Movie Review: Beyond the doll, ‘Barbie’ examines what it means to be a woman

If you didn’t yet know that the Barbie movie is out, that’s a pretty impressive feat. According to Variety, the movie had an estimated $150 million dollar marketing budget – offering everything from pink Xbox dreamhouses to pink Burger King meals. And then there were the Barbenheimer memes joking about the fact that “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” were coming out on the same day.

Despite the frivolous hype and the fact that the Barbie movie is about a kid’s franchise, the film shouldn’t be discounted as a movie meant solely for kids. 

Not only is it funny and entertaining, but it also analyzes what it means to exist as a woman in the world, both good and bad, and the impacts of patriarchy on society. It’s deep stuff.

“Barbie” is directed by Greta Gerwig, who also  directed “Ladybird” and “Little Women.” The film stars Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken, and is filled to the brim with other celebrities, including Dua Lipa, Simu Liu, Will Ferrell, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, John Cena and more. And none of these actors phone it in – everyone gives 100% with each performance.

When it comes to the box office, Barbie was an immediate success. It’s estimated that Barbie had a $145 million budget, and made $162 million on its opening weekend. After seventeen days, the movie surpassed $1 billion worldwide at the box office, breaking the record for the most money ever made from a female-directed film. 

The movie begins with the so-called “Stereotypical Barbie” – played by Robbie– living her dream life in Barbieland. 

In Barbieland, women hold all of the jobs, while the Kens only find purpose when the Barbies are around. One day, Barbie suffers from an existential crisis, which begins to make her imperfect and  terrifies her. Barbie learns this happened because whoever is playing with her is sad. Along with Beach Ken, she has to travel to the real world to find the girl playing with her and make her happy again. Along the way, both Barbie and Ken learn about the complicated lives of humans as the CEO of Mattel attempts to track them down and return them to Barbieland. 

One of the first things you notice while watching the movie is the Barbieland set. Everything is built and modeled after actual plastic homes and toy sets; it’s incredibly nostalgic for anyone who played with dolls as a child. 

So much pink was used on these sets that, according to NPR, the movie depleted an entire company of their pink paint. That’s a lot of pink.

The trailers for the movie say, “If you love Barbie this movie is for you,” immediately followed by, “If you hate Barbie this movie is for you,” and both of the statements couldn’t be truer. 

In an interview with ScreenRant, Robbie said, “When I first read the script, I was like, ‘We'll never make this movie, and that's such a shame, because it's such a great script, but there's no way Mattel is agreeing to this.’”

Though the movie celebrates the Barbie franchise and has a lot of easter eggs for Barbie fans, it’s also deeply aware of the brand’s shortcomings and makes many jokes at Mattel’s expense. 

In the same film where Barbies are celebrated as being role models for young girls, Mattel is also depicted as an organization filled almost entirely with men who spout empty platitudes about the importance of women without actually doing anything to make them equally as powerful. 

Throughout her journey in the real world, Barbie’s plastic and simplistic view of womanhood gives way to a recognition of the real and challenging ways that women move through and experience the world. Barbie’s character arc masterfully captures one of the film’s core messages; that life is filled with complexities and contradictions.

“Barbie” isn’t necessarily a movie that I would recommend for young children, only because they’re not the core audience for this film. They’ll definitely love the adventure, but the people who would most resonate with the core message of “Barbie” are the girls who have long since moved on from playing with dolls, and have been forced to deal with a world that isn’t nearly as fair as what they were led to believe. 

Barbie celebrates female friendships and empowerment while also directly highlighting the abundance of contradictions that women are expected to constantly uphold.

America Ferrera, who plays mother and Mattel employee Gloria, at one point gives a speech about these contradictions, saying in part, “You have to answer for men's bad behavior, which is insane, but if you point that out, you're accused of complaining. You're supposed to stay pretty for men, but not so pretty that you tempt them too much or that you threaten other women because you're supposed to be a part of the sisterhood.”

It’s also refreshing to see that Barbie is a woman-centered film, which is vital considering Variety reported that only 33% of top-grossing films last year centered on female protagonists. 

There’s been some discussion online about whether men should even consider watching the Barbie movie because men only exist as side characters. It’s an argument that doesn’t hold much water, considering that women have been watching films with exclusively male protagonists for years and have found lots of meaning relating to folks with different lived experiences than them. 

Not to mention, as Barbie learns how differently women are treated in the real world, Ken also learns about how much power real men have compared to the Kens in Barbieland. Thus, Ken’s side journey is equally important to the message of the film as he discovers that patriarchy is just as damaging to men as it is to women. 

At the end of the day, it may be a mistake to dismiss Barbie based on it’s bright-pink exterior or a long-held childhood grudge against the doll. Barbie is a hit in more ways than one, and it’s worth buying a ticket to check it out.