Ruth Handler, at the time the president of toy manufacturer Mattel, created the Barbie doll toy with her husband Elliot after noticing their daughter Barbara assigned adult roles to her infant dolls. On a trip to Europe in 1956, she was fascinated by the German Bild Lilli doll, an adult-figured doll, and realized there was a hole in the American market for something similar. Upon her return to the States, Handler redesigned the Lilli doll and named it Barbie, after her daughter. Three years later, Mattel launched Barbie at the American International Toy Fair in New York City. The toy industry never looked back; Barbie would go on to become one of the country’s most recognizable brands.
When Margot Robbie announced in 2019 that LuckyChap Entertainment, the production company she founded, would be producing a Greta Gerwig-directed live-action movie about Barbie, I had no idea what to expect. Up to this point, Gerwig and her partner/frequent collaborator Noah Baumbach have mostly resisted the urge to delve into the world of big budget filmmaking. Last year Baumbach released White Noise, a $100 million apocalypse flick for Netflix. But besides that, the two are known as indie filmmakers—Gerwig at the helm of movies like Lady Bird and Little Women, and Baumbach for Frances Ha (which he co-wrote with Gerwig) and Marriage Story. These are two people so far removed from the mainstream, I’d never guess that they would want to go bigger.
Gerwig’s Barbie follows Stereotypical Barbie, played by Robbie (Suicide Squad), whose idyllic life in Barbieland—-a place fully run by Barbies (President, Supreme Court, doctors, scientists, Mother, Daughter, and Holy Spirit)—is under threat by the unfamiliar feelings of existential dread and self-doubt. In order to restore her inner harmony and perfectly arched feet, she has to go to “the real world” accompanied by Ken (Ryan Gosling; La La Land), and find the person who is playing with her. According to Barbieland lore, the creation of Barbie solved all injustices perpetrated at the expense of women in real life; girls smashed their baby dolls and abandoned their contentedness with being second-class citizens for the desire to achieve a higher status. To the Barbies, post-1959 America HAD to mirror Barbieland’s matriarchal utopia. Soon after her arrival to modern day Los Angeles, Stereotypical Barbie figures out it was just a myth.
I won’t further spoil the movie’s plot, you’ll just have to see for yourself.
Barbie is just as much political as it is entertaining, poking fun at American society at micro- and macro levels. There’s a reason why Fox News and the rest of the Conservative Right is having a full-blown meltdown over its release. Gerwig and Baumbach aren’t using the movie as a Trojan horse for a “feminist agenda,” it’s quite explicit. At times it’s in preachy, but for the most part it’s through quick-witted quips that you may miss if you’re not paying close attention. The two filmmakers have always excelled at dialogue, going back to their mumblecore roots. The film is also a direct criticism of Mattel itself, who isn’t innocent in creating a Barbie that no girl could ever live up to and is currently run by a man, despite giving off the air of being woman-led.
The acting in Barbie is perhaps even better than the writing. Robbie and Gosling play pitch perfect versions of Barbie™ and Ken™, and are buoyed by a who’s who of a supporting cast: America Ferrera (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants), Issa Rae (Insecure), Kate McKinnon (Saturday Night Live), and so many more that I’m afraid if I keep going I won’t be able to stop. If you give Robbie and Gosling good material, they will deliver every time.
The movie is hurt by what I see are two huge blind spots, however. The first is plot-related: The relationship between two of the movie’s main characters is strained and I hoped to see it resolved in a meaningful way. Instead it was rushed and pushed to the back-burner of the film’s plot. Gerwig and Baumbach are too good to let such a moment as that fall by the wayside. It could have easily been handled with more care and still be connected back to the more entertaining parts of the movie.
The second is related to the movie’s use of social criticism: Mattel neglected Black girls specifically, and other girls of color generally for decades. While the company created Christie, Barbie’s Black friend, in 1968, it wasn’t until 1980 that Barbie herself was Black. And even then, Black Barbie donned white features. Another 29 years passed before Black Barbie resembled anything close to an actual Black person. The critiques of American society and Mattel fall short without addressing issues of racism. Again, it would not have taken too much or railroaded the story’s plot.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed Barbie a whole lot. It’s truly the full package, especially for a mainstream movie about one of America’s societal staples. For me it’s great moments outweigh the inexcusable omissions. I laughed to the point of tears at its jokes, I gasped at its candor, and I teared up at its grand moment of reflection. I rarely want to see a sequel of any movie, but if the band gets back together for Barbie 2, I’d be willing to watch.
Are you going to see Barbenheimer this weekend?