The day after watching Oppenheimer, we were back at the theatre (Landmark this time) to see Greta Gerwig's Barbie, statting Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.
For context, I have never been a fan of Barbie - the perpetually high heel, the impossible shape, the prominence of fashion over substance. There was a brief moment, when Fenya was very young, where I explored the possibility of keeping the household Barbie-free.
Audrey shook her head. "You can't do that," she patiently explained. "Barbie is ubiquitous. In dolls, it is babies and then Barbie, but on the plus side, Barbie can be or do anything." Watching the Barbie episode of The Toys That Made Us was very helpful to my understanding as well, and I highly recommend seeing it before this film.
The movie works from this same premise. Stereotypical Barbie (Robbie) lives in her pink plastic dream house that has a slide but no stairs, as she can float down to ground level. You can almost imagine a gentle hand guiding her descent - and car crashes are handled in exactly the same way.
Her relationship with Ken (Gosling) is ill-defined, something that seems more troubling to him than her, but she has also been experiencing depression and thoughts of death, and leaves Barbieland for the Real World to find out why, with Ken tagging along to find his own answers.
And that is all I am going to tell you about the story.
I was excited when an indie filmmaker took the helm of what should have been a tasteless leveraging of an IP and resulting cash grab, but Gerwig and her writing/partner Noah Baumbach have somehow done the impossible. Like walking the tightrope between commerce and art while simultaneously threading the needle of approachable mainstream success - they have made a fun summer movie good for all ages, that is also going to be an important cultural touchstone.
There will be people who will tell you that Barbie is anti-male, or unnecessarily divisive, or over-feminist. Very few, if any, of these people will be women. Responses like this are the reason the Barbie movie date night is becoming a litmus test for many discerning females, and I am here for it.
Make no mistake - despite being a very funny, entertaining and touching film about an unreasonably popular toy, Barbie asks some pretty tough questions about why things are the way they are, and questions whether or not they have to be, and the whole idea of patriarchy. And to me, this is no bad thing.
It also puts us males on the spot a few times, in ways that we may find uncomfortable. As a fella who has owned a beer-stocked mini-fridge and told people they really, really need to watch The Godfather, I felt myself being highlighted a couple of times.
But you know what? It's fine. I'm fine. I benefitted from the privilege, so I can take the ribbing that comes with it. And so can rampant consumerism, corporate culture, and middle-class ennui.
Barbie clocks in at just under two hours and uses its time masterfully. It follows up broad humour that appeals to all ages with dissonant and uncharacteristic dialogue that will zoom right over the kids' heads while making adults giggle, not unlike a vintage Warner Bros. cartoon. It's a great time and seeing it with a crowd if you can will only enhance your enjoyment of it. But the larger question remains:
OPPENHEIMER vs BARBIE - WHO WINS?
So let's make one thing clear: Barbie owns the box-office on this one. It's PG-13 rating gives it access to a massive audience that Oppenheimer and its R-rating cannot hope to approach. Barbie's shorter run-time also facilitates more screenings, and kids being out of school means matinees will get better than average attendance.
I think Oppenheimer will get more Oscar nominations, but Gerwig and Baumbach can certainly count on a nod or two as well, for a brilliant screenplay and simply outstanding production design and costumes.
But I don't think winning more Oscars necessarily makes one movie objectively better than another - God only knows how many times I have shouted at my television after those envelopes have been opened. And even if it is 'better', I still wouldn't take a pre-teen to see Nolan's flick.
No, stacking these two brilliant but vastly different works against each other is not like comparing apples to oranges - it is like comparing oranges to forklifts. Thankfully, movies are not a zero-sum game, and the solution is clear: you should see both films. And soon! so Hollywood takes note and maybe takes a few more chances on something besides franchise tentpoles (which I love, but variety is the spice of life, right?).
But watching Barbie approach one billion dollars in global box office in only its second weekend, and knowing so many children are being exposed to the iconoclastic ideas wrapped snugly within this brightly coloured cinematic confection makes me pretty happy.
So if you have to pick one to see first and you make it Barbie instead of Oppenheimer, and you maybe take a young person along (and not necessarily a girl either - boys really need to see this movie!), you are going to get a solemn nod of approval from me.
Along with a grin, because I know you are in for a good time.
No comments:
Post a Comment