Movie Review I: BARBIE

August 7, 2023

By Bessy ADUT

As every young girl at my age, I was fond of Barbies when I was growing up and spent many years playing with Barbie dolls. My mom says she used to watch me play with them as if I was making little movies. I would give them roles in my cast, adapt fairytales I’ve heard, dress them up and by giving a different voice to each character I would play with them for hours and hours without getting bored. Sometimes alone, sometimes with a friend. My father who was known as the #1 videographer of Jewish wedding videos and bar-mitzvahs at the time, handed me a digital camcorder and I started filming them and making little movies with Barbies and Kens being my sole cast. When I heard stories about Steven Spielberg, who is probably my very 1st film director crush with his movies, started making little films in a very similar way with toy soldiers.

That was really fun. When I got older and found out my Barbie collection was either thrown away or given to some kids I was very heartbroken. I always imagined and wanted to save them for my kids. Well as of now, being a mom of two fur babies, I guess it’s ok. I can get more modern Barbies whenever I have or adopt kids, I could give them new trend Barbies instead of all the same standard White, blonde ones. That’s a personal side of things why I was so excited about Barbie coming to theaters as a movie by an Academy Award winning woman director Greta Gerwig. She is not only an Oscar winner but now she is also probably one of the richest filmmakers in the world or soon she will be. As a woman director/writer/producer that is also very inspiring to me. So let’s begin analyzing this box Office success film together. I should give a SPOILER ALERT please watch the movie before reading any further or don’t mind the spoilers. When I write movie reviews, I will assume you have already seen the movie. If you are one of the people who don’t want to know anything before watching a movie, please wait to watch it before reading more.

BARBIE begins with a very cute sequel as a reference to SPACE ODYSSEY by STANLEY KUBRICK. In the original scene, we see the monkeys playing with bones and getting all excited when a modern piece from future times appears in front of them. There is a nice little joke there in the beginning, one must watch this Kubrick film to get the joke. Little girls playing with little babies all their lives finally meet gorgeous BARBIE which is really the original Barbie by the way and they beat their older dolls. It’s a good funny start.

Right after, we cut to the BARBIELAND and meet our main BARBIE who is played by MARGOT ROBBIE, she did such an amazing job with this role I really can’t think of anyone better.

We see the ordinary World and life of Barbie. She wakes up in her pink bed, happily smiles and says hi to all her neighbor Barbies. She takes a shower with a close-up attention to always ballerina stand feet. She gets into her car by waving everyone with smiles and comes to the beach.

At the beach, we meet Barbie’s friends as well as her “boyfriend” Ken. Apparently, Ken’s sole purpose is to be looked at and liked by Barbie in this World. Women are very diverse and empowered. At the beach, Ken tries to show off surfing to Barbie but can’t seem to impress her and almost gets into a ‘beach off’ with another Ken. Barbie makes peace between flirting with Kens. In the evening, Barbie has a dance party with all the girls. It’s literally a wonderful life and honestly reminds me of my youth on the Princes' islands. Some of us had nice childhood summer vacations with lots of swimming and dancing back in the day like in Barbieland. Remembering fondly.

All seems well until the next day. Things start to change. Barbie wakes up and she doesn’t seem like she feels that great anymore. There is a forced smile on her face. Her milk is spoiled. Shower is cold. She falls as she tries to get into her car. And finally when she arrives at the beach, she falls again and notices something different. Her feet are flat! Real flat. That is a disaster. All her Barbie girlfriends surround her giving her advice to go see Weird Barbie to help with that.

Weird Barbie is sort of the Oz of Wizard of Oz in this movie. Kate McKinnon also does an amazing job with this role. For fans of this character, apparently Mattel is making a doll out of it should be out in the market soon. We open the scene with her funny dog. Weird Barbie explains the situation to Barbie. Apparently, the little girls who play with Barbie dolls have a connection with them. And as these girls have some emotional traumas, it reflects on the Barbies. Apparently, a kid played a little too hard with the ‘weird Barbie’. She advises her to go find the girl who played with her. She needs to go help her to help herself.

There is another funny movie reference to MATRIX when Weird Barbie presents two shoes to Barbie to pick from. The high heels as usual or comfy sandals. Very similar to Morpheous red pill and blue pill scene. Barbie wants to take the high heels and go back to her normal life. She is not interested in exploring more. However, Weird Barbie pushes her to make the ‘right choice’ so that she doesn’t get cellulite and become all wishy-washy like a normal woman.

She gets in her car and starts her journey with a surprise guest Ken hiding in her car. She notices him when he starts singing along. Then he joins her fun trip with boat, snowmobile, caravan and finally roller skates. This is a typical hero’s journey and as soon as they land in Los Angeles, is where they cross the first threshold.

People around them look at Barbie and Ken in their colorful, sexy clothes and comment on it. They either compliment or make fun of them. Barbie makes it clear she is not a real woman. Ken seems to like this World more than Barbie. It feels as if everything is reversed. They go change their outfit to pink cowboys is another funny scene.

Ken looks around and grabs the mannerisms of a macho man. Meanwhile, Barbie closes her eyes and imagines the little girl, tries to connect with her. She sees girl's memories with her mom and she gets emotional. Barbie opens her eyes and looks around noticing people’s emotions. She looks up at a tree, looks around sees a sad man. Then she sees an old lady sitting next to her and tells her “You are beautiful”. The old lady says “I know it” and they both laugh. As there are no old people in Barbie Land.

Meanwhile, in Mattel we see our ‘villains’ of the movie who find out something is going on in the Barbie land. We meet the little girl’s mom doing some weird Barbie drawings. Then we see a pink room with grown-up men. They decide the doll needs to be put back in the box.

Barbie finds the girl with her friends at high school. As she is about to go talk to SASHA a young student tries to stop her, warns she will crush her spirit. Barbie doesn’t take her seriously because she is pretty and everyone likes her. She goes straight to them to introduce herself, however, she takes a very harsh criticism instead of any praise. Sasha bluntly puts her down. This isn’t what Barbie was expecting and she runs away in tears. She didn’t know she made women feel bad about themselves, she thought Barbieland solved all the women’s problems like a hero. Sasha has a point about the sense of worth being related to consumerism. Students in the beginning comments, they never listen.

Ken reads books in the library learning about “patriarchy’. He is very flattered to be asked about the time, he feels respected. Ryan Gosling is also doing a great job with Ken going through his changes.

Barbie comes to the Mothership as Ken runs back to the Barbieland with all information he gathered to take over the Barbieland.

There are many jokes in Mattel where all the people in power being men and one intern commenting “I have no power does that make me a woman?” Barbie pretends to be getting into the box but then she runs away and Mattel’s goofy men run after her. A funny chase scene from the real World to Barbieland.

Here in MIDPOINT, we find out that the ‘girl’ who was playing with Barbie was actually Sasha’s mom. She feels sad when she plays with Barbies and her drawings are all the causes of changes in Barbie. Depressed mom couldn't be like Barbie so she made Barbie like her! A normal modern woman with woman’s problems! Boring mom with a boring job with a teenage daughter who acts like she hates her who can blame her, she just wants to have a little fun.

Mom, daughter and Barbie all go back to the Barbieland, just to find out that now it is being run by men. Ken is very inspired by Sylvester Stallone’s outfit in a magazine and wears something similar in his ‘mojo dojo casa house’. Women have all changed now they are in sexy maid outfits happily serving and giving foot massages to their ‘superior’ men.

Barbie gets so disappointed she just gives up. She doesn’t believe she deserves it. Depression and anxiety Barbie she gets into an existential crisis. Weird Barbie smiles and wakes her up.

Mattel are the very comedic villains that arrive in Barbieland. The daughter and mom sing a song in the car and we see they are rebonding again. The Allen character is another funny nuance in the movie who is supposed to be Ken’s friend but nobody cares about him much. N’sync being all Allens was another funny bit played by Michael Cera.

There are other nice jokes about the history of Barbie with the strange discontinued dolls. We are cultured, so to speak in an entertaining way.

Mom says “It’s impossible to be a woman” and she goes on a long monologue explaining how hard and complicated it is to be a woman. Later on, Barbies come up with a game plan to take their land back. In funny ways, girls get their brains unwashed and get together to take their constitution back.

Barbies all listen to Ken’s macho music with smiles “I wanna push you around, yes I will, yes I will” Then comes the “war of Ken” which is a pretty funny one and a nicely choreographed scene. It’s a funny musical scene.

Women take their power back with their African American female president Issa Rae. Barbies restored to autonomy. Ken cries this time and Barbie gives him an inspiring speech for him to find himself.

Sasha’s mom presents the ‘ordinary mom’ idea Barbie says she isn’t in love with Ken and after talking to the creator of Barbie “Ruth” she decides she would like to explore the real World some more even though she doesn’t know exactly where she belongs.

One of the quotes I loved from this movie is: “Humans only have one ending, ideas live forever.”

Some of the reasons I personally like this movie are:

• It’s a fun contemporary storyline and I think the screenplay has really some cool dialogue.
• Cast is an incredible assembly, every character in the movie did a wonderful job
• Art is incredible, production design, wardrobe is a spectacle!
• It’s such a universal movie; men, women, children, older people everyone could find something touching in this movie
• Absolutely entertaining but it makes you think as you laugh
• Great movie references

And it made the whole world turn pink for a while. Since the Barbie movie came out, I have seen a lot of people dressing up in pinks and other colors. This will be remembered always as the summer of '23 with Barbie. The movie did amazing at the box office and continues to. I admit I have seen it 3 times already! And I find it very inspiring as this movie was co-written, directed and produced by a woman director. The commercial success of the movie with upcoming merch is a whole other story. I believe it’s likely to reach or exceed Star Wars' success in merchandise.

If you have any comments or questions about my movie review please feel free to reach out to me.

Short Bio: I just would like to introduce myself to my readers. I am Bessy, I was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey but I have been here in Los Angeles, California most of my life ever since coming here on a Fulbright Scholarship and earning my MFA degree in Film Directing as well as finishing a Professional Screenwriting Program at UCLA after my Bachelor’s Degree on Film & Television in Istanbul Bilgi University and I have a prior art education from Pera Fine Arts School as an artist. Prior education F.M.V Isik Lisesi. I am still connected with my Jewish Community with friends and family both in Istanbul and Los Angeles and happy to be part of this community’s support to one another’s accomplishments. I’ve always been an avid reader, a journal writer and a movie geek. I love watching movies and I have been working at a fancy movie theater in Pasadena called “iPic Theaters” for many years as a perk of my job, I get to watch movies free of charge and able to bring my friends as well as getting good discounts. So if any of my friends visit Los Angeles please do let me know. I’d be happy to treat you to a fancy wine-and-dine movie theater at the heart of the city. I purse my filmmaking career working on a documentary project in development and early stages of production on environmental issues called “Searching for Goodness” as well as working other side jobs. I intend to go back to my writing and publish a book as well in a few years that’s in progress. Happy to reach out to all my beloveds wherever you are reading Şalom from. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any suggestions or comments anytime at [email protected]

I am very excited and happy to be returning to ŞALOM to write movie reviews about contemporary movies once again. It’s been a few years since I’ve been to Cannes Film Festival as press and wrote published reviews before I moved back to Los Angeles. I would like to thank both Ivo Molinas and Miryam Kaneti Molinas for reopening this door for me. Aside from filmmaking, writing and journalism have always been my biggest passions.

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Movie Review I: BARBIE

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