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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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Movie Reviews

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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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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

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

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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 Reviews Have Arrived - Here's What Rotten Tomatoes Critics Are Saying

Sound the alarms, the reviews for "Barbie" are out, and it's a certified bop. 

Audiences have been fascinated with Greta Gerwig's take on "Barbie" since the first teaser debuted late last year. From its star-studded cast to its arresting and very pink visuals, "Barbie" has become a sort of cultural phenomenon, even before its release, thanks in part to its viral marketing campaign. Recent weeks have also seen the rise of "Barbenheimer," a friendly sort of rivalry the film has with Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" — both projects are set to debut on the same day.

For Gerwig, it was important to inspect the mythology of Barbie from all angles, giving audiences a nuanced and self-aware take on the iconic doll. "One thing we really wanted to do was look at this complicated icon from all angles, but always approach everything with a big heart," the director told USA Today . Fans around the world are clearly interested in Gerwig's irreverent take on the doll, with early tracking from Variety suggesting that the Warner Bros. film could debut to over $100M domestically.

Luckily, audiences won't be showing up to their "Barbie" Blowout Parties to watch a dud, as the film is receiving extremely positive reviews across the board.  Looper critic Dominic Griffin has nothing but positive things to say about the film, dubbing it a "genre-blending, tonally audacious film that wrestles with the patriarchy and capitalism under the guise of a movie." IndieWire critic Kate Erbland was equally enthusiastic about Greta Gerwig's film, saying, "'Barbie' is a lovingly crafted blockbuster with a lot on its mind, the kind of feature that will surely benefit from repeat viewings ..."

Looks like we have a winner. 

The Barbie movie is surprisingly existential

If reviews are anything to go by, Warner Bros. Discovery might just have the biggest hit of the summer on its hands. While "Barbie" is set to open big, thanks in part to stellar pre-sales, these positive reviews confirm that the film is more than just hype. With positive word of mouth, "Barbie" could become one of the summer's biggest domestic hits, grossing north of $220M. And while the trailers show "Barbie" as a delightful summer romp perfect for the family, many critics are surprised by how existential the film is. 

/Film writer BJ Colangelo has boldly labeled "Barbie" one of the best films of the year, particularly praising director Greta Gerwig for asking big questions. "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," Colangelo wrote in a 9/10 review.  Insider critic Kirsten Acuna was also equally enthusiastic about Gerwig's epic, comparing it to a live-action "Toy Story" that sends "viewers on an emotional rollercoaster as it delivers pure joy one moment before serving up nostalgia the next." Acuna also pointed out how existential and impactful the film is, saying, Barbie "grapples with the purpose of her existence, and what to do if she's not making the world a better place and is instead causing girls to internalize unrealistic beauty standards." 

While many praised "Barbie" for investigating the character's legacy, some critics weren't super impressed by the film's choices. "Barbie probably is a feminist movie, but only in the most scattershot way," says Time film critic Stephanie Zacharek. Luckily, it seems like most critics can agree on one thing: the film's powerful performances. 

Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling knock it out of the park as Barbie and Ken

As of this writing, "Barbie" boasts a 93% score on Rotten Tomatoes . While that number will likely change, one thing won't: the love critics have for Margot Robbie. The Australian star is receiving universal acclaim for her turn as the iconic doll. IGN writer Alyssa Mora says Robbie was born to play the character, writing, "There's no doubt that Robbie deserves award attention for the awe-inspiring balancing act she nails as the film's veneer of silliness peels back to reveal something much deeper." 

The Wrap writer Tomris Laffly particularly called out Robbie's (and Ryan Gosling's) facial expressions as the dolls, saying, "It can't be overstated how far both Robbie and Gosling push their facial muscles and star power to chart their respective dolls' real-world awakening, in ways both laugh-out-loud funny and heartbreaking." Robbie isn't the only one receiving applause for her role, with many writers, like EW 's Devan Coggan saying that Gosling "steals the show." Tall words! Mike Ryan of Uproxx was equally enthusiastic, calling Gosling a delight as Ken. There's also overwhelming praise for Greta Gerwig, the captain of the "Barbie" ship. "Greta Gerwig delivers a new kind of ambitious and giddily entertaining blockbuster that boasts two definitive performances from actors already in their stride," boldly writes Empire 's Beth Webb. "Life after 'Barbie' will simply never be the same again." 

"Barbie" hits cinemas on July 21. 

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Barbie and Ken are having the time of their lives in the colorful and seemingly perfect world of Barbie Land. However, when they get a chance to go to the real world, they soon discover the ... Read all Barbie and Ken are having the time of their lives in the colorful and seemingly perfect world of Barbie Land. However, when they get a chance to go to the real world, they soon discover the joys and perils of living among humans. Barbie and Ken are having the time of their lives in the colorful and seemingly perfect world of Barbie Land. However, when they get a chance to go to the real world, they soon discover the joys and perils of living among humans.

• Greta Gerwig
• Noah Baumbach
• Margot Robbie
• Ryan Gosling
• 1.7K User reviews
• 447 Critic reviews
• 80 Metascore
• 191 wins & 422 nominations total

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Barbie is 23% larger than everything in Barbieland to mimic the awkward, disproportionate scale that real Barbies and Barbie activity sets are produced in. This is why Barbie sometimes appears too large for things like her car or why ceilings seem to be too low in the Dreamhouses.
• Goofs Gloria drives a Chevrolet Blazer SS EV, yet during the car chase scene her electric vehicle makes conventional gas engine acceleration noises.

Ken : To be honest, when I found out the patriarchy wasn't just about horses, I lost interest.

• Crazy credits All the actors playing Barbies and Kens are not indicative of which Barbie and Ken they portray, and are simply listed as playing "Barbie" and "Ken", with the exception. (Just for clarification's sake, Margot Robbie plays "Stereotypical Barbie", Kate McKinnon plays "Weird Barbie", Issa Rae plays "President Barbie", Hari Nef plays "Dr. Barbie", Alexandra Shipp plays "Writer Barbie", Emma Mackey plays "Physicist Barbie", Sharon Rooney plays "Lawyer Barbie", Ana Cruz Kayne plays "Judge Barbie", Dua Lipa plays all the "Mermaid Barbies", Nicola Coughlan plays "Diplomat Barbie", and Ritu Arya plays "Journalist Barbie".)
• Alternate versions The IMAX version, released on September 22, 2023, has an extended runtime of two hours.
• Connections Edited from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
• Soundtracks Requiem (1963/65): 2. Kyrie Written by György Ligeti Performed by Bavarian Radio Orchestra (as Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks), Francis Travis Courtesy of Deutsche Grammophon GmbH Under licence from Universal Music Operations Ltd

User reviews 1.7K

• Jul 19, 2023

Incredible Looks From the 'Barbie' Press Tour

• How long is Barbie? Powered by Alexa
• July 21, 2023 (United States)
• United States
• United Kingdom
• Official Instagram
• Official Site
• Venice Beach, Venice, Los Angeles, California, USA
• Warner Bros.
• Heyday Films
• LuckyChap Entertainment
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $100,000,000 (estimated)
• $636,238,421
• $162,022,044
• Jul 23, 2023
• $1,445,638,421

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 54 minutes
• Dolby Digital
• IMAX 6-Track
• 12-Track Digital Sound
• D-Cinema 96kHz 7.1
• Dolby Atmos

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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.

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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”.

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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

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• <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.

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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.

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It’s Hollywood Barbie’s Moment (and She’s Bringing Her Friends)

Margot Robbie as Barbie, Daniel Kaluuya reimagining Barney, plots based on Uno and View-Master: Mattel, in the throes of a financial comeback, has 13 films in the works.

By Brooks Barnes

For 62 years, Barbie has been the hardest-working woman in the toy aisle, using a dizzying array of outfits and accessories — and, lately, changing body shapes and skin tones — while gliding from one career to the next. Astrophysicist Barbie. Ballerina Barbie. Chicken Farmer Barbie. Firefighter Barbie.

But she has never pulled off the ultimate transformation: Barbie, live-action movie star.

Time and again, her corporate overlords at Mattel have teamed with Hollywood studios to make a big-budget film in hopes of forging a new revenue stream while giving Barbie new relevance. Time and again, nothing has emerged, in part because Mattel has tried to micromanage the creative process, alienating filmmakers. (You want Barbie to do what ?) Financial turbulence and executive turnover at Mattel haven’t helped.

A similar situation has played out with other Mattel brands, including Hot Wheels , American Girl and Masters of the Universe — a humiliation given the success that other toy companies have had in Hollywood, which loves nothing more than a movie concept with a built-in fan base.

The inventive “Lego Movie” took in nearly $500 million at the global box office in 2014 for Warner Bros. and the Lego Group, resulting in a sequel and two spinoffs . Paramount Pictures and Hasbro have turned the Transformers action-figure line into a $5 billion big-screen franchise over the last 14 years; a seventh installment is on the way and will undoubtedly deliver the same halo for Hasbro as the previous films, driving up the company’s stock price and turbocharging demand for Transformers toys.

With money like that on the line, Mattel has clung to its Hollywood dream. “There is ‘Fast and Furious 9’ and Hot Wheels zero,” said Ynon Kreiz, Mattel’s newish chief executive, referring to Universal’s hot-rod film franchise , which has taken in $6.3 billion worldwide since 2001. “That is going to change.”

There are signals — 13 of them — that Mattel is not playing around this time.

Under Mr. Kreiz, who has overseen a stunning financial turnaround at the company since becoming its fourth chief executive in four years in 2018, Mattel has moved to turn its toys into full-fledged entertainment brands. It now has 13 films in the works with various studio partners, including “Barbie,” a live-action adventure starring Margot Robbie (“I, Tonya”) and directed by the Oscar-nominated Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird”). Ms. Robbie, who is also one of the producers, described the big-budget film in an email as being “for both the fans and the skeptics,” a theatrical endeavor that will be “really entertaining but also completely surprising.”

The script, by Ms. Gerwig and Noah Baumbach (“Marriage Story”), even pokes fun at Barbie and Ken, her plastic paramour.

As in, what happened to their genitals?

“I’m excited about this movie because it’s emotional and touches your heart and honors the legacy while reflecting our current society and culture — and doesn’t feel designed to sell toys,” said Toby Emmerich, chairman of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group, where “Barbie” is pointed toward a 2023 theatrical release.

The dozen other films in Mattel’s pipeline include a live-action Hot Wheels spectacle; a horror film based on the fortunetelling Magic 8 Ball ; a wide-audience Thomas the Tank Engine movie that combines animation and live action; and, in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment, a big-screen Masters of the Universe adventure about the cosmos that includes He-Man and his superheroic sister, She-Ra.

Mattel, Universal and Vin Diesel are collaborating on a live-action movie based on Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots , a tabletop game introduced in 1966. Lena Dunham (HBO’s “Girls”) is directing and writing a live-action family comedy based on Mattel’s Polly Pocket line of micro-dolls. Lily Collins (“Emily in Paris”) will play the title role and produce; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is the distribution and financing partner.

“Young women need smart, playful films that speak to them without condescension,” Ms. Dunham said.

Mattel has also announced movies based on View-Master , American Girl and Uno , the ubiquitous card game. (If you think an Uno movie sounds like a satirical headline from The Onion, consider this: There are non-Mattel movies in development in Hollywood that are based on Play-Doh and Peeps, the Easter candy .)

All or some or none of Mattel’s movie projects could connect with audiences — if they come to fruition at all. That is the nature of the Hollywood casino.

“Familiarity with a toy or character is a start, but no movie makes it without clever character and story development,” said David A. Gross, who runs Franchise Entertainment Research, a movie consultancy.

Toys have a surprisingly strong track record as film fodder. Other hits include the 2016 animated musical “Trolls,” based on the wild-haired dolls, and “Ouija,” which cost $5 million to make in 2014 and collected $104 million worldwide. (Pixar did not base “Toy Story” on a toy, but it has populated the franchise with classics, including Barbie .) But the genre has also had wipeouts, notably “ Battleship ,” which Universal and Hasbro based on the board game and cost more than $300 million to make and market. It arrived to $25 million in North American ticket sales in 2012.

“UglyDolls,” adapted from a line of plush toys, was a smaller-scale box office disaster for STX Films in 2019. Mattel itself got bruised in 2016 when “Max Steel,” a modestly budgeted film based on an action figure, arrived to near-empty theaters. It received a zero percent positive score on Rotten Tomatoes, the review-aggregation site.

“Unless you can make something that feels really sticky and really interesting and really authentic, there’s no point in doing it,” said Robbie Brenner, who heads Mattel Films, which was created in 2018. (Mattel’s previous movie division, Playground Productions , was started in 2013 and folded in 2016.)

Ms. Brenner said she had approached all of Mattel’s properties with the same question: “How do we flip it on its side a little bit while still respecting the integrity of the brand?”

Mr. Kreiz said he was not interested in making thinly disguised toy commercials. In a shift from the Mattel of the past, “we want to give our filmmaking partners creative freedom and enable them to do things that are unconventional and exciting,” he said. “Focus on making great content and the rest will follow.”

He added, however, that Mattel did not “sign a deal and disappear.”

The message appears to be resonating in Hollywood, allowing Mattel to attract A-plus talent. The “Barbie” team is one example. Tom Hanks has agreed to star in and produce an adaptation of Major Matt Mason, an astronaut action figure introduced by Mattel in 1966; Akiva Goldsman, the Oscar-winning writer of “A Beautiful Mind,” is working on the screenplay. Marc Forster (“World War Z”) is directing and producing that “Thomas & Friends” movie. And Daniel Kaluuya , who won an Oscar in April for his role in “Judas and the Black Messiah,” is involved with a Mattel film project based on Barney, the interminably perky purple dinosaur.

Even Ms. Brenner has a sophisticated film pedigree. She produced the AIDS-medication drama “Dallas Buyers Club,” which received six Oscar nominations in 2014, including one for best picture. (It won three: actor, supporting actor, and makeup and hairstyling.) Before that, she was a senior executive at 20th Century Fox and Miramax.

Mattel’s momentum in Hollywood has resulted, in part, from a turnaround at the company as a whole. Mattel has fixed many of its core problems, making it less risk averse, according to Richard Dickson, Mattel’s president and chief operating officer.

“Five years ago, the foundations that our brands were sitting on were not strong enough,” Mr. Dickson said.

When Mr. Kreiz arrived in April 2018, the toymaker was reeling from gut punches, some self-inflicted. It had lost Disney’s lucrative princesses toy license to Hasbro. A crucial retail partner, Toys “R” Us, had evaporated in a cloud of bankruptcy . Millennial parents had turned on Barbie, dismissing her as vapid and noninclusive. And some of Mattel’s other stars — American Girl, the glam Monster High crew — were adrift, unsure of how to compete for the attention of a generation of iPad-wielding children.

Total revenue plunged to $4.5 billion in 2018, from $6.5 billion in 2013, and a profit of more than $900 million in 2013 became a loss of $533 million.

Mr. Kreiz stabilized Mattel by restructuring its supply chain and reducing costs by $1 billion over three years, in part by closing factories and laying off more than 2,000 nonmanufacturing employees. At the same time, a long-gestating modernization plan for Barbie began to pay off in a major way. She now comes with roughly 150 different body shapes, skin tones and hairstyles; Wheelchair Barbie was such a runaway success last year that Wheelchair Ken recently arrived.

In 2020, with parents looking for ways to entertain children at home during the pandemic, Mattel sold more than 100 Barbie dolls a minute, Mr. Dickson said. (Juli Lennett, toy industry adviser for NPD Group, backed him up.)

Revenue totaled $4.6 billion last year, and Mattel posted a profit of $127 million. In the first quarter of 2021, sales increased 47 percent from a year earlier, the company’s highest growth rate in at least 25 years. Mattel’s stock price has climbed 52 percent since Mr. Kreiz took over.

Mattel, based in El Segundo, Calif., is now turning to the next phase of Mr. Kreiz’s growth plan. With a vast catalog of intellectual property, Mattel wants to become more like Marvel, which started as a comics company and transformed into a Hollywood superpower.

“In the mid- to long term, we must become a player in film, television, digital gaming, live events, consumer products, music and digital media,” Mr. Kreiz said.

And by player he means player . Mattel has a long history in direct-to-DVD animated movies, for instance, but its television division, run by Fred Soulie, is working to capitalize on the streaming boom. The company has been making one or two Barbie cartoons for Netflix annually, an arrangement that is expected to continue. “ Masters of the Universe: Revelation ,” an animated series from the filmmaker Kevin Smith (“Clerks”), arrives on Netflix on July 23.

In total, Mr. Soulie has 18 shows in production, including a revamped “Thomas & Friends” and a new incarnation of “Monster High.” An additional 24 are in development.

“We’ve been planting a lot of seeds,” Mr. Soulie said, “and we’re about to see the results.”

Brooks Barnes is a media and entertainment reporter, covering all things Hollywood. He joined The Times in 2007 as a business reporter focused primarily on the Walt Disney Company. He previously worked for The Wall Street Journal. More about Brooks Barnes

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‘barbie’ vs ‘oppenheimer’: which movie got better reviews.

Here is what critics are saying about the movie showdown of the summer. Which half of "Barbenheimer" ended up on top?

By James Hibberd

James Hibberd

Writer-at-Large

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The reviews are in for the box office head-to-head showdown of the summer.

On Tuesday, the critic embargo lifted for Barbie . On Wednesday, reviews were posted for Oppenheimer .

Below is a round-up of some what’s being said by top critics about both films opening this week.

But first: Which has scored higher, on average?

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In terms of box office, their contest is not expected to be nearly as tight . Barbie is estimated to bring in $90 to $110 million across its opening weekend, while Oppenheimer (partly hindered by its three-hour running time) is expected to tally about $40 to $49 million.

Here’s some of the review highlights for Barbie :

The Hollywood Reporter : “Gerwig delights in the richness and weirdness of her material in this clever send-up of Barbie dolls and their fraught legacy. It’s impressive how much the director, known for her shrewd and narratively precise dramas, has fit into a corporate movie.  Barbie  is driven by jokes — sometimes laugh-out-loud, always chuckle-worthy — that poke light fun at Mattel, prod the ridiculousness of the doll’s lore and gesture at the contradictions of our sexist society. … However smartly done Gerwig’s Barbie is, an ominousness haunts the entire exercise. … The muddied politics and flat emotional landing of  Barbie  are signs that the picture ultimately serves a brand.”

BBC : “It’s not just a genuinely funny and warm-hearted live-action comedy — and there aren’t many of those around these days — but an art-house passion project so bold, inventive and politically charged that it is sure to be nominated for all sorts of awards. Barbie as a best picture nominee at the 2024 Oscars? I wouldn’t bet against it.”

L.A. Times : “Greta Gerwig’s Barbie , an exuberant, sometimes exhaustingly clever piece of Mattelian neorealism. … Whatever you think of Barbie , the mere existence of this smart, funny, conceptually playful, sartorially dazzling comic fantasy speaks to the irreverent wit and meta-critical sensibility of its director. … Gerwig has conceived Barbie as a bubble-gum emulsion of silliness and sophistication, a picture that both promotes and deconstructs its own brand. It doesn’t just mean to renew the endless ‘Barbie: good or bad?’ debate. It wants to  enact  that debate, to vigorously argue both positions for the better part of two fast-moving, furiously multitasking hours.”

And here are some of the major reviews for Oppenheimer :

The Hollywood Reporter : “Both a probing character study and a sweeping account of history, Christopher Nolan’s  Oppenheimer  is a brainy, brawny thriller about the man who led the Manhattan Project to build the bomb that ended World War II. To dispense with the inevitable weapon of mass destruction metaphors, it’s more slow-burn than explosive. But perhaps the most surprising element of this audacious epic is that the scramble for atomic armament ends up secondary to the scathing depiction of political gamesmanship, as one of the most brilliant scientific minds of the 20th century is vilified for voicing learned opinions that go against America’s arms-race thinking.”

AV Club : “ Oppenheimer  deserves the title of masterpiece. It’s Christopher Nolan’s best film so far, a step up to a new level for one of our finest filmmakers and a movie that burns itself into your brain. … It’s a remarkable exercise in narrative balance, and it’s made all the more impressive by the sheer mythic quality of the story of a man who took command of primal, incomprehensibly destructive forces, then spent the rest of his life collapsing under the weight of what he’d unleashed.”

The New York Times : “It’s a dense, event-filled story that Nolan — who’s long embraced the plasticity of the film medium — has given a complex structure, which he parcels into revealing sections. … The film’s virtuosity is evident in every frame, but this is virtuosity without self-aggrandizement. Big subjects can turn even well-intended filmmakers into show-offs, to the point that they upstage the history they seek to do justice to. Nolan avoids that trap by insistently putting Oppenheimer into a larger context, notably with the black-and-white portions.”

The Daily Beast : “ Oppenheimer —a film of endless contrasts and contradictions—is the fullest expression of the writer/director’s artistry to date. Propelled by the inexorable march of progress and imagination and electrified by the terrible thrill of theories, dreams and miracles realized in all their devastating glory, it’s a divided epic of awe and horror, fission and fusion. It’s simultaneously a unified portrait of a conflicted man and a singular achievement for Hollywood’s reigning blockbuster auteur. … There’s an embarrassment of riches to digest, savor and mull over in this saga, which touches upon the exhilaration of scientific discovery, the fear of inventing something over which the inventor has no control and the alarming consequences of paving a historic path, especially when it leads directly to Pandora’s Box.”

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REVIEW: Barbie is Campy, Colorful, and Delightfully Charming

Greta Gerwig's Barbie delivers on the sweetness, satire, and fun performances of its main cast as Mattel's beloved, yet controversial doll lineup.

When it comes to toys, few are more ubiquitous than Barbie . At the same time, there are few characters more polarizing than Barbie, whose "career" since 1959 remains something of a paradox. Her brand and doll lineup offers a massive resume of what young girls can aspire to be, from astronaut to doctor to engineer, even as these dolls set unrealistic beauty standards per packaged box. With so many Barbies to pick from, let alone animated movies, how does that legacy translate to live-action?

Greta Gerwig's Barbie adaptation recognizes this history and leans into Barbie's paradoxical nature for the sake of biting social satire. It's the live-action equivalent of The Lego Movie , blending a tale of fashion, heartfelt emotion, melodrama, womanhood, gender politics, consumerism, and dance party battles together with superbly hot pink results.

RELATED: Barbie Debuts Strong at Rotten Tomatoes With Early Reviews

Watching Barbie is like seeing a child's imagination come to life. The perfectly cast Margot Robbie is Stereotypical Barbie, your average blonde-haired, flawlessly-dressed bombshell who enjoys one day after the next in Barbieland, a quasi-fantasy realm where all Barbies and Kens co-exist together. Her life consists of dance parties, hanging out with fellow Barbies (played by Issa Rae, Alexandra Shipp, Hari Nef, and Emma Mackey, among many others) and relaxing on the beach, much to her Ken's --specifically Beach Ken, played by Ryan Gosling -- delight. There's also Ken's Ken friends (Ncuti Gatwa , Kingsley Ben-Adir, Scott Evans), Ken's rival (Simu Liu), and discontinued oddballs like Midge (Emerald Fennell) and Allan (Michael Cera), but nothing that risks deterring anyone's happiness. Life is simple, routine, and always fun.

Then Barbie begins undergoing things few Barbies experience. Thoughts of impending death, celluloid and even feet touching the ground without heels -- all of which point to a rupture between Barbieland and the real world (i.e. the place where regular humans play with their dolls). So, at the insistence of Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon, a Barbie used far too much that she's reduced to constant leg splits), Barbie travels to California to fix the problem, with Ken tagging along. Upon which the real and toy worlds collide, leading to some uproarious, if not weirdly insightful and profound, hijinks.

Much of Barbie' s humor comes from how its leads grapple with the contradictions of their IP's marketing and real-world impact. As the film's narrator (Helen Mirren) explains, most Barbies assume their creation solved all of humanity's problems involving gender equality and women in the workforce. Per their own taglines, Barbie can be anything, all the political and business jobs in Barbieland are female-led, while the Kens are just arm candy . Reality is much different, and visiting the Real World, Barbie must learn to be content with the catcalls, harassment, and unequal job opportunities women still face, which the story treats with a mix of verbal and metatextual gags. For Ken, it's a different story. Seeing a realm where men have power and versatile jobs gives him an amusingly basic -- albeit still sexist -- understanding of the Patriarchy, which plays into much of the second act's stakes. It also makes him feel valued, lending pathos to Gosling's "himbo" routine and what he desires outside of being Barbie's sentient accessory.

There's a lot more to Barbie , including Barbie's relationship with Mattel employee Gloria (America Ferrera) and her daughter Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt), the Mattel CEO (Will Ferrell) trying to capture her to avert a PR scandal, and a surprise character played by Rhea Perlman. These subplots are funny, even if the Mattel board's importance ends up feeling rather superfluous by the climax. They're mainly an excuse for this cast to have a blast playing walking, talking dolls. Robbie especially throws herself into the physical comedy of Barbie physics, from her morning Dreamhouse routine -- gliding from room to room, pouring/drinking non-existent milk -- to laying down the way you'd make a doll "move" by contorting their limbs. Logic deliberately makes no sense here. Traveling from Barbieland to California requires a vast assortment of licensed toy vehicles and, when one Mattel employee questions Barbieland's supernatural properties, the Board cuts off him off with a quick "Yes." They're fun gags that add to the movie's glittery adult comedy vibe all the same.

RELATED: How Barbenheimer Became the Blockbuster Event of the Year

What's more impressive is how Barbie works as meta-text. As a commentary on why Barbie means so much to people over the decades -- both for good and for ill -- and what she means now as both figure of consumerism and potential feminist icon. These topics are as much a part of the film's humor as its doll/clothing homages, but they also lend Barbie its emotional core. A core balanced out by stellar production design, costumes, and Gerwig's clever direction even when it gets serious and existential.

In the great cinema war between Oppenheimer and Barbie , Oppenheimer will probably capture the award circuit's heart, but Barbie seems destined to warrant more replay value. Like its plastic counterpart, the movie is many things, but above all, it knows how to be fun.

Barbie and Ken are having the time of their lives in the colorful and seemingly perfect world of Barbie Land. However, when they get a chance to go to the real world, they soon discover the joys and perils of living among humans.

Barbie is currently playing in theaters.

Barbie's Rotten Tomatoes Unverified Audience Score Begins to Rally Following Wave of Negative Review Bombing

Barbie's record-breaking second weekend on release has seen its negative review bombing countered by a new wave of positive scores.

• Barbie's approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes initially dropped to 71% due to review-bombing, but removing unverified reviews brings it to an impressive 89%.
• Despite the negative reviews, Barbie continues to perform well at the box office and is on track to become one of the biggest movies of the year.
• The film has faced criticism for its feminist stance and inclusivity, with some labeling it as "anti-men propaganda," but director Greta Gerwig invites viewers to let go of things that don't serve them.

Barbie suffered the now common bout of review-bombing from unverified Rotten Tomatoes audiences last week. This saw the film’s approval rating slump to 71% after riding high for its first several days on release. However, if the unverified reviews are removed, then the verified reviews fall pretty much in line with the approval rating of critics, currently sitting on an impressive 89%. Rotten Tomatoes has started splitting out verified and unverified reviews from audiences on some of the biggest releases to try and take away the power of the review bombing, whether for better or worse.

The dip in reviews, which were based on around 20,000 ratings logged at the time, clearly has not impacted the box office potential of the Greta Gerwig movie as it continues to bring in huge amounts around the world. Furthermore, it seems that more of those unverified reviews have started turning positive and pushed up the approval rating to 75% among them.

Barbie has subverted every expectation of what a movie about Mattel’s famous doll possibly could achieve and is fast on its way to becoming o ne of the biggest movies of the year after less than a week on release. Where it ends its run is yet to be seen, but if its hold over the box office continues as it has in the last few days, then it could well hit a billion within the next couple of weeks. While everyone waits to see whether Barbie can challenge The Super Mario Bros. Movie for the 2023 top spot, there are some who have not been as enamored with the film as others.

As with any movie that takes some kind of feminist stance, and is all-inclusive in the diversity stakes, Barbie has been hit with “woke” criticism from the right, and slammed as being “anti-men propaganda” by others. This is essentially the common thread among the large amount of 1-star reviews that have flooded in.

The harsh criticisms include, “I'm all for equality but this movie was not good. They made it sound like every man was a POS. It is a woken film!!!!! Had some of my fav actors in it and I will not watch another movie with them in it again. What a waste of money and time. Do not watch!!!” from one user. Another said, “Barbie proves just how important a good marketing team is. And by "good" I mean "deceptively misleading".” A third said, “If you're a man hater then this is the movie for you. What a waist[sic] of time to watch.”

Related: Barbie Box Office Batters Christopher Nolan Again By Beating Long-Standing Batman Record

Greta Gerwig Reacted to the “Passion” of Audiences

While there was always a good chance that Barbie would stir up controversy in certain circles, and director Greta Gerwig expressed her belief that the movie can help people look at some of the things in life that are perhaps not sitting where they should be. She said:

"Certainly, there’s a lot of passion. My hope for the movie is that it’s an invitation for everybody to be part of the party and let go of the things that aren’t necessarily serving us as either women or men. I hope that in all of that passion, if they see it or engage with it, it can give them some of the relief that it gave other people."

Barbie is already the biggest movie of the summer, even after less than a week on release having passed the total grosses of the likes of The Flash and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny with ease. However big Barbie ends up becoming, the movie has certainly made its mark on 2023 and a wave of bad reviews is not going to change that.

Barbie Movie Reviews: Critics Share Strong First Reactions

Greta Gerwig's Barbie movie is nearly here, and critics shared their first reactions after the first press screenings.

Featuring a massive cast of A-listers including Margot Robbie as the titular Barbie along with Ryan Gosling, Simu Liu , and plenty more, Barbie looks set to make a huge impression on moviegoers in a summer jam-packed with blockbusters.

Coming in with a somewhat expected PG-13 rating , Barbie will put the iconic Mattel doll into the big-screen spotlight for the first time, putting forth a wild adventure that will show fans how to see their own inner beauty.

Critics React to Barbie Screenings

Members of the press shared their first reactions to the upcoming Barbie movie after the film had its world premiere event and its first official screenings.

This comes only a few days after Time Magazine got to release its own write-up for the movie , with the reception being positive as it was called "a fun yet self-aware romp."

Variety's Katcy Stephan praised Barbie as "perfection," highlighting director Greta Gerwig for bringing "a nuanced commentary" on being a woman while celebrating leading actors Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling:

"'Barbie' is perfection. Greta Gerwig delivers a nuanced commentary on what it means to be a woman in a whimsical, wonderful and laugh-out-loud funny romp. The entire cast shines, especially Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in roles they were clearly born to play."

ComicBook.com's Jamie Jirak called Barbie her "favorite film of the year," urging critics and Oscar voters to "give Ryan Gosling an Oscar nomination" for his performance:

"I can't officially quit Twitter before telling you all that 'Barbie' is currently my favorite film of the year. Greta Gerwig somehow exceeded my expectations. She tackles the positives and negatives of Barbie so beautifully. Give Ryan Gosling an Oscar nomination, I'm dead serious!"

Collider's Perri Nemiroff noted that the "craftsmanship is incredible" in Barbie and praised the film for its "next-level work" on production design, but she felt "a bit more mixed" about the plot and the story:

"I have seen 'Barbie!' The craftsmanship is incredible. In particular the costume & production design includes next-level work that heavily contributes to creating the feeling that these truly are Barbies, their dream houses, and their worlds come to life. As for the story, that’s where I’m a bit more mixed. I think the film serves Margot Robbie’s Barbie and her journey especially well, but there are other characters experiencing important arcs that needed more screen time to really dig into and explore to the fullest."

Rotten Tomatoes critic Carla Renata confirmed that Barbie director Greta Gerwig had her "all in [her] feelings" and pointed out the "dance numbers led by Simu Liu" as some of her favorite moments:

"I saw 'Barbie The Movie' and Greta Gerwig left me all in my feelings as did the production design, costumes, Hair and makeup! I was living for the dance numbers led by Simu Liu! It’s overblown fun with a feminist twist"

YouTuber Sharronda Williams called Barbie "witty, heartfelt, and downright fun" while praising Robbie and Gosling, but she also pointed out that the "screenplay feels bloated at times:"

"'Barbie The Movie' is witty, heartfelt, and downright fun at times. Ryan Gosling is a scene stealer delivering most of the laughs while Margot Robbie’s heartfelt performance will tug at your heartstrings. While I enjoyed most of the film the screenplay feels bloated at times teetering between the camp 'Barbie' movie we expected to a sometimes too on the nose social commentary of society that takes away from important subplots & character development. The production and costume design is stunning but overall I left wanting a bit more from the film.

Screen Rant's Joe Deckelmeier noted that Barbie caught him "off guard...in the best possible way," praising the cast and director while calling the film "funny, bombastic, & very smart:"

"'Barbie' caught me off guard & I mean that in the best way possible. It’s funny, bombastic, & very smart. Greta Gerwig aims for the fences & hits a home-run. Margot Robbie’s performance is great & Ryan Gosling & Simu Liu are pure entertainment! The whole cast is brilliant!"

AAFCA's Ty Cole explained how Barbie "peels the layers off the superficial doll" on which the film was inspired while also putting Ken into the spotlight as he is "figuring his identity out:"

"'Barbie' is everything you wouldn’t expect. It peels the layers off the superficial doll we all grew up with while showing how Ken is more than an asset and is figuring his identity out."

Will Fans React Favorably After Positive Barbie Reviews?

Considering the heartwarming message laid out in Barbie , it's no surprise that critics are liking the blockbuster.

The big question now is whether fans will have the same positive reactions when the movie debuts to the public, especially with heavy competition coming this month in Mission Impossible 7 , Oppenheimer , and Haunted Mansion .

With plenty of moments deemed mature in nature coming in this story, Greta Gerwig and her team appear to have made an adventure that will appeal to all kinds of fans who have seen the Barbie brand evolve over the years.

And with such a jam-packed journey fitting seamlessly into a fairly-compact runtime of less than two hours , many are itching to see exactly what this Barbie world has in store.

Barbie will debut in theaters worldwide on Friday, July 21.

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The 46 Best Movies on HBO Max Right Now (April 2024)

Another streaming service means another vast library of titles to sift through to find what you want to watch. Max is the streaming service from WarnerMedia, hosting not just titles from the pay cable channel HBO, but a bevy of films from the Warner Bros. library and other studios. There’s a great selection of classics, fairly new releases, quirky indies, and yes, superhero movies. The studio behind The Dark Knight and Man of Steel has a solid number of DC films available to stream. But if you’re daunted by all the good movies on Max to choose from, we’ve got your back. Below, we’ve put together a curated list of the absolute best movies on Max. Films that will be well worth your time, with our writers making the case for why each film is special.

So check out our list of the best movies on Max streaming below. And for more recommendations, check out our list of the best shows on Max , best drama movies on Max , and best horror movies on Max .

Editor's note: This article was updated April 2024 to include Dune.

'Dune' (2021)

Rotten tomatoes: 83% | imdb: 8.0/10.

Release Date October 22, 2021

Director Denis Villeneuve

Cast Josh Brolin, David Dastmalchian, Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya Coleman, Jason Momoa

Runtime 155 Minutes

Genres Sci-Fi, Adventure

Adapted from Frank Herbert 's classic science fiction novel, Denis Villeneuve ‘s Dune is a sci-fi adventure drama that focuses on the conflict between two influential families on an alien planet. The movie features an ensemble cast that features Timothée Chalamet , Zendaya , Rebecca Ferguson , and Oscar Isaac . Highly successful at the box office and generally well-received by critics, Dune is an expansive work of worldbuilding, the likes of which are few and far between. It’s well-acted and well-written, but the visual spectacle of the film is what truly blows you away. The movie is truly cinematic in scale and ambition, presenting a beautiful and absorptive world that’s both strange and familiar. The film received a sequel in 2024, Dune: Part Two , which may be even better, but Dune remains a colossal work of science fiction cinema that should be required viewing for all lovers of cinema.

Watch on Max

'Barbie' (2023)

Rotten tomatoes: 88% | imdb: 6.8/10.

Release Date July 21, 2023

Director Greta Gerwig

Cast Helen Mirren, Margot Robbie, Ariana Greenblatt, Simu Liu, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera

Runtime 114 minutes

Genres Comedy, Adventure, Fantasy

Greta Gerwig ’s Barbie is a surprisingly existential adaptation of Mattel’s eponymous fashion doll line. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling star as Barbie and Ken, who leave Barbieland and journey to the real world on a quest for self-discovery. The movie also features a stacked supporting cast that includes America Ferrera , Kate McKinnon , Issa Rae , and Michael Cera . With her Barbie movie, Gerwig takes the ultra-commercial entity and gives it a deeply thoughtful indie-movie-esque adaptation. That incongruity is precisely what has made Barbie such a celebrated film. Credit is also due to the stellar cast that balances comedy and real emotion to create relatable, three-dimensional characters. Witty and insightful, this Barbie broke records and wormed her way into hearts around the world, and we could all stand to learn from what she has to say.

'The Player' (1992)

Rotten tomatoes: 97% | imdb: 7.5/10.

Release Date April 10, 1992

Director Robert Altman

Cast Brion James, Greta Scacchi, Cynthia Stevenson, Whoopi Goldberg, Tim Robbins, Peter Gallagher, Fred Ward

Runtime 124 minutes

Genres Satire, Comedy

Written by Michael Tolkin and directed by Robert Altman , The Player is a hilarious satire about Hollywood. Starring incredible talents like Tim Robbins and Whoopi Goldberg , The Player also features a whopping 65 A-list cameos. That's right — there are 65 celebrity cameos in this movie. A film about filmmaking, The Player cleverly pokes fun at the industry with an outlandish plot about a movie exec who receives death threats from a screenwriter whose script was overlooked. Highlighted by biting humor and self-deprecation, The Player charms dark comedy lovers, earning several Oscar nominations and, ironically, even winning Best Adapted Screenplay. - Yael Tygiel

'The Umbrellas of Cherbourg' (1964)

Rotten tomatoes: 97% | imdb: 7.8/10, the umbrellas of cherbourg.

Release Date December 16, 1964

Director Jacques Demy

Cast Marc Michel, Anne Vernon, Nino Castelnuovo, Catherine Deneuve

Runtime 91 minutes

Genres Drama, Romance, Musical

Written and directed by Jacques Demy , The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is a gorgeous musical romance where the entire film’s dialogue is sung. Even casual conversations are shared through music by Michel Legrand . Starring Catherine Deneuve , Anne Vernon , Nino Castelnuovo , and Marc Michel , Umbrellas of Cherbourg follows a young couple (Deneuve and Castelnuovo) attempting to find their way back to each other after being separated by circumstance.

Aside from award nominations and being an obvious influence on the 2016 musical La La Land and Greta Gerwig’ s Barbie , The Umbrellas of Cherbourg itself is a stunning musical masterpiece expressed through a clever format and unforgettable French songs.

'La Strada' (1954)

Rotten tomatoes: 97% | imdb: 8.0/10.

Release Date September 6, 1954

Director Federico Fellini

Cast Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart

Runtime 1 hr 48 min

Genres Drama

La Strada stars the dazzling Giulietta Masina as a young woman sent to live with a brutish street performer ( Anthony Quinn ), joining his traveling act as a clown, as well as his wife. The often uncomfortable yet absolutely unforgettable parable from director Federico Fellini explores themes of identity, strength, and compassion through fantastic acting and harsh scenes, co-written by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli , and Ennio Flaiano .

La Strada ’s initial release on the festival circuit garnered immense criticism and controversial reactions, setting a foundation for Fellini's creative flair in his subsequent films. Highlighted by Quinn’s charisma and Masina’s wide-eyed naivety, La Strada devastatingly captures the audience's attention. - Yael Tygiel

'Judas and the Black Messiah' (2021)

Rotten tomatoes: 97% | imdb: 7.4/10, judas and the black messiah.

Release Date February 12, 2021

Director Shaka King

Cast LaKeith Stanfield, Martin Sheen, Ashton Sanders, Dominique Fishback, Daniel Kaluuya, Jesse Plemons

Runtime 126

Genres Biography, History

Directed by Shaka King , Judas and the Black Messiah is a powerful film. Inspired by a true story, it shines a light on an important part of American history. This biographical crime drama co-stars Daniel Kaluuya as Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, and LaKeith Stanfield as William O'Neal, a reluctant FBI informant tasked with infiltrating the party in late-1960s Chicago. Judas and the Black Messiah also features Jesse Plemons and Dominique Fishback.

Judas and the Black Messiah not only earned a handful of Oscar nominations for the film, but Kaluuya won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, competing against co-star Stanfield. While the acting, soundtrack, and production are truly stellar, the harsh realities of revolution exposed in the film are triumphant and moving. - Yael Tygiel

'8 1/2' (1963)

Release Date May 29, 1963

Cast Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimee, Marcello Mastroianni

Runtime 2 hr 18 min

Genres Drama, Comedy

Directed by Federico Fellini , who co-wrote the film with Ennio Flaiano , Tullio Pinelli , and Brunello Rondi , 8 1/2 delightfully blends comedy, drama, and avant-garde surrealism. An Italian film about movie making, 8 1/2 f ocuses on a frustrated filmmaker attempting to direct his epic sci-fi movie. Starring Marcello Mastroianni as the harried director who finds himself withdrawing into his own mind, electing to live in memories and fantasies rather than reality, 8 1/2 imaginatively explores the creative mind in honest and dream-like ways.

A classic film that utilizes clever practical effects to explore dreamscapes, 8 1/2 gorgeously touches sensuality, the plight of artists, and both internal and external pressure when pursuing greatness. 8 1/2 has earned awards and critical praise, but the film’s respect from modern visionaries like Guillermo del Toro is an endorsement on its own. - Yael Tygiel

'Bicycle Thieves' (1948)

Rotten tomatoes: 99% | imdb: 8.3/10, bicycle thieves.

Release Date November 24, 1948

Director Vittorio De Sica

Runtime 89 minutes

Vittorio De Sica directs Bicycle Thieves , an Italian neorealist film starring Lamberto Maggiorani as a desperate father in post-World War II Rome. Bicycle Thieves co-stars Enzo Staiola as the man’s plucky son, who joins him on his journey to recover his stolen bicycle, a necessity for employment and to keep his family afloat. Writer Cesare Zavattini adapted Luigi Bartolini ’s novel for the screen, allowing for grounded performances and torrid emotional turmoil to be showcased above all else.

With a depressing setting and heavy plot, Bicycle Thieves is, at its core, a powerful film about desperation and resilience, expressed through a heart-wrenching story. Although set in a particular time and place, it is devastatingly relatable regardless of history and location. - Yael Tygiel

'The 400 Blows' (1959)

Rotten tomatoes: 99% | imdb: 8.1/10, the 400 blows.

Release Date May 4, 1959

Director Francois Truffaut

Cast Claire Maurier, Albert Remy, Jean-Pierre Laud

Runtime 1 hr 39 min

Serving as the directorial debut of François Truffaut , who co-wrote the film with Marcel Moussy , The 400 Blows is a French coming-of-age drama about a rebellious pre-teen boy in Paris who turns to petty crime and delinquency when neglected. Starring Jean-Pierre Léaud , Albert Rémy , and Claire Maurier , The 400 Blows is considered a defining film of French New Wave filmmaking.

While many films explore adolescence and coming-of-age stories are a dime a dozen, The 400 Blows beautifully and sympathetically offers a raw perspective at a transitional time period with an honest reflection on the sometimes heartbreaking realities of growing up. - Yael Tygiel

'Stalker' (1979)

Rotten tomatoes: 100% | imdb: 8.1/10.

Release Date May 25, 1979

Director Andrei Tarkovsky

Cast Alexander Kaidanovsky

Runtime 162 minutes

Genres Drama, Sci-Fi

A mesmerizing sci-fi masterpiece from director Andrei Tarkovsky , Stalker was written by Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky and based on their trippy 1972 novel Roadside Picnic . The film stars Aleksandr Kajdanovsky as the illegal guide journeying across a postapocalyptic landscape where the laws of physics seem irrelevant, bringing a writer ( Anatoliy Solonitsyn ) and scientist ( Nikolay Grinko ) to a mythical place believed to grant wishes.

Stalker explores a variety of existential themes through haunting scenes and stunning shots, which slowly draw in audiences to dive into complex philosophical conundrums. With a unique approach to narrative, sound design, and humanity, Stalker ’s influence expands beyond cinema by inspiring the evolution of the annual festival known as Burning Man. - Yael Tygiel

'Wages of Fear' (1953)

Rotten tomatoes: 100% | imdb: 8.2/10, wages of fear.

Release Date April 22, 1953

Director Henri-Georges Clouzot

Cast Yves Montand, Folco Lulli, Charles Vanel

Runtime 2 hr 33 min

Genres Thriller

Wages of Fear is an intense existential thriller from director Henri-Georges Clouzot . Adapted from Georges Arnaud ’s 1950 novel and starring Yves Montand , Charles Vanel , Peter van Eyck , and Véra Clouzot , Wages of Fear follows four European men in a South American jungle who are hired by an American oil company to transport nitroglycerine. Through gritty shots and spine-tingling extended suspense sequences, Wages of Fear includes countless scenes that will leave viewers holding their breath.

Wages of Fear continues to captivate audiences, particularly with its balance of biting satire and heart-pumping intensity. It comes as no surprise that Netflix is currently in the process of remaking the French movie. - Yael Tygiel

'Stagecoach' (1939)

Rotten tomatoes: 100% | imdb: 7.8/10.

Release Date March 2, 1939

Director John Ford

Cast Andy Devine, John Carradine, John Wayne

Runtime 1 hr 36 min

Genres Western

Considered John Wayne ’s legendary breakout role, Stagecoach is an exciting Western that follows a group of strangers traveling via stagecoach through Apache territory. Based on Ernest Haycox ’s short story The Stage to Lordsburg , Stagecoach was directed by John Ford ( The Grapes of Wrath ) and features an ensemble cast alongside Wayne, including Claire Trevor , Andy Devine , and John Carradine ( The Ten Commandments ).

Earning two Academy Awards as well as a slew more nominations, Stagecoach has been adapted for radio, as well as remade quite a few times. Although a fun ride, the historical inaccuracies and blatant prejudices portrayed in the movie, particularly pertaining to indigenous cultures, are undeniable and should not be overlooked. - Yael Tygiel

'Tokyo Story' (1972)

Tokyo story.

Release Date March 13, 1972

Director Yasujir Ozu

Cast Setsuko Hara, S Yamamura, Chieko Higashiyama, Chish Ry

Runtime 136 minutes

Yasujirō Ozu ’s Tokyo Story is a gorgeous drama that follows a retired couple on their journey to visit their grown children in the Japanese capital. Starring ChishÅ« RyÅ« and Chieko Higashiyama , Tokyo Story is a slow burn as it cleverly weaves a story through dialogue, with many key scenes not being shown on screen. Highlighted by a unique use of camera angles, Tokyo Story leans into the generational tale with a rich emotional complexity.

While the technical aspect of Tokyo Story is captivating, the true draw is the generational story, focusing on themes of Westernization. While this film is specifically about a traditional Japanese family as they recover from World War II, these types of shifts within societies are relatable to a multitude of cultures around globe. - Yael Tygiel

'Battleship Potemkin' (1925)

Rotten tomatoes: 100% | imdb: 7.9/10, battleship potemkin.

Release Date December 21, 1925

Cast Grigori Aleksandrov, Aleksandr Antonov

Runtime 1 hr 17 min

Battleship Potemkin is a truly unique film from writer-director Sergei Eisenstein . A silent film that unfolds over five separately titled acts, Battleship Potemkin focuses on the 1905 naval mutiny of an Imperial Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet’s battleship. Battleship Potemkin features a collection of non-actors, including Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barksy, and Grigori Aleksandrov , as Eisenstein opted for specific looks and vibes over identifiable movie stars.

Bringing history to the screen, Battleship Potemkin cleverly shares the gruesome realities of revolution, resulting in just over an hour of cinematic brilliance. Over the years, Battleship Potemkin has been praised for its clever montage editing techniques, which earned the film a place within the top ranks of many "best films" lists. - Yael Tygiel

'Pulp Fiction' (1994)

Rotten tomatoes: 92% | imdb: 8.9/10, pulp fiction.

Release Date September 10, 1994

Director Quentin Tarantino

Cast Tim Roth, Bruce Willis, Amanda Plummer, Samuel L. Jackson, Eric Stoltz, John Travolta

Runtime 154

Genres Drama, Thriller, Crime

Read Our Review

Pulp Fiction , directed by Quentin Tarantino , follows several interconnected storylines. One follows Vincent Vega ( John Travolta ), a hitman in the employ of gangster Marsellus Wallace ( Ving Rhames ). His encounters with Mia Wallace ( Uma Thurman ), Marsellus's wife, result in a sequence of intense and unpredictable events. Another narrative thread focuses on Jules Winnfield ( Samuel L. Jackson ) and Vincent Vega as they carry out their assignments. The last one centers on Butch Coolidge ( Bruce Willis ) and his decision to defy Marsellus Wallace's orders, which sets off a chain reaction of events that intertwine with the other characters.

Pulp Fiction is a landmark neo-noir crime film that gained widespread acclaim for its unique narrative structure and impactful storytelling. Almost 30 years later, it remains a cultural touchstone and a testament to Tarantino's influence on contemporary filmmaking. Furthermore, the dialogue is razor-sharp, the performances are flawless, and the twists consistently deliver surprises. Notably, iconic dance moves serve as the film's signature, enduring the test of time. The film was also crafted as a satirical commentary on the themes of contingency and redemption, foundational elements often found in more conventionally typical Hollywood productions. As lively as it is gripping, Pulp Fiction is a thrilling blend of pop culture and pulp, and it undeniably stands out as one of the finest movies of the 1990s. - Jessie Nguyen

'Eighth Grade' (2018)

Rotten tomatoes: 99% | imdb: 7.4/10, eighth grade.

Release Date August 3, 2018

Director Bo Burnham

Cast Deborah Unger, Greg Crowe, Missy Yager, Emily Robinson, Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton

Runtime 93 minutes

Genres Drama, Comedy, Documentary

Directed and written by Bo Burnham , Eighth Grade follows Kayla ( Elsie Fisher ), a teenager navigating the challenges of middle school, grappling with anxiety while striving for social acceptance in the final week of eighth grade. To cope, she creates video blogs offering motivational advice, but her fixation on social media strains her relationship with her otherwise supportive father ( Josh Hamilton ), who desires to be an active presence in her life as her sole parent.

In his directorial debut, Eighth Grade is Burnham’s meticulously crafted ode to the tumultuous and bewildering middle school years, offering reassurance to those experiencing it that things will ultimately get better. Eighth Grade is also one of those rare movies that, despite its subjective individuality, appeals to both adolescent and adult audiences by teaching universal life lessons that everyone must experience and master in order to become an adult. In addition, viewers truly experience Kayla's awkwardness, embarrassment, and cringe-worthy nature as she and other schoolchildren attempt to appear older than they actually are, demonstrating Fisher's true talent and the potential impact of their future. Additionally, Burnham's comedy experience comes through, as his comedic timing both eases the tension and warmly welcomes the audience to the plot. - Jessie Nguyen

'Room' (2015)

Rotten tomatoes: 93% | imdb: 8.1/10.

Release Date October 16, 2015

Director Lenny Abrahamson

Cast Amanda Brugel, Megan Park, Sean Bridgers, Brie Larson, William H. Macy, Joan Allen

Runtime 113 minutes

Genres Drama, Thriller, Documentary

Based on Emma Donoghue 's 2010 novel of the same name, Room is directed by Lenny Abrahamson and adapted for the screen by Donoghue. The movie follows Ma, played by Brie Larson , a young woman who has endured seven years of captivity, during which her five-year-old son ( Jacob Tremblay ) was born. Their escape finally grants the boy his first experience of the outside world.

Room presents both the highest and lowest facets of humanity within a captivating narrative that delves into the boundless resilience of the human spirit, even in the face of the most daunting challenges. In this examination of loneliness, identity, and the illusion of protection, Larson showcases her most vulnerable state and also displays the height of her talent. She was then awarded an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for the portrayal. Jacob Tremblay's performance is also exceptional, indicating his potential to become a prominent star in the future. Additionally, director Lenny Abrahamson and cinematographer Danny Cohen , in collaboration with Donoghue's screenplay, present a distressing story through the lens of the most innocent perspective, resulting in a truly distinctive cinematic experience. Rather than avoiding the harsh realities, Room confronts them directly and unflinchingly. - Jessie Nguyen

'The Devil Wears Prada' (2006)

Rotten tomatoes: 75% | imdb: 6.9/10, the devil wears prada.

Release Date June 30, 2006

Director David Frankel

Cast Stanley Tucci, Emily Blunt, Anne Hathaway, Simon Baker, Meryl Streep, Adrian Grenier

Runtime 109 minutes

Genres Drama, Romance, Comedy, Documentary

Based on Lauren Weisberger 's 2003 novel of the same name, The Devil Wears Prada follows Andy ( Anne Hathaway ), a recent college graduate with ambitious dreams. When she secures a job at the renowned Runway magazine, she becomes the assistant to the formidable editor, Miranda Priestly ( Meryl Streep ). Andy then embarks on a challenging journey, questioning her ability to endure her demanding role as Miranda's assistant without getting burned.

It's a rare film that not only matches but surpasses the quality of its source material. Viewers continue to ponder the movie's valuable lessons long after the laughter has faded, as these lessons are well-founded, enduring, and skillfully conveyed by the talented actors who bring genuine depth to the material. The Devil Wears Prada continues to be a frontrunner in people's minds when it comes to the most stylish films. However, it goes beyond that, offering a captivating and often comedic peek into the high-speed and alluring realm of high fashion. It also provides viewers with a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes operations of a prestigious fashion magazine. Furthermore, the characters, especially the formidable Miranda Priestly, have achieved icon status in popular culture, solidifying the film's position as a classic. Streep's performance also earned her another Oscar nomination, further recognizing her outstanding portrayal. - Jessie Nguyen

'Seven Samurai' (1956)

Rotten tomatoes: 100% | imdb: 8.6/10, seven samurai.

A poor village under attack by bandits recruits  seven  unemployed  samurai  to help them defend themselves.

Release Date April 26, 1954

Director Akira Kurosawa

Cast Takashi Shimura, Toshiro Mifune

Runtime 207 minutes

Genres Drama, Action

Set in 1586 Japan, Seven Samurai focuses on farmers in a small mountain village who make a desperate plea to rogue samurai to help them defend themselves from a merciless gang of bandits that frequently terrorizes them. Unable to pay for protection, the farmers are aided by a veteran warrior who, along with just six other ronin, train the farmers to resist the bandits and fight alongside them.

At 207 minutes, the period epic is a defining masterpiece from legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa and is an iconic highlight of Japan’s samurai cinema. Its engrossing story works in its broad strokes as a heroic action adventure, but nestled within are insightful observations on cultural divides that thrive amid Kurosawa’s meticulous pacing. Also enhanced by some striking acting performances and stunning combat sequences, Seven Samurai remains one of the most influential films ever made and one of the most awe-inspiring movies of all time. - Ryan Heffernan

'The Conjuring' (2013)

Rotten tomatoes: 86% | imdb: 7.5/10, the conjuring.

Created by James Wan

Cast Jonas Bloquet, Patrick Wilson, Storm Reid, Mckenna Grace, Steve Coulter, Vera Farmiga, Taissa Farmiga

Read Our Review On top of being one of my favorite movies in general, The Conjuring is easily one of my favorite horror movies of all time (beat only by its sequel). What gives The Conjuring franchise an edge is that each installment is based on the very real case files of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren . Played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga , Ed and Lorraine operate as agents of the church as they help families and individuals escape the grip of demonic possession. In The Conjuring , the couple is approached by a young mother whose family has found themselves the target of an evil spirit linked to the country home they just moved into.

What truly sets The Conjuring apart for me is not the scare factor — though director James Wan certainly doesn’t pull any punches in that regard — it’s the strength of the characters and their relationships, which is baked into the script by Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes . The Conjuring works so well because, at its heart, it’s a story about love. Ed and Lorraine are driven, first and foremost, by their love for each other, but their love for helping people comes in at a close second. Meanwhile, Lili Taylor ’s Carolyn Perron is driven by the love for her family, and even when a demonic spirit intends to use that against her, it’s love that ultimately saves the day. If you’re new to horror or just looking for a heart-pounding thriller with a heart of gold, check out The Conjuring . - Samantha Coley, News Editor

Screen Rant

Margot robbie's monopoly movie can bring back the original real-life meaning of the game.

Margot Robbie's upcoming film adaptation of the Monopoly board game needs to draw from the history and original intent behind the boardgame.

• Margot Robbie's Monopoly film should reflect the anti-capitalistic themes of the board game's origins.
• The Landlord's Game, the inspiration for Monopoly, focused on wealth distribution and cooperative play.
• Robbie's subversive storytelling style may help elevate Monopoly into a thought-provoking film.

Margot Robbie's upcoming Monopoly film should look back at the origins of the board game for thematic inspiration. The board game has become a mainstay of countless game nights, with different iterations crafted over the past century to incorporate numerous other intellectual properties and franchises. Monopoly forces players to compete over property and money, with players who go bankrupt eliminated from the game. On paper, a film adaptation centering around the game would seem like an easy excuse to use branded-IP to earn money for the studio.

However, a number of basic seeming concepts have proven to be deceptively impressive vehicles for more subversive storytelling. The Margot Robbie-produced Barbie was an especially impressive example of that balancing act . Now it seems she's bringing that same approach to the upcoming Monopoly movie . Robbie needs to replicate the subversive elements of Barbie and reflect the anti-capitalistic messaging at the heart of Monopoly's less-known origins for the film. The Margot Robbie-produced adapation could become a fitting follow-up to her collabration with Greta Gerwig on Barbie .

Margot Robbie’s New Movies Are A Huge Risk After Her $1.4 Billion Hit

Margot robbie's monopoly might be the perfect barbie follow-up, monopoly needs to replicate barbie 's subversive streak.

Margot Robbie is producing a film adaptation of the board game Monopoly , which is a match made in heaven given Robbie's impressively subversive approach to branded IP in Barbie . Barbie was a surprisingly subversive film in many regards. While the movie had a lot of fun with broad jokes and pointed commentary on the state of gender relations and roles in society, the film also explored anti-capitalistic themes in its portrayal of Mattel. The company that manufactures Barbie dolls initially does everything it can to put Barbie back into her box, fearing how a changed Barbie could impact their bottom line.

Giving Barbie this kind of energy helped prevent the film from feeling like a commercial for the product, and allowed filmmaker Greta Gerwig to explore important themes. Monopoly is inherently in a similar situation, given the ubiquity of the board game. Robbie's prior roles have highlighted an appreciation for sneaky and subversive storytelling , especially when calling out certain toxic segments of society like misogynistic men in power (as in Birds of Prey ) or calling out the wealthy for their treatment of others (as seen in her The Big Short cameo).

How Real-Life Monopoly Started Out With An Anti-Monopoly Theme

The landlord's game was meant to call out monopolies, before it became monopoly.

Margot Robbie bringing an anti-capitalistic edge to a Monopoly film would reflect the real-life origins of the board game . As reported on by The Guardian , the board game that would eventually become known as Monopoly was inspired largely by The Landlord's Game. Created by Elizabeth J. Magie in 1903, The Landlord's Game was designed with two methods of play. In one of them, players worked together to share resources and create new opportunities as a group. In the other, players targeted one another and tried to take control of the board by forcing other players to run out of money.

The latter game mode, dubbed the Monopoly Set-Up, served as a direct inspiration for Monopoly. Magie's game reflected her left-wing political ideology, specifically meant to draw attention to the negative impact monopolies could have on the collective. In The Landlord's Game, it's encouraged to work together and spread the wealth. However, this subtext was absent from the version of the game that Parker Bros. turned into a worldwide sensation. Initially, the creation of Monopoly was credited to Charles Darrow, it wouldn't be until after her death that Magie would receive her due credit for changing board games.

Margot Robbie's 6 Highest-Rated Movies On Rotten Tomatoes All Have 1 Thing In Common

Why margot robbie's monopoly needs to reflect the true origins of the game.

Monopoly has the potential to be an even bigger social satire than Barbie was, given the variety of targets it could tackle. Barbie 's thematic message included exploration of gender roles and expectations. Similarly, Monopoly could draw attention to the wealth inequality and housing crisis facing much of the world — especially the United States. The film could undercut accusations of being a feature-length commercial by drawing attention to the ways modern Monopoly ignores the original intent behind the game. The film could be an exploration of the history of the board game and how Monopoly stemmed directly from The Landlord's Game.

This could draw attention to the challenges faced by inventive women at the turn of the 20th century, a period where Magie could get a patent for her game but was legally barred from voting. Exploring the true origins of Monopoly and utilizing the subversive and anti-capitalistic themes at the heart of Magie's creation could elevate any potential Monopoly movie. Margot Robbie's movies track record indicates that she may be the perfect person to tackle the project, and could help ensure Monopoly becomes a throught-provoking and entertaining flm in much the same way Barbie was.

Source: The Guardian

Based on Lawrence Osborne's novel of the same name, the film centres around a gambler who forms an unexpected connection with a stranger while on the run.

Production on the project is expected to start later this year (via Deadline ).

"The story follows a high-stakes gambler who decides to lay low in Macau after his past and debts catch up with him. Along the way he encounters a kindred spirit who might just hold the key to his salvation," reads the official logline for the film.

Related: Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell's new movie gets exciting update

All Quiet on the Western Front 's Edward Berger will direct the feature, with Rowan Joffe on board to adapt the script. Mike Goodridge and Matthew James Wilkinson will join Berger on the producing team.

Elsewhere, Farrell is currently starring in Apple TV+ detective drama Sugar , which follows an American private investigator who tries to uncover secrets surrounding a high-profile disappearance case.

The series also stars The Sandman 's Kirby Howell-Baptiste, The Office 's Amy Ryan, Succession 's James Cromwell and Breaking Bad 's Anna Gunn.

Later this year, Farrell will reprise his role as notorious supervillain Oswald 'Oz' Cobblepot in Matt Reeves' upcoming Batman spin-off series The Penguin .

Related: Netflix's Baby Reindeer lands perfect Rotten Tomatoes score

That's not all, as the Oscar-nominated actor is also set to star alongside Barbie 's Margot Robbie in an upcoming fantasy-romance film, titled A Big Bold Beautiful Journey .

The anticipated blockbuster is being reported as "an imaginative tale of two strangers and the extraordinary emotional journey that connects them."

Tom Rothman, the chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures' Motion Group, said in a statement: " A Big Bold Beautiful Journey by Seth Reiss — together with the superb director Kogonada, the perfect cast of Colin and Margot, and top flight producers Bradley Thomas, Dan Friedkin and Ryan Friedkin — it is a project from heaven."

The Ballad of a Small Player doesn't have a release date yet.

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Sara Baalla is a freelance news reporter for Digital Spy.

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