Barbie
The insecurity of machismo in the internet sewer, because she’s everything and he’s just Ken
Barbie is a film, inspired by the Mattel doll, which has been the subject of much controversy for many years since its invention in 1959.
The feature was directed and written by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie. This is the third film directed solo by Greta, who is responsible for Lady Bird (2017), which is a cool film and was also in charge of the latest adaptation of Little Women (2019). She has been a screenwriter on many other films, especially with her husband, Noah Baumbach, who is also a co-writer here on the Barbie film.
The main Barbie in the film, in this case, the stereotypical Barbie, is Margot Robbie, who does a fantastic job, in fact, and we have a bunch of other famous people. The “main” Ken is Ryan Gosling, but there are a bunch of other Kens who are famous too.
The film, at the moment I’m writing this, has already sold more than 1.4 billion at the box office worldwide, having only cost 100 million. If that's no success I don't know what is.
Synopsis Barbie and Ken live their dream lives in a seemingly perfect, pink, plastic world. However, something happens and Barbie (Margot Robbie) needs to go to the real world and there they discover what the world truly is like.
To begin with, I can say that I enjoyed the film, even though I didn’t love it. It’s important to say that I am not the target audience for this story.
Am I saying men can’t see this movie? That the film is anti-man? Will it destroy family values and blah blah blah? No. I’m not saying anything like that. That's just boring, intolerant, and insecure people being boring, intolerant and insecure. I don't know where you're reading this from but there's this type of repercussion in Brazil, which is where I'm from.
What I’m saying is that this film speaks to a specific group of women, who had Barbies, or who wanted to have Barbies, but couldn’t, or who hated Barbie because of her unattainable stereotypes of women… Anyways.
I, as a man, will hardly understand the nuances of everything portrayed in the film. And that's okay, guys. How many films do we men have per year? Serious. Practically all of them. So it would be cool if men stopped being idiots about that. It's still a man's world, unfortunately.
That said, the movie is cool, but I didn’t love it because I don’t really enjoy this type of humor. When I say I don't enjoy it, I’m not diminishing the film, because it’s the purpose of it. I know there are multiple forms of humor, and that's just not my cup of tea.
The film makes a caricature of the real world to convey a message and there are moments when the messages conveyed are quite heavy, especially for women. Will I understand all the nuances? No. Because I’m not a woman.
Yes, the film has an agenda and if you cringe just hearing the word feminism, this movie is not for you. For me, I like to understand other different realities other than mine, whether I agree or not.
The film makes the message it wants to convey very explicit and this is also a weak point for me, but I understand. The purpose of this film is to be a blockbuster and if the message were too subtle or too introspective, the film would not reach as many people as it is doing.
It’s like the movie “Don’t Look Up”, where they almost draw the message that the film wants to convey on a board, it’s so clear, and that’s a bit annoying. But to become popular, I understand the choices. I don’t like them, but I understand.
Margot Robbie is the soul of the film. The woman can be anything from a soulless doll, to an innocent woman in the real world, to the woman she becomes in the end. It’s a phenomenal range of performance.
Anyway, it’s a cool film, I think it will make it to the Oscars due to its popularity, and I think there’s no way to ignore the cultural phenomenon that it has become.
If it’s still showing in theaters near you, give it a chance. And if you are a man, and don’t know at least 5 of the Kens, he’s probably you.
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