought and real feelings. (She and Noah Baumbach co-wrote the script.) For months now there has been loads of online chatter about how “subversive” the movie is—how it loves Barbie but also mocks her slightly, and how it makes fun of Mattel executives even though their real-life counterparts are both bankrolling the whole enterprise and hoping to make a huge profit off it. The narrative is that Gerwig has somehow pulled off a coup, by taking Mattel’s money but using it to create real art , or at least just very smart entertainment.

Read More: Our Cover Story on Barbie

It’s true that Barbie does many of the things we’ve been promised: there is much mocking and loving of Barbie, and plenty of skewering of the suits. But none of those things make it subversive. Instead, it’s a movie that’s enormously pleased with itself, one that has cut a big slice of perfectly molded plastic cake and eaten it—or pretend-eaten it—too. The things that are good about Barbie — Robbie’s buoyant, charming performance and Ryan Gosling’s go-for-broke turn as perennial boyfriend Ken, as well as the gorgeous, inventive production design—end up being steamrollered by all the things this movie is trying so hard to be. Its playfulness is the arch kind. Barbie never lets us forget how clever it’s being, every exhausting minute.

That’s a shame, because the first half-hour or so is dazzling and often genuinely funny, a vision that’s something close to (though not nearly as weird as) the committed act of imagination Robert Altman pulled off with his marvelous Popeye. First, there’s a prologue, narrated by Helen Mirren and riffing on Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, explaining the impact of early Barbie on little girls in 1959; she was an exotic and aspirational replacement for their boring old baby dolls, whose job was to train them for motherhood—Gerwig shows these little girls on a rocky beach, dashing their baby dolls to bits after they’ve seen the curvy miracle that is Barbie. Then Gerwig, production designer Sarah Greenwood, and costume designer Jacqueline Durran launch us right into Barbieland, with Robbie’s approachably glam Barbie walking us through . This is an idyllic community where all the Dream Houses are open, not only because its denizens have no shame and nothing to hide, but because homes without walls mean they can greet one another each day with the sunrise. “Hello, Barbie!” they call out cheerfully. Everyone in Barbieland—except the ill-fated pregnant Midge , based on one of Mattel’s many discontinued experiments in toy marketing—is named Barbie, and everyone has a meaningful job. There are astronaut Barbies and airline pilot Barbies, as well as an all-Barbie Supreme Court. Garbage-collector Barbies, in matching pink jumpsuits, bustle cheerfully along this hamlet’s perpetually pristine curbs. This array of Barbies is played by a selection of actors including Hari Nef, Dua Lipa, Alexandra Shipp, and Emma Mackey. The president is also Barbie—she’s played by Issa Rae. (In one of the early section’s great sight gags, she brushes her long, silky tresses with an overscale oval brush.)

Barbieland is a world where all the Barbies love and support one another , like a playtime version of the old-fashioned women’s college, where the students thrive because there are no men to derail their self-esteem. Robbie’s Barbie—she is known, as a way of differentiating herself from the others, as Stereotypical Barbie, because she is white and has the perfectly sculpted proportions and sunny smile of the Barbie many of us grew up with—is the center of it all. She awakens each morning and throws off her sparkly pink coverlet, her hair a swirl of perfectly curled Saran. She chooses an outfit (with meticulously coordinated accessories) from her enviable wardrobe. Her breakfast is a molded waffle that pops from the toaster unbidden; when she “drinks” from a cup of milk, it’s only pretend-drinking, because where is that liquid going to go? This becomes a recurring gag in the movie, wearing itself out slowly, but it’s delightful at first, particularly because Robbie is so game for all of it. Her eyes sparkle in that vaguely crazed Barbie-like way; her smile has a painted-on quality, but there’s warmth there, too. She steps into this role as lightly as if it were a chevron-striped one piece tailored precisely to her talents.

Barbie also has a boyfriend, one Ken of many Kens. The Kens are played by actors including Kingsley Ben-Adir and Simu Liu. But Gosling’s Ken is the best of them, stalwart, in a somewhat neutered way, with his shaggy blond hair, spray-tan bare chest, and vaguely pink lips. The Kens have no real job, other than one known as “Beach,” which involves, as you might guess, going to the beach. The Kens are generally not wanted at the Barbies’ ubiquitous dance parties—the Barbies generally prefer the company of themselves. And that’s why the Kens’ existence revolves around the Barbies . As Mirren the narrator tells us, Barbie always has a great day. “But Ken has a great day only if Barbie looks at him.” And the moment Robbie does, Gosling’s face becomes the visual equivalent of a dream Christmas morning, alight with joy and wonder.

Sign up for Worth Your Time for weekly recommendations on what to read, watch, and listen to.

You couldn’t, of course, have a whole movie set in this highly artificial world. You need to have a plot, and some tension. And it’s when Gerwig airlifts us out of Barbieland and plunks us down in the real world that the movie’s problems begin. Barbie awakens one morning realizing that suddenly, nothing is right. Her hair is messy on the pillow; her waffle is shriveled and burnt. She has begun to have unbidden thoughts about death. Worst of all, her perfectly arched feet have gone flat. (The other Barbies retch in horror at the sight.) For advice, she visits the local wise woman, also known as Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), the Barbie who’s been “played with too hard,” as evidenced by the telltale scribbles on her face. Weird Barbie tells Robbie’s confused and forlorn Barbie that her Barbieland troubles are connected to something that’s going on out there in the Real World, a point of stress that turns out to involve a Barbie-loving mom, Gloria (America Ferrera), and her preteen daughter, Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt), who are growing apart. Barbie makes the journey to the Real World, reluctantly allowing Ken to accompany her. There, he’s wowed to learn that men make all the money and basically rule the land. While Barbie becomes more and more involved in the complexity of human problems , Ken educates himself on the wonders of the patriarchy and brings his newfound ideas back to empower the Kens, who threaten to take over the former utopia known as Barbieland.

By this point, Barbie has begun to do a lot more telling and a lot less showing; its themes are presented like flat-lays of Barbie outfits , delivered in lines of dialogue that are supposed to be profound but come off as lifeless. There are still some funny gags—a line about the Kens trying to win over the Barbies by playing their guitars “at” them made me snort. But the good jokes are drowned out by the many self-aware ones, like the way the Mattel executives, all men (the head boob is Will Ferrell), sit around a conference table and strategize ways to make more money off selling their idea of “female agency.”

The question we’re supposed to ask, as our jaws hang open, is “How did the Mattel pooh-bahs let these jokes through?” But those real-life execs, counting their doubloons in advance, know that showing what good sports they are will help rather than hinder them. They’re on team Barbie, after all! And they already have a long list of toy-and-movie tie-ins on the drawing board.

Meanwhile, we’re left with Barbie the movie, a mosaic of many shiny bits of cleverness with not that much to say. In the pre-release interviews they’ve given, Gerwig and Robbie have insisted their movie is smart about Barbie and what she means to women, even as Mattel executives have said they don’t see the film as being particularly feminist. And all parties have insisted that Barbie is for everyone.

Barbie probably is a feminist movie, but only in the most scattershot way. The plot hinges on Barbie leaving her fake world behind and, like Pinocchio and the Velveteen Rabbit before her, becoming “real.” Somehow this is an improvement on her old existence, but how can we be sure? The movie’s capstone is a montage of vintagey-looking home movies (Gerwig culled this footage from Barbie ’s cast and crew), a blur of joyful childhood moments and parents showing warmth and love. Is this the soon-to-be-real Barbie’s future, or are these the doll-Barbie’s memories? It’s impossible to tell. By this point, we’re supposed to be suitably immersed in the bath of warm, girls-can-do-anything fuzzies the movie is offering us. Those bold, bored little girls we saw at the very beginning of the film, dashing their baby dolls against the rocks, are nowhere in sight. In this Barbieland, their unruly desires are now just an inconvenience.

More Must-Reads From TIME

• The 100 Most Influential People of 2024
• Coco Gauff Is Playing for Herself Now
• Scenes From Pro-Palestinian Encampments Across U.S. Universities
• 6 Compliments That Land Every Time
• If You're Dating Right Now , You're Brave: Column
• The AI That Could Heal a Divided Internet
• Fallout Is a Brilliant Model for the Future of Video Game Adaptations
• Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time

Contact us at [email protected]

Barbie Review: An Uproarious, Existential Adventure And One Of The Best Of The Year

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being reviewed here wouldn't exist.

Greta Gerwig is officially 3/3 with directorial features and despite the highly-recognizable IP at the center of "Barbie," absolutely no other director could have pulled off the hat trick of delivering an extravagant celebration of golden age musicals , intellectual musings on gender theory, and a moving embrace of femininity quite like her. Co-written with Noah Baumbach, "Barbie" takes a glittery pink heel to the throat of anyone that dared to think Gerwig would deliver anything less than greatness, and encompasses the complicated and wonderful legacy of an American institution with over 60 years of history.

The absurdly stacked cast of "Barbie" is utilized well, with Hari Nef, Alexandra Shipp, Kate McKinnon, and Issa Rae so dialed into their characters it's hard not to smile the moment they step on screen. Rae, in particular, was responsible for the loudest laugh during our press screening and already has my vote for her President Barbie reelection campaign. Michael Cera's inclusion as Ken's Buddy Allan is also a delight, and I can only hope this leads to a Ceraissance (once the strikes are over, of course).

My hopes for "Barbie" were as high, and we at /Film even named the film our most anticipated of the year . Well, I'm pleased as pink punch to say that "Barbie" exceeds all expectations, and with all the love to "Lady Bird" and "Little Women," is Gerwig's best film yet.

Ryan Gosling's Kenergy cannot be contained

While Margot Robbie is certainly the star of the show, "Barbie" follows the time-honored tradition of her various media appearances by cranking up the Kenergy tenfold. Ryan Gosling is a consistently solid performer, but his commitment to Ken is unlike anything else he's ever done. In lesser hands, Ken would become a one-note punchline in a fringe vest, but with Gosling beneath the fur coat and bleach-blonde hair, he's a deeply complex and sympathetic figure struggling to navigate the prison of masculinity. The reason "Barbie" works is because everyone on screen plays their characters with the utmost sincerity, and watching Gosling's emotional journey as pop culture's most famous second-fiddle male figure is nothing short of brilliant.

Gerwig's film will most certainly be hailed as a feminist film — which it undeniably is — but the feminism is not limited to women's empowerment and the quest for equitable treatment. The patriarchy hurts everyone, including men, and Ken is the perfect vehicle to discuss why declaring one gender identity over others to be "the best," only leads to pain and confusion. Gosling treats the plight of Ken with such a passionate, thoughtful touch, it's no wonder Gerwig wrote the film with him in mind. Anyone who said he was "too old" to play Ken needs to sit in the corner and chew Barbie shoes for such a laughably childish opinion.

I say this with no exaggeration — this is an Oscar-caliber performance. Of course, we live in an unjust world, the very place that "Barbie" is dedicated to dismantling, which means too many uptight snobs will fail to recognize the remarkable performance before them. There is not an actor alive on Earth who could have delivered what Gosling brought to the screen and if Warner Bros. hasn't already greenlit the "Ken's Mojo Dojo Casa House" sequel, they're even bigger fools than they already are for not outsing their CEO by now .

If you love Barbie, this movie is for you

I'd be remiss not to point out the mind-melting attention to detail interwoven throughout the film, as Gerwig perfectly captures the uncanny delight of imaginative play that comes with Barbie. The Dreamhouses and Barbieland are a candy-coated feast for the eyes, the production design is an absolute masterclass in world-building, and Jacqueline Durran's recreations of some of Barbie's most iconic fashions will certainly require a new display shelf in her home come awards season.

Every second in Barbieland takes the fantastical dreams of childhood play and makes them tangible. There were moments when I could actively feel my brain regressing back to being an 8-year-old girl playing out scenarios in my hand-me-down Dreamhouse, and I let out an audible gasp loaded with wonder when the Barbie ambulance unfolded and became a mini-clinic. Lest we forget, Barbie was doing "Transformers" toy tech long before the robots in disguise.

Gerwig's love of Barbie is evident not only in its look but also in its appreciation of Barbie's history and lore. Kate McKinnon's "Weird Barbie" is representative of all of the dolls that were played with a little too hard, and her Weirdhouse has become a sanctuary for the canceled dolls of Barbie past. I won't spoil which infamous dolls make an appearance but know that Weird Barbie is the new owner of Tanner the pooping dog. If you know, you know.

But it's the addition of Rhea Perlman's character, who I will not spoil for you in this review, that brought me to tears. I cried a lot during this film, but Perlman's addition brings the film to new heights. It's a character appearance that will be lost on a lot of viewers but mean the world to those whose lives have been shaped by Barbie. It's the most obvious sign that this was not Gerwig "selling out" in making a massive, IP-based blockbuster. It's a "thank you" wrapped in a hot pink embrace.

If you hate Barbie, this movie is for you

The secret weapon of "Barbie" is Gerwig's approach to the rightful criticisms of Mattel's most iconic creation (suck it, Hot Wheels), and the unapologetic acknowledgment that life in plastic is not fantastic to a lot of people. Capitalism, consumerism, gender politics, unattainable beauty standards, pressures of femininity, navigating a patriarchal society, socialized gender roles, bimboification, and even mental health issues inspired by simply existing in our backward-ass society are all addressed — through the lens of Barbie in Barbieland as well as Barbie's impact on the real world. Calling it now, there are going to be a lot of critics who will include some sort of line about being "shocked" with how much they enjoyed "Barbie," in an attempt to keep their masculinity or #NotLikeMostGirls reputations intact within an industry that demonizes and discredits anyone who appreciates something so undeniably feminine.

Margot Robbie's performance is breathtaking but impossible to discuss without spoiling. Just know that the same journey many women have taken to come to terms with their feelings about Barbie, Robbie's Barbie must do for herself. When she cries, we cry.

I will not deny the negative connotations many people have with the existence of Barbie, and Gerwig's script validates anyone who has ever felt lesser-than or unfairly judged for not being more like her. But it's also a film that challenges the naysayers to refocus their disdain and remember who the real enemy is. Barbie is not the cause of anti-feminist sentiment. Barbie is not responsible for the unrealistic expectations put upon women. Barbie is as much a pawn in the patriarchal nightmare game of American society as real women are, and "Barbie" is a reminder that pitting women against each other is the easiest distraction technique in the book ... which is why Gerwig subverts that very notion in the film's climax.

Barbie is everything, and so are you

Greta Gerwig did the impossible with "Barbie," marrying both the confetti-bright sensibilities of the plastic toy that has been a vital friend to many for over half a century and a sharp screenplay that inspires existential ruminations on gender politics and self-love. Moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity are sandwiched between therapeutic affirmations, and America Ferrera's third-act monologue is the rightful heir to Gillian Flynn's "Cool Girl" monologue from "Gone Girl." There's also a meta-America Ferrera Disney Channel Original Movie joke in the final moments that I was very clearly the only person in the theater who got, but it was a beautiful full-circle moment for the heart of the film. "Barbie" may play a little too on the nose for some viewers, but taking into consideration the obstacle course of production notes Gerwig likely had to juggle between WB and Mattel, it's a miracle this film was made at all.

I can only speak for myself, but my expectations for "Barbie" were high, and this film is beyond my wildest imagination. Life inside of a box is no way to be, and Gerwig's film screams out with proud feminine vocal fry what so many of us have been saying for years — women can be anything and do anything. Barbie isn't a requirement or an expectation, she's a tool for our own aspirations. Perfection isn't attainable for anyone, not even Barbie, because her power only exists within the confines of what we give her, and we certainly aren't perfect ourselves.

"Barbie" is an absolute marvel hiding within the plastic pink confines of Barbie, making it a phenomenal reflection of the iconic doll that serves as source material. Gerwig clearly knew the preconceived notions folks would have about the film going into it because they're the same ones lobbied against the doll. Fortunately, she put her best pointed foot forward and delivered one of the best films of the year

/Film Rating: 9 out of 10

"Barbie" arrives in theaters on July 21, 2023.

1992 - August: Eric Clapton "Unplugged"

• Podcast Episode

Add a plot in your language

User reviews

• April 15, 2024 (United Kingdom)
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 46 minutes

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• IMDb Answers: Help fill gaps in our data
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed

Nicole Kidman on making ‘Birth’ and why she chooses films that aren’t a ‘soothing bath’

• Show more sharing options
• Copy Link URL Copied!

By now, the shot should be familiar: Nicole Kidman sitting in a theater, her face registering, among other things, hope and wonder.

Except the masterful sequence I’m contemplating isn’t the one from the ubiquitous AMC Theatres ad that has been worshiped and parodied the last three years, but in Jonathan Glazer’s 2004 film “Birth.” In addition to ecstasy, Kidman’s expression also conveys shock and anguish and, finally, acceptance of the impossible. All in two minutes.

Here’s how it plays: Attending the opera with her fiancé, Kidman’s character, Anna, arrives unsettled and you can understand why. A preternaturally calm 10-year-old boy has recently turned up at her Manhattan apartment — at her engagement party, no less — and announced that he’s her reincarnated husband, a man who collapsed 10 years ago while jogging in Central Park. Anna has been turning over the boy’s words in her mind for days. Seated now, with Wagner’s “Die Walküre” booming in the background, Anna decides to surrender to the unimaginable and embrace the fantastic idea.

And you watch the whole wordless journey play out on Kidman’s face in the long, unbroken shot .

“I knew instinctively, in real time, that it would be the center of the film,” Glazer tells me via email. “It was so eloquent. Like watching a trapeze artist on a high wire, poised gracefully in midair.”

Kidman, 56, has forged a long career full of work in which she has walked the tightrope. She’s still taking big swings, too, having just finished filming “Babygirl,” a sexually charged thriller written and directed by Halina Reijn (“Bodies Bodies Bodies”) for A24.

On the eve of Saturday’s AFI Life Achievement Award gala celebrating Kidman’s career, it felt like the right time to revisit “Birth,” a movie that has been reassessed in the 20 years since its release, emblematic of the risks she loves to take with her work.

“I just have an enormous amount of trust,” Kidman says by phone from Austria, where she’s shooting a second season of the Hulu series “Nine Perfect Strangers.” “I will just go places and align with people and go, ‘Here I am. I’m yours. We’ll live and die together.’”

With “Birth,” she and Glazer created an odd movie that introduces Anna, a smart, sophisticated Upper East Sider, with a shot of her steadying herself on her husband’s tombstone and then spends the next 90 minutes suggesting that she’ll never escape his memory.

“This is a strange, unsettling movie,” I begin, not long after Kidman picks up the phone.

“I don’t find it strange but maybe that means I’m strange,” Kidman says, laughing. “But I never found it strange. I found it profound, the way it deals with grief and how people will fill holes to explain things, needing to explain things and then being incredibly open to all possibilities when you’re in a deeply vulnerable state.”

“And also,” she continues, “the idea that grief isn’t finite because it most definitely isn’t. Grief never ends. And you see it at that scene at the opera. She just releases into believing that it is him, this little boy is her husband. For her, it’s the easier path.”

For that celebrated shot, Glazer says he asked Danny Huston, who plays Anna’s fiancé, to whisper something banal to Kidman, “to give her a nudge or two to knock her off balance, out of her reverie.” Her recovery, he notes, was immaculate.

“It was only two takes,” Kidman says of the close-up. “That’s how bold Jonathan was. ‘Great. We got it.’ It wasn’t always that way with him.”

While her memory of shooting that crucial scene is precise, Kidman is a little blurry on the specifics of how she prepared to play a woman still racked with despair a decade after her husband died. During one of our conversations, she closes her eyes and rubs her temples, as if trying to summon ghosts from the past.

“I know vocally, everything just got much more meek and shy and light,” Kidman says. “I remember being surprised at the time at the voice that was coming out of me.”

Do you still have the script, I ask, where you could look at your notes?

“No, I throw everything out,” Kidman answers. “I shred them. Ooooh. It’d be like people reading my journal. I don’t want anyone ever reading those.”

So, every script?

“Shredded.”

“‘Eyes Wide Shut’”?

I’m not sure I’ve ever heard you relish a word like you’re saying “shredded” right now, I tell her.

“Well, it feels like baggage,” Kidman says. “It’s all just going to go sit in an attic or down in a basement. I’m a traveling actor and can live out of a suitcase. That’s how I approach life because I’ve always had to shove everything in a suitcase and move on.”

Kidman was finishing making “Birth” when she won the Oscar in 2003 for playing Virginia Woolf in Stephen Daldry’s drama “The Hours.” That year, she also appeared in Lars von Trier’s bruising, incendiary “Dogville,” the sober Philip Roth adaptation “The Human Stain” and the acclaimed Civil War epic “Cold Mountain,” a hit nominated for seven Oscars. But even with all that, Glazer had been hesitant to cast her in “Birth,” fearing her celebrity would overwhelm a delicate, peculiar character study.

“I was nervous to cast her,” Glazer admits. “I needn’t have been. I underestimated her ability to become anonymous. To immerse herself fully. I’d seen her in ‘Dogville.’ I loved that she did that. And ‘Eyes Wide Shut.’ It’s that fearlessness which attracted me, seeking out filmmakers who would challenge her.”

Glazer did just that, noting that the making of “Birth” was fraught. The studio, he says, was “enraged by my daily script changes and improvisations,” often made because the scenes they had initially written were beyond the abilities of the young actor, Cameron Bright, playing the boy.

“So we’d shift the emphasis onto Nicole,” Glazer says. “Sometimes three or four pages of dialogue would turn up at her house at midnight to shoot the following day, completely different to the ones she’d prepared for. She’d arrive in the morning, never late, knowing the new lines perfectly and without complaint. She stood by me throughout. She knew I was searching for something and she protected me and believed in what we were doing. She’s an absolute professional and I am deeply proud of her performance.”

Kidman remembers Glazer’s “rigorous” reshaping of the script, a process she likens to Stanley Kubrick’s methodology making “Eyes Wide Shut,” a 400-day shoot that, boiled down, amounted to what she calls a “commitment to exploring the unknown.”

“Stanley would rewrite scenes that we’d spent six weeks shooting,” Kidman remembers. “And you just go, ‘OK. Great. How do you see it this time?’ With Jonathan, I’d get those pages late at night and it was glorious because the writing was so good. Great writing is easy to learn. That’s never a problem. When it’s not so good, then,” she laughs, “that’s another story.”

“Birth,” like “Eyes Wide Shut,” revels in its mysteries. Even after the young boy’s story has been mostly debunked as a hoax, a few lingering questions remain. And Kidman loves that ambiguity because, as she often likes to say, “None of us knows anything.”

Which makes me think about mortality and the film’s contemplation on the supernatural.

“How are you feeling about the afterlife these days?” I ask her.

“I’m open to ideas and I change and shift and grow,” Kidman says. “There are times when I feel solid in my strength of who and where I am. And there are other times when I go, ‘Ooof, everything’s been removed and everything feels very tenuous and I’m not quite sure what’s what.’ And that has to do with having lost people very suddenly. I think that leaves you unsteady. As much as we’re all presenting ideas, none of us has the definitive power to know what’s going on.”

Kidman lost her father a decade ago after he suffered a heart attack, and he comes up often in our conversations. Grief isn’t finite. We talk about how we’d like to believe we might see our loved ones in another realm.

“I can feel him,” Kidman says. “So I’m very open to that. We just don’t know.” She pauses and then laughs. “But I guess we’ll all find out someday, won’t we?”

‘The Zone of Interest’ took a decade of work. Its director will never be the same

Jonathan Glazer, the filmmaker behind ‘Sexy Beast,’ ‘Birth’ and ‘Under the Skin,’ goes deep into the research, filming and editing of his Holocaust masterpiece.

Jan. 11, 2024

“Birth” premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September 2004. Reviews were mixed and when the movie opened the following month, audiences mostly stayed away. Today, it holds a firm place alongside the three other movies Glazer has made — “Sexy Beast,” “Under the Skin” and “The Zone of Interest,” which won the international feature Oscar earlier this year — with Kidman’s performance now considered one of the best in a career full of superlative work.

“Movies that deal with uncomfortable subject matter will rarely be rapturously received because you’re dealing with things that don’t make people feel safe,” Kidman says. “They’re not a soothing bath.”

“Yes,” I agree, “and you’ve made a lot of movies that —”

“— are not soothing baths,” Kidman replies, finishing the thought, laughing. “They’re not lullabies.”

How does Glazer himself feel about “Birth” two decades on?

“I haven’t seen it since we made it,” he says. “But I do know it’s a film some people deeply connect with and that’s a gratifying feeling.”

As part of her AFI gala, Kidman sat for a pre-taped interview discussing the entirety of her career. How did she feel after making that time-machine journey?

“I felt sadness and wonder,” Kidman says. “Definitely wonder. Like: How?”

She bursts into a goofy laugh. “How did this happen? So much of it is great memories. My mother said in her wedding speech — my second wedding — that Nicole’s always looked at the world through rose-colored glasses, particularly the past.” Kidman pauses, smiling. “I thought that was kind of nice.”

So where does the sadness part come in?

“The sadness is, ‘Aaaaw, I want to be able to do it all again.’”

More to Read

How a ‘shower vision’ inspired the pregnancy candor of SXSW sensation ‘Babes’

March 10, 2024

Oscars rewind -- 2004: Sofia Coppola follows in Dad’s footsteps

Feb. 26, 2024

How Margot Robbie overcame a ‘palpable and debilitating’ panic to make ‘Barbie’

Feb. 5, 2024

Only good movies

Get the Indie Focus newsletter, Mark Olsen's weekly guide to the world of cinema.

You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

Glenn Whipp covers film and television for the Los Angeles Times and serves as columnist for The Envelope, The Times’ awards season publication.

More From the Los Angeles Times

Company Town

After scandal, movie producer Randall Emmett is flying under the radar with a new name

April 26, 2024

This is what Billie Eilish talks about when she’s not promoting ‘Barbie, Barbie, Barbie’

April 25, 2024

Review: Generic from its title onward, ‘Boy Kills World’ does little to differentiate its gore

‘Rebel’ redacted: Rebel Wilson’s book chapter on Sacha Baron Cohen struck from some copies