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‘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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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"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 .

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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

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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

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'Barbie' Review: Greta Gerwig’s World of Plastic Is Fantastic

Starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, Greta Gerwig turns 'Barbie' into much more than just a toy commercial.

The Big Picture

• Barbie , directed by Greta Gerwig, is a comedy that explores the difficulties of being a woman and the absurdity of trying to be perfect.
• The film uses pointed jokes to discuss sexism and womanhood.
• Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling deliver fantastic performances as Barbie and Ken in a film that both praises and critiques the iconic doll.

In the over sixty years since Barbie was first released, there have been many differing opinions on the incredibly popular doll . Some have seen Mattel’s creation as a sign of empowerment, an example to young girls showing that they can become anything they want to be, while others have seen it as a symbol of impossible standards and outdated ideals. Barbie could’ve easily been little more than a toy ad, but through director and co-writer Greta Gerwig , it becomes an existential look at the difficulties of being a woman, the terrifying nature of life in general, the understanding that trying to be perfect is absurd, while also encapsulating everything that Barbie has meant to people—both good and bad. But amongst all this, Gerwig makes Barbie one of the funniest comedies of the year, a delightfully strange adventure that gets weirder at every turn. Barbie has always contained multitudes and, fittingly, so does Gerwig’s excellent third film.

Barbie suffers a crisis that leads her to question her world and her existence.

What Is 'Barbie' About?

Margot Robbie stars as Barbie, the iconic doll who lives in Barbie Land with the other Barbies (played by Emma Mackey , Hari Nef , Alexandra Shipp , and many, many others), where they all have the best day of their life every day. In this land, the Barbies rule, as they have a Barbie president ( Issa Rae ), they run the land’s congress, and win Nobel Prizes daily. The Barbies believe that their example of a female-run world has been an inspiration to the Real World, which they assume is also run by empowered women. Barbie Land also has its share of Kens, who only have a good day if Barbie notices them. Ken ( Ryan Gosling ) is in love with Robbie’s Barbie, and fights for her attention with Ken ( Simu Liu ) when he’s not doing his job of “beach.”

After yet another incredible day in Barbie Land, Robbie’s Barbie mentions that she’s been thinking about death, which stops her grand, choreographed dance party at her Barbie mansion dead in its tracks. The next morning, nothing is right. Her shower is cold, she falls off her roof, and her feet are no longer perfectly shaped to fit her high heels. To find out what’s going wrong, she’s told by Weird Barbie ( Kate McKinnon )—who knows of the human world all too well after being played with too hard—that she must go to the Real World and find the girl who is playing with her. Clearly, this girl is also having these negative feelings, and things won’t be right with Barbie until things are repaired. To fix her world, Barbie and Gosling’s Ken go to the Real World to find Barbie’s owner , but in doing so, they both find a world that couldn’t be more different than their own.

Greta Gerwig Is the Perfect Filmmaker to Tell This Story

Barbie is ambitious in its approach to the quintessential toy, and this story simply wouldn’t work without the direction of Gerwig and her and Noah Baumbach ’s bonkers script. 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 . Gerwig and Baumbach manage to make this not feel like a toy ad, but rather, a discussion of sexism and womanhood that’s also hysterical and extremely odd. This is a film that balances jokes about Ken being good at his job of “beach,” with references to Marcel Proust and Stephen Malkmus. 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. While many have tried to get this idea off the ground and running, it’s hard to imagine anyone doing it with as much skill and care as Gerwig and Baumbach do here.

Gerwig’s direction here is also terrific, as she’s able to make Barbie Land feel real, with production designer Sarah Greenwood and set decorator Katie Spencer doing unbelievable work throughout. Gerwig’s work behind the camera is vibrant and bold, and it’s great to see her have such a massive canvas to play with. Gerwig’s handling of this story can’t help but remind of the eye-popping colors of Jacques Demy films like The Young Girls of Rochefort or The Umbrellas of Cherbourg , fantasy numbers that feel right out of An American in Paris , and the perfectly constructed offices of Mattel in the real world feel like Jacques Tati ’s PlayTime . Barbie also uses its superb soundtrack, from Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt , to elevate this story in brilliant ways. For example, Lizzo ’s “Pink” almost acts as a narrator to Barbie’s plight at the beginning of the film, while Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” is a pitch-perfect addition to one of the movie’s most moving scenes . Again, it’s this consideration and intentional placement of all these elements that Gerwig adds to the film that makes this feel like more than just “a film about Barbie.”

The only segment of Barbie that doesn’t work as well as it maybe should is the addition of Mattel into this narrative . Will Ferrell appears as the CEO of Mattel, and his all-male boardroom attempts to get Barbie back to the Real World, lest the world finds out how easy it is for toys to come into our world. It’s an admirable addition, with Gerwig commenting on how this girl’s toy is largely created by men and how hypocritical that can be. While that’s certainly worth adding to this story, the film frequently returns to these characters, and especially by the end , they seem to be more of a burden to the story of Ken and Barbie than actually a useful addition. They’ve made their point, and yet, the film continually comes back to them in a way it probably doesn’t need to. But again, this is a minor complaint, and it’s at least impressive that Gerwig and Baumbach were able to get away with making the company behind this film part of the inherent problem with this icon in the first place.

Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are Tremendous as Barbie and Ken

Of course, Barbie would be nothing without Barbie, and Robbie is simply incredible in the title role. Robbie can represent everything this toy has meant to people, as we watch this plaything become human, in her own way . Robbie is very funny when she needs to be, but we can feel the weight of this character learning that the world isn’t what she always hoped it would be. She discovers she might not be the icon of change that she thought she was and begins to understand just how terrifying change can be. It’s as if Gerwig and Baumbach are diving into everything this character has meant over the decades and how that has and hasn’t worked, and Robbie encompasses that perfectly. 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.

Gosling is equally fantastic as Ken, a lovable idiot who thinks the patriarchy has something to do with horses and men ruling the world together . Ken seeing the power that men have in the real world and embracing it could’ve been abrasive, but Gosling always manages to make this character goofy and understandable. As a character who just wants to be seen, our world makes Ken into a person with power like he’s always wanted. Gosling is always great when he embraces comedy, like we’ve seen with The Nice Guys and moments of La La Land , but 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.

In the months since Barbie came out, after the Barbenheimer fad died down and after the film would go on to become one of the most successful films of all-time, what’s most impressive about Barbie is that it exists in this form at all . Gerwig knows that this is a film that the world will be against (“a movie about a toy ??“), and yet, she handles every aspect with an impeccable consideration and brilliance that it’s hard not to admire what she’s crafted here. But beyond worrying about if certain lines were written by her or Baumbach, or complaining that the feminism doesn’t go far enough, or even for it’s criticism of Mattel, the company still had to sign off on it—it’s still incredible this movie exists and was as successful as it was. This is a film that manages to explore the conflicting ideals of what Barbie means, while also making patriarchy (and how stupid it inherently is) the primary villain. Gerwig has always been outstanding at telling beautiful and daring stories, and she’s managed to do that, while also bringing a larger commentary to this iconic toy—in a film told from the viewpoint of a plastic doll.

It’s easy to be cynical about a film like Barbie , a film that has at least partially been made to sell toys and even makes Mattel a part of the actual story. But Barbie is also an example of how getting the right people behind an unusual idea can make something truly beautiful come out of it, much like The Lego Movie or The Social Network before it. Gerwig has created a film that takes Barbie, praises its contribution as an idea to our world, but also criticizes its faults, while also making a film that celebrates being a woman and all the difficulties and beauty that includes. This also manages to be a film that feels decidedly in line with Gerwig’s previous films as she continues her streak as one of the most exciting filmmakers working today. Barbie could’ve just been a commercial, but Gerwig makes this life of plastic into something truly fantastic .

Greta Gerwig's Barbie is an impressive feat, adapting the unadaptable into a hilarious and surprising emotional experience.

• Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling bring plastic characters to life, giving them each one of their best performances.
• Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach's screenplay hits just the right tone of absurd and emotional honesty.
• From the music to the incredible set design, Barbie is impressive in every aspect.
• The Mattel storyline, featuring Will Ferrell, feels unnecessary in the larger scope of this story.

Barbie is now available to stream on Max in the U.S.

WATCH ON MAX

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Barbie’s impressive Rotten Tomatoes score revealed

Film starring margot robbie and ryan gosling hailed as ‘a very charming success’, article bookmarked.

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Greta Gerwig ’s Barbie has scored an impressive 89 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes .

The film which debuted on the review-aggregation website on Wednesday (19 July) stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken.

Other cast members of the much-awaited film include Will Ferrell , Emma Mackey , Simu Liu and Michael Cera .

So far, 96 reviews have been added to the Rotten Tomatoes website, with most of the critics agreeing that Barbie is a must watch.

David Sims from The Atlantic called the film “a very charming success”, while Tomris Laffly from The Wrap said it’s a “soulful film underneath all the persistent fuchsia”.

• Barbie vs Oppenheimer: Both films majorly exceed expectations as box office frontrunner emerges
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Kimberley Jones from Austin Chronicle wrote that the film is “electric”.

“There is such visual wit to the film, which ping-pongs between ‘make-believe’ and ‘real-life’, the two-dimensional and three-dimensional. Lest that all sound too hifalutin, there are some punchlines that made me honk with pleasure.” she wrote.

Peter Howell from Toronto Star credited the cast for their “stellar” performances.

“What really makes this comedy click are the stellar performances, from the lead role on down,” Howell wrote in his review. “This is the funniest cast I’ve seen in some time.”

Rolling Stone’s David Fear wrote: “A big movie can still have big ideas in 2023. Even a Barbie movie. Especially a Barbie movie.”

Many critics also applauded Gerwig’s filmmaking skills.

New York Times’ Manohla Dargis wrote that the Mattel brand looms large in the film, but “Gerwig, whose directorial command is so fluent she seems born to filmmaking, is announcing that she’s in control”.

“Gerwig has made the kind of family film she surely wishes had been available to her when she was a girl, sneaking a message (several of them, really) inside Barbie’s hollow hourglass figure, said Variety’s Peter Debruge. “That’s an admirable achievement.”

In her five out of five-star review for The Independent , Clarrise Loughrey hailed the film as “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”.

Barbie is out in cinemas on 21 July. Follow The Independent’s live blog about the film here .

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Can Barbie Have Her Cake and Eat It Too?

What’d Beyoncé say? “ You know you that Barbie when you cause all this conversation. ” First reactions to Greta Gerwig’s wildly anticipated technicolor fantasia slash existential comedy slash Mattel commercial are in, and they, like the Lady Bird and Little Women director’s own works, are filled to the brim with ideas. The main through-line in much of the early reviews concerns just how revolutionary a film can be if it’s based on existing IP, produced by that IP’s corporate daddy, and successfully marketed after 18 months securing brand deals and devising an advertising blitz . The film stars Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken , both of whom expertly carry the production, and charts their travels from Barbie Land to the real world when the former doll starts to think about dying. Her dawn of consciousness sets of a chain of events that finds the pair grappling with our own misogynist society, women’s empowerment, and a metacommentary on the toy brand. “The trouble with trying to sneak subversive ideas into a project so inherently compromised is that, rather than get away with something, you might just create a new way for a brand to sell itself,” Vulture critic Alison Willmore says of the attempts to inject socially conscious ideas in the two-hour-long Mattel spot. Below, what critics thought about Barbie .

“There’s a streak of defensiveness to Barbie , as though it’s trying to anticipate and acknowledge any critiques lodged against it before they’re made, which renders it emotionally inert despite the efforts at wackiness. To be a film fan these days is to be aware that franchises and cinematic universes and remakes and other adaptations of old IP have become black holes that swallow artists, leaving you to desperately hope they might emerge with the rare project that, even though it comes from constrictive confines, still feels like it was made by a person. Barbie definitely was. But the trouble with trying to sneak subversive ideas into a project so inherently compromised is that, rather than get away with something, you might just create a new way for a brand to sell itself.” — Alison Willmore, Vulture

“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.” — David Fear, Rolling Stone

“However smartly done Gerwig’s Barbie is, an ominousness haunts the entire exercise. The director has successfully etched her signature into and drawn deeper themes out of a rigid framework, but the sacrifices to the story are clear. The muddied politics and flat emotional landing of Barbie are signs that the picture ultimately serves a brand.” — Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter

“It’s a movie that sits at an interesting inflection point in moviemaking and movie consumption, when almost every idea seems born from a pre-existing product. While it’s easy to balk at — and believe me, I have; many, many times — the truth is, the tension between filmmaking and commerce has and always will be present in the work itself, be it a broad Hollywood blockbuster or the most idiosyncratic and Terrence Malick–y of endeavors. Something like Barbie lays that tension bare and exposed in its unabashed commercialism and heightened sensibilities, so that you can’t not think about how its aims may be at odds with its execution.” — Aisha Harris, NPR

“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.” Peter Debruge, Variety

“ Barbie , when it comes down to it, is a coming-of-age film. While Gerwig’s excitable direction and the film’s eye-popping set design easily distract from its central message, Barbie ’s sincerity shines through. Its message may be a bit simplistic and delivered in feminist platitudes, but like anything covered in glitter and jewels, it’s a bit easier to sell. Some may call Gerwig a sellout, but she’s the one who hid a moving, emotional journey of self-discovery inside a toy commercial.” — Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse

“ Barbie never descends into a cheap girls-versus-boys final showdown; it just reckons with the different ways self-image gets sold to us, the weary, willing consumer, even as the world grows savvier and more cynical. That it does so through bright musical numbers, acidic quips, and the right scoop of sentimentalism is all the more impressive.” — David Sims, The Atlantic

“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.” — Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

“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.”  — Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post

“Opuses can and will be written about Sarah Greenwood’s production design and Jacqueline Durran’s costumes. Barbie is a lovingly crafted blockbuster with a lot on its mind, the kind of feature that will surely benefit from repeat viewings (there is so much to see, so many jokes to catch) and is still purely entertaining even in a single watch.” — Kate Erbland, IndieWire

“The movie is at its best when it’s simply leaning into its own fast, funny, free-floating goofiness, whether it’s letting Kate McKinnon do her thing as a self-explanatory Weird Barbie, pitting multiple dancing Kens against each other in a hypnotic dream ballet, or throwing in a coconutty reference to Monty Python and the Holy Grail . I could’ve done without the filler-ish comic subplot featuring Will Ferrell as Mattel’s CEO, a mostly toothless bit of corporate ribbing that nonetheless does lead to a visually striking chase sequence through a maze of office cubicles, cleverly staged as a riff on Jacques Tati’s classic Playtime .” — Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times

“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.” — Devan Coggan, Entertainment Weekly

• review roundup
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Barbie: Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling keep this film afloat

You won’t find a biting critique of Mattel in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, but the committed performances of its plastic, fantastic leads help sell the film’s kitschy self-mockery.

24 July 2023

By  Beatrice Loayza

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Any publicity is good publicity and hearty discourse is one of the cheapest kinds. Has Greta Gerwig sold out? Yes – if you think that making a movie about a multinational toy manufacturer’s iconic product, a movie funded and endorsed by that corporate overlord, is ‘selling out’. That doesn’t disturb me because I’ve never considered Greta Gerwig an anti-commercial artist. With Lady Bird (2017), Little Women (2019) and her projects with Noah Baumbach, Gerwig has proven herself a clever, sometimes adventurous writer uniquely attuned to a big chunk of her generation’s quirks and hang-ups. As a director, she has injected millennial nostalgia and puckish, referential humour into mainstream narratives that rely on coming-of-age pathos and last-act catharsis. Her viewpoint is unabashedly that of a university-educated white woman who embraces her femininity and her love of pastels. Her choices of subject-matter don’t clash with that, including Barbie . To love the doll, to still feel for her as a symbol of childhood, however fraught, is to be at ease with her limitations. 

The film wields its politics explicitly, using rudimentary ideas about the performance of gender, gender inequality and consumerism to fuel the plot and inform its comic beats. It’s a Neverland story put through a screaming-pink feminist filter, updated for a world in which all characters are IP . 

Playing with dolls used to be a kind of initiation into motherhood and domesticity until Barbie came along with her fabulous sex appeal and wardrobe. At the start of the film we see scrappy little girls, staged like the apes at the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey , encountering Barbie-as-monolith – a symbol of mid-century sexual emancipation, a vessel for the liberated women’s dreams of self-actualisation. She’s also plastic, which Gerwig calls attention to in Barbieland, where the Barbies feed on air and have high-powered jobs (surgeon, novelist, president) that involve no actual labour or skill. Life is utopian until Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) starts thinking about death, which throws a wrench into her endless cycle of perfect days. 

In typical kids-movie fashion, the naive Barbie – like an elf from the North Pole – enters the real world and consorts with bewildered humans, realising in the process that the Barbies’ magical girl-powers have no bearing on contemporary life. In place of the cynical non-believer too ‘mature’ for Santa, there’s a moody teenager, Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt), who rips Barbie to shreds for her phoney feminism (though she, along with her mom, will eventually be sucked into Barbie’s adventures). Conflict comes courtesy of the guys: Ken (a deliciously stupid Ryan Gosling) discovers the concept of patriarchy in the real world, which he uses to rule over Barbieland. Mattel’s leaders turn out to be a team of brainless men in suits, an all-too-expected twist that recalls The Wizard of Oz , another film that indulges our need for escapism while underscoring its shortcomings. 

The comedy is part nudge-nudge self-mockery (did you know this is a movie about a doll?), part poking fun at idiot men, albeit lovingly. Of course, there is no biting critique of Mattel. Many critics confuse sustained self-referential teasing with a mission to stick it to the man: consider the possibility that a real critique was never on the agenda. The Kens serenade the Barbies with an acoustic rendition of Matchbox Twenty’s ‘Push’, mansplain the Godfather movies, and behave like the characters in Zoolander (2001) – add Will Ferrell, with his screaming-infant shtick, as the head of Mattel, and you get a hodgepodge of gags meant for people of a certain age. Some land, some fall flat, but the film’s snappy tempo, its willingness to dip into pointlessly spectacular asides – a disco dance party here, a beach-side Battle of the Kens there – keeps things shiny and fun. Invoking a modish aesthetic spiked with Tupperware artifice, the film abounds in kitschy rear-projection screens and plastic waves. Spurts of animation give a gonzo effect to scenes of physical comedy. Even when the script winks too much, or when the girl-bossing grates too hard (America Ferrera’s hackneyed monologue about gender double standards is painful for a cynic like me), Robbie and Gosling’s committed performances keep the film afloat. Theirs are faces that might’ve worked in the silent era: Robbie, the ingénue; Gosling, the tramp. 

Barbie ’s triumphs are relative. That Gerwig managed to impress her personality on the material in evident ways, that the film exhibits a level of visual originality that feeds into its postmodern games, shouldn’t feel so exceptional. In today’s blockbuster landscape, it is.

 ► Barbie  is in UK cinemas now. 

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24 August 2023 3:48 PM

‘Barbie’ is headed to IMAX with new post-credits footage

Director greta gerwig called it a 'thrill' to bring the hit film to the 'biggest screen of all'.

By Emily Zemler

Hi, new  Barbie  footage.  Greta Gerwig ’s blockbuster hit is heading to  IMAX  for a limited one-week engagement beginning on Sept. 22 and the release will include bonus scenes after the credits.

“We made  Barbie  for the big screen, so it’s a thrill to be able to bring it to IMAX, the biggest screen of all,” Gerwig said in a statement. “As a special thanks to  Barbie  fans, we’re excited to share a little bit more of our cast and crew’s incredible work by adding special new footage we hope audiences will enjoy.”

Jeff Goldstein, president of domestic distribution at Warner Bros, and Andrew Cripps, president of international distribution, added, “If there was one thing missing in this winning  Barbie  strategy, it was being able to put Greta’s singular vision on premium IMAX screens over the uber-competitive summer corridor. That  Barbie  continues to draw packed audiences around the world heading into its sixth weekend in release speaks to the quality of the film and the excitement audiences have for the story. We are so pleased to give them a chance to see  Barbie , whether for the first or fifth time, in such an experiential format as IMAX.”

Since its release in July,  Barbie  has overtaken the box office, earning more than $1 billion worldwide.  Rolling Stone   called the film  the “most subversive blockbuster of the 21st century to date.” “A big movie can still have big ideas in 2023,” David Fear wrote in his review. “Even a  Barbie  movie. Especially a  Barbie  movie.”

The film has spawned numerous hit songs, including Ryan Gosling’s ‘I’m Just Ken’,  a heartfelt ballad that recently got a hilarious behind the scenes video. Last week, Charli XCX released a  music video  for her  Barbie  soundtrack  song,  ‘Speed Drive.’

Ahead of  Barbie ‘s release, Gerwig  spoke to  Rolling Stone  about the inspirations for the film, saying she was grateful to get to see her vision through.

“The movie in its conception and even from the script stage was always a wild ride,” Gerwig said. “But I think that in the execution of it and the directing of it, it allowed me to go even farther, and to make it even more like a candy-colored explosion of things that people didn’t necessarily think would be the  Barbie  movie. But, yeah, I can’t account for it. But I’m thrilled to bits that they let me do it this way.”

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Chris pine’s ‘poolman’, jamie foxx plays god, eric bana’s aussie cop is back & ‘i saw the tv glow’ expands – specialty preview, breaking news.

‘Barbie’ Struts To No. 2 In Deadline’s 2023 Most Valuable Blockbuster Tournament

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Barbie Warner Bros

The road to riches for a live-action Barbie movie was long. The most recent ramp-up had come in 2009, when Universal and Greatest Showman producer Laurence Mark became attached. Then the project segued to Sony with Laurie MacDonald and Walter F. Parkes attached as producers, and at varying points Anne Hathaway and Amy Schumer were in the lead role. Schumer would vacate due to creative differences; ironically, the conceit of that version, then penned by Hilary Winston and Kim Caramele, was similar to what became Barbie ‘s eventual plot: a fish-out-of-water story whereby Barbie, a denizen of Barbieland, is kicked out, basically because she’s not perfect enough, a bit eccentric and doesn’t quite fit the mold. She goes on an adventure in the real world, and by the time she returns to save Barbieland, she has gained the realization that perfection comes on the inside, not the outside, and that the key to happiness is the belief in oneself, free of the obligation to adhere to some unattainable standard of perfection.

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The box score, the bottom line.

Not counted here in revenues are consumer sales, toy goods weren’t contingent on Warner Bros’ greenlight (a very different situation from PAW Patrol 2 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem ). Alas, per inside sources, the total impact from Mattel’s direct movie participation, movie-related toy sales and consumer products yielded more than $150M in sales last year. A comp toward $175M global P&A were 165 promo partnerships for Barbie  from Crocs to Cold Stone ice cream. However, Barbie also ran a competitive awards and Oscar campaign, resulting in eight Academy Awards noms including Best Picture, with a win for the Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell original song “What Was I Made For?” That $200M for Television and Streaming includes the money Warner Bros paid itself to put the movie on streaming service Max. The $175M in participations includes $60M for Robbie, $40M for Gosling, as well as monies to Mattel, Gerwig, producer David Heyman and Robbie’s LuckyChap. Let’s also not forget about the 1M-plus stateside selling Barbie soundtrack, which featured a big hit from Dua Lipa in “Dance the Night”). The album won the Grammy for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media, and “What Was I Made For?” took Song of the Year and Best Song Written for Visual Media. Barbie ascended to become the highest-grossing movie in Warner Bros history with $1.44 billion, overtaking longtime champ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 ($1.35B). With almost a half-billion in profit here, Barbie was more than dazzling for the Zaslav-run studio.

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‘This Life of Mine’ Review: Sophie Fillières’ Posthumous Directors’ Fortnight Opener Is as Personal as Cinema Gets

Christian blauvelt.

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Few filmmakers working in comedy have ever been quite as subtle, quite as attuned to quiet cadences as Sophie Fillières. Little known in the U.S. but revered in her native France as a true heir to the French New Wave tradition of trying to look at life in a wholly original way, Fillières made her name in films such as “Oublie-moi” and “If You Don’t, I Will” that earned recognition from the festivals in Thessaloniki and Sarasota , respectively.

The film she’s left behind, though, is as personal a legacy as one could imagine; if, sadly, an incomplete one. If “This Life of Mine” feels imbued with Fillières in every frame — lead actress Agnès Jaoui is such a stand-in for her that she even wore Fillières’ clothes and jewelry in the film — it feels less like Fillières’ film in its editing, which was supervised by the director’s children after her death. Fillières was a lifelong devotee of poetry, and though she’d probably be touched by her children’s effort, she’d recognize herself that the words are there, but the meter is off.

Jaoui plays Barberie Bichette, known to her friends as Barbie. She’s 55 and at a crossroads. Her children are grown, she’s separated from her unseen husband, and her job is far from enriching (she leaves her colleagues in a huff after hastily writing a poem on an easel as her parting note). “This Life of Mine” opens on her staring at her computer screen trying to write her memoir and fussing instead over which font to use — while a pair of eyeglasses with one side broken off hangs on her nose. What unfolds is the slowest-motion midlife crisis imaginable, as an accumulation of minor annoyances snowball to ultimately send her to a sanitarium and then on a cockeyed journey across the Channel to England and Scotland.

“This Life of Mine” certainly captures that liminal state between our internal and external lives, the sheer amount of time we spend existing in our own heads, going over the same details again and again, lost in thought until the world beyond us can nearly fade. It also captures that much of lived experience is boring, full of waiting and awkwardness and unfulfillment. Barbie’s attempt at joking with a younger man coming out of a public toilet about whether he flushed or not backfires spectacularly. She spends her time in the sanitarium taking apart a light fixture. This is a cinema of emptiness. While so many movies emphasize over and over again how bombarded we are with our phones and work and relationships in an ever faster-paced 21st century, “This Life of Mine” shows how, for all of that, not much may happen of real consequence.

But it’s the form of “This Life of Mine” that is lacking, if not the content. The end result feels like an assembly cut more than a final edit, because we’ll never know if it’s the way that Fillières would have wanted it edited. There’s a particular feeling of one thing happening and then another and another without a particular flow. In a way, that’s like life. But for a cinematic poet like Fillières — and especially with her choice to avoid a score and have her camera be as unnoticeable as possible, the edit really then is essential — turning mere observation into verse means finding even more than just the stuff of life. Or death.

“This Life of Mine” premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.

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TVLine Items: MTV Movie & TV Awards on Hiatus, Lacey Chabert’s Netflix Rom-Com and More

Vlada gelman, west coast editor.

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There will be one less kudosfest this year: The MTV Movie & TV Awards will not take place in 2024.

Per Billboard.com , the show has been put “on pause,” but “will return with a reimagined format in 2025,” according to a spokesperson.

Ready for some more recent newsy nuggets? Well …

* Hallmark Channel leading lady Lacey Chabert will moonlight in the Netflix holiday rom-com Hot Frosty , about a woman who magically brings a handsome snowman to life two years after the loss of her husband, our sister site Deadline reports. The cast also includes Dustin Milligan ( Schitt’s Creek ), Craig Robinson ( The Office ), Joe Lo Truglio ( Brooklyn Nine-Nine ), Katy Mixon ( Mike & Molly ), Lauren Holly (F amily Law ) and Chrishell Stause ( Selling Sunset ).

* Anthony Anderson ( black-ish ), Taye Diggs ( All American ), Chris Jones (Kansas City Chiefs), Tyler Posey ( Teen Wolf ), Bruno Tonioli ( Dancing With the Stars ) and James Van Der Beek ( Dawson’s Creek ) will headline Fox’s The Real Full Monty , a two-hour special airing this fall in which the celebs bare all to raise awareness for prostate, testicular and colorectal cancer testing and research.

* Paramount+ has unveiled a trailer for Pyramid Game , a South Korean psychological thriller series debuting with all 10 episodes on Thursday, May 30:

* Paramount+ has released a trailer for Transformers: EarthSpark Season 2, premiering with its first nine episodes on Friday, June 7:

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Wait! What? The Real Full Monty? Hmmmm

It’s something that has been being done here in the UK every year since 2017. Even here where we have shows like Naked Attraction that will openly show full frontal nudity on a free to air channel, this is staged managed so much you generally wouldn’t really know if they were fully striping off or not so its not as risqué as it seems although it does however go out live and there have been a few slips by the celebs but with the way US TV is I expect that Fox will record it and even the hint of nudity will get blurred

shame about the MTV Screen awards, Barbie could have cleaned up there

MTV might not even have the same owner come around this time next year. Can you say, Budget cuts? Call it what it is. lol

I am surprised to see Lacey Chabert is doing a movie for Netflix.

Oh no! One less awards show this year????? One less excuse for actors to pat each other on the back.

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Cannes Film Festival Opens With Storm Clouds, Meryl Streep and Messi the Dog

Who let the dog out?

The Cannes Film Festival red carpet is notoriously strict about its black-tie dress code (one man in a blue tuxedo who committed the fashion travesty of wearing white socks was almost turned away). But on Tuesday night, France welcomed a national hero to the opening night of the 77th edition — Messi , the four-legged scene-stealer from   last year’s Palme d’Or winner   “Anatomy of a Fall.”

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But the gloomy skies mirrored the film business’s state of mind as the most famous celebration of cinema begins its 11-day marathon of premieres, promotional activities and parties. Hollywood studios are still reeling from the actors and writers strikes that ground production to a halt for much of the last year, to say nothing of the aftershocks from COVID, which has depleted the box office. At the same time, the streaming services that many of these companies launched during the pandemic have failed to turn significant profits, prompting waves of cutbacks and economizing that fly in the face of Cannes’ free-spending spirit.

And yet, major studios are still expected to have a presence, even if some of their executives may be asked to fly coach when they journey to the South of France. “Furiosa,” George Miller’s “Mad Max” spinoff, will premiere on Wednesday, eight years after “Fury Road” took Cannes by storm. There’s also Kevin Costner’s sprawling Western epic “Horizon,” along with “Kinds of Kindness,” an anthology film from Oscar-nominated “Poor Things” director Yorgos Lanthimos.

But the star of the night was unquestionably Meryl Streep , on hand to receive an honorary Palme d’Or. The Oscar winner, decked out in an ivory dress, ascended the steps of the theater to the pulsating beat of “Mamma Mia!,” a nod to one of her most popular films. Taking the stage to receive her honor, Streep was greeted with a two-minute standing ovation . Addressing the crowd, Streep grew misty, remembering some words from her mother: “Darling, you’ll see, it all goes so fast.” 

Before “The Second Act” unspooled, Cannes presented its jury, which includes Sy, Gladstone, Nadine Labaki, Ebru Ceylan, Hirokazu Kore-eda, J. A. Bayona and Gerwig. The “Barbie” filmmaker, who is serving as jury president, gave brief opening remarks, describing the festival as “a house of worship.”

“I love cinema, and this is holy to me,” Gerwig said. “Art is sacred and films are sacred and I cannot believe that I am getting the opportunity to spend the next 10 days in this house of worship.” She later sang along as Zaho de Sagazan serenaded her with a spirited cover of David Bowie’s “Modern Love,” a nod to Gerwig’s memorable dance number in “Frances Ha.”

Inside the mood was carefree, but this year’s Cannes is expected to be politically charged, unfolding during a time of turmoil in Gaza and Ukraine. The city has banned protests along the Croisette, Cannes’ central hub, and the festival’s immediate surroundings, but given the intensity of the demonstrations that are taking place in response to the situation in the Middle East, it will be difficult for the celebration of film to ignore the Israeli-Hamas conflict.

Despite the increasingly troubled state of the world, the crowd of onlookers outside of the opening night ceremony was more subdued than the one that flanked the 2023 kick-off, which saw protests over the decision to feature “Jeanne du Barry” after Depp was accused of abuse by ex-wife Amber Heard. Depp denied the allegations and won a defamation suit in the U.S. against Heard, but the actor’s Hollywood career has yet to recover from the controversy.

Emmanuelle Boyer, who lives in Cannes half the year and comes to the opening night festivities every year as an onlooker, described this year’s vibe as less energetic. “Maybe it’s the weather tonight, but last year seemed like there was more excitement,” she said.

Tatiana Siegel, Angelique Jackson and Matt Donnelly contributed to this report.

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Kendrick Lamar Rides a Rap Beef All the Way to No. 1

On the Billboard album chart, Dua Lipa’s heavily promoted “Radical Optimism” opened at No. 2, held off by the third week of Taylor Swift’s “Tortured Poets.”

By Ben Sisario

An old-fashioned rap war that unfolded online at lightning speed has sent Kendrick Lamar to No. 1 on Billboard’s latest singles chart, while Taylor Swift easily holds off a challenge from Dua Lipa’s new album.

Relations between Lamar and Drake, two hip-hop giants and longtime rivals, exploded into a public war of words in recent weeks, in the form of a rapid-fire sequence of diss tracks packed with insults and unsavory (and unproven) accusations. Lamar seemed to get the last word with “Not Like Us,” released May 4, which becomes his fourth No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart. That total counts collaborative releases — among them “Like That,” a track in March with the Atlanta rapper Future and the producer Metro Boomin, which kicked off the latest volley.

Consumption of “Not Like Us” was driven by streaming, with 71 million clicks in the United States last week. Another Lamar diss track, “Euphoria,” which came out the week before, is No. 3 on the latest singles chart, while Drake’s “Family Matters” is No. 7.

For this week’s Billboard 200 album chart, Lipa seemed to enter the contest with some advantages for “Radical Optimism,” her third studio LP. To promote it, she went on “Saturday Night Live” as both performer and host , and was on the cover of Time and Elle . Earlier this year, she had prominent performances at the Grammy and Brit award shows, and appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone.

But “ Radical Optimism ” was still trounced by the third week of Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department,” which holds at No. 1 with a wide margin.

“Tortured Poets” had the equivalent of 282,000 album sales in the United States, including 298 million streams and 51,000 traditional sales, according to the tracking service Luminate. In its first three weeks out, “Tortured Poets” — which smashed records in its debut two weeks ago, despite mixed reviews — has racked up the equivalent of 3.3 million sales, including 1.6 billion streams for its 31 total tracks in the U.S. alone.

“Radical Optimism,” Lipa’s first LP since “Future Nostalgia” four years ago, which had ubiquitous dance-pop hits like “Don’t Start Now” and “Levitating” — and since Lipa’s hit “Dance the Night” from the “Barbie” soundtrack — had the equivalent of 83,000 sales and opened at No. 2, Lipa’s highest-ever chart position.

But the overall numbers for “Radical Optimism” were surprisingly low for a heavily promoted project by a major act. In its first week, the LP had 51,500 traditional sales — among them for 20 configurations on physical media, including 11 colored vinyl variants — and a very modest streaming take of about 40 million clicks. The chart performance of the album’s first two singles were indicators: “Houdini” went to No. 11, while “Training Season” stalled at No. 27.

Also this week, Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time” is No. 3 and Future and Metro Boomin’s “We Don’t Trust You” is No. 4. The K-pop ensemble Seventeen opens at No. 5 with a hits compilation, “17 Is Right Here.”

Ben Sisario covers the music industry. He has been writing for The Times since 1998. More about Ben Sisario

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