Barbie directed by and co-written by American writer and actress Greta Gerwig was released earlier this summer on Friday, July 21st and it has already made a massive impact on pop culture. Many Critics are praising its attention to detail in every single frame practically asking for a second viewing and its wonderfully written script with lots of emotional and hilarious moments mixed perfectly.
With The Guardian regarding it as “a riotously entertaining candy-coloured feminist fable that manages simultaneously to celebrate, satirize and deconstruct its happy-plastic subject.”
The movie also features an impressive soundtrack, including an entire song sung by Ryan Gosling with songs from a lot of extremely popular artists such as Lizzo, Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice, among many others.
The movie follows Barbie (played by Margot Robbie) navigating her way through an existential crisis in the normally whimsical and perfect Barbieland. In order to resolve her crisis and find out who she truly is, she travels to the real world while Ken (played by Ryan Gosling) follows Barbie.
The real world, however, is nowhere near the same as Barbieland as Barbie and Ken quickly realize. The two end up at Mattel headquarters where Mattel’s CEO (played by Will Farrell) explains to Barbie that she must return to Barbieland because if she stays in the real world people are eventually going to find out and it’s going to cause a panic.
Despite its pretty pink aesthetic the movie tackles a lot of serious issues especially about how difficult it is to be a woman, while also explaining the power of women grouping together to give each other confidence.
It also highlights the dangers of toxic masculinity and entitlement as when Ken was in the real world he found out what patriarchy is and decided that he wants to take it to Barbieland. A highlight of this being Ken’s creatively named “Mojo Dojo Casa House.”
The movie was not without any controversy, however, with some people citing its themes as “dangerously woke.” Most notably conservative commentator Ben Shapiro uploaded a video to his YouTube channel hilariously titled “Ben Shapiro DESTROYS The Barbie Movie For 43 Minutes” in which he mentioned that the movie made him “viscerally angry” His main argument being that the themes of the movie are too mature for the intended audience which is in his eyes only “7 year old girls”
He also criticized the existence of a transgender character in the film, even saying that Ken was “Victimized” for even briefly flirting with her. Even commenting that the actor who played doctor Barbie trans woman Hari Nef has a “deeper voice then him.” He also dismissed the idea of a patriarchy seen in the movie’s real world actually existing.
He was quickly mocked by “X” users for purposely going to watch the movie even though he could not handle the themes of feminism as it would make him furious. With some “X” users tweeting that Shapiro actually loved the Barbie movie and “he was blushing and giggling and tapping his toes the whole time.”
Barbie was not only successful in its message it was very much successful in terms of income. Quickly reaching number 11 on the highest lifetime gross with it only being out for a couple of months. With the movie even eclipsing massive releases such as “The Avengers (2012)” and “The Incredibles 2 (2018).” which have been out for multiple years at the time of Barbie’s release.
