Plot Summary – 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.

★★★★★ 

Watched 20 Jul 2023

I smiled from when the film started to when I got home. This was the most enjoyable movie experience I’ve had since No Way Home. I was laughing, hooting, and hollering in the theater because of how much pure vibes this movie was exuding. Greta Gerwig chose a very distinct aesthetic and look for this movie and committed to it so hard. A good friend of mine was talking to me about how movies like this and Spider-Verse have started a trend of things not looking “realistic” and I think that’s a really good thing. The MCUification of cinematography over the last decade had made movies not look like works of creativity and imagination. This looks like the vision of an artist, and it’s executed masterfully. The writing was incredible – the amount of topics and real-world problems that were covered without it feeling preachy was so good and even though it was ‘on-the-nose’ at times, I felt like it was essential because if the themes of the movie weren’t explicitly spelled out, the very people that it was satirizing would misconstrue its message. It manages to pull off satire and meta-commentary in such a fun way. There wasn’t a thought that I was allowed to have about the movie that wasn’t mentioned in the movie. Gerwig and Baumbach really covered every base and criticism that the movie could have, and a lot of people might argue about the success of the screenplay, but to me, it was very effective in saying what it had to say. It’s very rare that a movie that’s supposed to be for the greatest common denominator actually takes risks and this one had so many opportunities to play it safe and instead, it always takes the risk to make sure that its message comes across. This wouldn’t be accomplished if it weren’t for the great performances though. Will Ferrel, Margot Robie, Simu Liu, Micheal Cera, Ncuti Gatwa, and Ariana Greenblatt are all brilliant in their roles but for me, the standout performers were Ryan Gosling and America Ferreira. They really carry the emotional stakes of the movie and the handling of their characters is what I feel made the movie so effective. The music was so well done and the two big songs that play in the movie are so well written and fun and catchy. I also thought that Mattel did a great job at poking fun and criticizing themselves even though I feel like it would be better if they actually did something to fix those issues instead of making Hot Wheels and Barney. I think everyone should check this movie out – it had a surprisingly emotional and philosophical core to a movie that is so dolled up (hehe).