finally, I watched the movie of the season and I have one (1) thought on my otherwise empty head:
the little dialectic of barbieland becoming invaded by the idea of patriarchy and then barbies collectively organizing to abolish it happens all inside the little make-believe world of barbieland that the movie itself acknowledges is a reality constructed through children playing. in this regard, kens aren't really the patriarchy, they're a pretend version of patriarchy. barbies and kens can be easily interpreted as children imitating concepts they themselves do not understand that thoroughly. gosling's ken himself acknowledges that he wasn't really commited to any ideology in particular. he liked the aesthetics of patriarchy (he liked the horses!). so the movie can be read as brutally cynical, right? because it doesn't really do the same thing the matrix does (even when it's directly alluded): the matrix, a make-believe world becomes an important battlefield because it ties directly into the machines' source of energy (if people aren't convinced by the simulation, which can be read as capitalist ideology, then machines won't be able to keep humans captive in order to drain them). on barbie, the importance of barbieland is never really stressed beyond the implication that it changes mattel's toyline, which the execs do not want because of a vague commitment to, uh, preserving the essence of barbie? what. so by the same token that only allows barbie to be president of barbieland, barbie can only abolish patriarchy in barbieland. by the way, will ferrel sucks. but the ken number rules and is kino. that is all.
Ok is this movie actually good? I just assumed it was gonna be consumerist trash because it's based off a toy brand, but my sister told me it's legit one of the best movies shes seen this decade and now multiple people on hexbear are giving their hot takes. Should I go see it? I don't want to be memed into seeing a bad cashgrab movie like morbius or whatever.
the ken song was good
It really was. My favourite part actually
its really funny and the sets, acting, costumes, and general plot are great.
It was enjoyable slop and made no serious pretentions to try to be more than that. Even the sort of "woke" parts feel insincere enough to seem like decoration to an otherwise fun movie.
yeah its basic liberal feminist fluff. I mean if I was 12 im sure this would have been a real confidence booster, really hits the inner teen girl feels. but the movie doesn't pretend it can change anything. They didnt even get a single women on the all male board by the end of the movie, if anything the movie thinks progress is a long slow painful march that media cant change. the one political recommendation the movie makes is consciousness raising (in the barbie deprogramming scene) which is second wave feminism baby stuff. hated the left bashing of people who criticize barbie (women still arent shaped like that). I loved allen. edit: they fucking nailed me with the depression pride and prejudiced binge joke, it got the biggest laugh in the movie. they knew their audience lol.
it's literally a two-hour long advertisement
my siblings have bad taste in media too. for real though it's not actually a subversive kino whatever, it's just a movie that's meant to sell toys that has a couple of funny bits and was marketed to adults instead of kids
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It's fun to watch and it's kinda fun to think about, nothing more nothing less. Maybe wait until it's on streaming to pirate it, like I did for the mario movie, I wouldn't have watched it if I wasn't invited to watch it. The Ken song is too good for the movie though, everything about it, it starts like a parody of the d day scene in saving private ryan and ends as a dancing number in abstract negative space, the choreography is downright excellent, the song is quality, it's pretty good. Don't believe anyone who hypes it as anything more than this.
It's much less that the sum of its parts. There are some really funny scenes and the Ken number does indeed rule. But it's explicitly wrapped in a boring and pretty incoherent liberal feminist message that the movie can't help but dwell on (in what feels like a need to justify its own existence as more than a glorified commercial) to the detriment of the actually enjoyable stuff. Honestly the best things about it are the things that could be outtakes from Zoolander