With a knowing wink, Barbie skewers society from which it profits

I have been looking forward to seeing Barbie for years.

Not because I played with dolls as a little boy; I was into trucks and bikes and rocks, but because from very early on it seemed like there were a few great filmmaking names in the mix.

If you’ve been paying attention to cinema in the last few years you would know the director, Greta Gerwig, as both films she has previously directed have earned her Academy Award nominations for Best Picture.

Her screenwriting partner for Barbie, Noah Baumbach, is also a known quantity in Hollywood, responsible for a style of highly successful, lower budget character studies distinct from what this project was expected to be.

But these two are obviously hugely overshadowed by the film’s leads, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, and I’ve no shame in saying that my excitement for the movie has been high since seeing photos of them decked out in matching fluorescent spandex rollerblading along Venice Beach.

They are obviously both incredibly pleasing to look at, but also they’ve proven themselves highly talented comedic actors, obviously essential for a film that could only be successful if it was going to be a highly self-aware satire of everything that is Barbie in 2023.

Capitalism, unrealistic beauty standards, feminism, the patriarchy and gender roles, sexuality and minority representation in mainstream media and life are all fair game, and I cannot remember laughing so consistently during a movie for a long time.

There is a unique joy in watching someone as stereotypically beautiful as Ryan Gosling, wearing only a mink coat framing his glistening, freshly waxed abs, whinge about needing to have actual skills to be useful or interesting.

Similarly, seeing Margot Robbie attempt to shake off being branded a fascist by an angsty teenage girl for perpetuating stereotypes of beauty, success and independence in a patriarchal, capitalist society was darkly hilarious.

These scenes also clarified exactly why parts of the political right have attempted to lampoon it for being “too woke”, but they are just taking the bait that was clearly placed on a hook cast entirely in their direction.

And just as the audiences of those figures will lap up their absurd, sexist, racist rants, so too will the film’s target audience lap up the main messages of self-acceptance, individuality and kindness and huge wealth will be created on both sides and everyone will go home happy. 

Because, really, a film like this is first and foremost a profit making exercise, and you only need to see that every car in the film, including Barbie’s classic convertible, is a clearly marked Chevrolet, to know they are not really trying to overthrow capitalism.

But capitalism has given us a few good things over the years, and this film is certainly one of them.

This review was first published at The Advocate.