{"id":3716,"date":"2024-01-02T15:00:48","date_gmt":"2024-01-02T22:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=3716"},"modified":"2024-01-31T22:21:14","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T05:21:14","slug":"movie-barbie-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/02\/movie-barbie-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"MOVIE: Barbie (2023)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Barbie\"Barbie
\n<\/u><\/strong>Year: 2023
\nRating: PG-13
\nLength: 114 minutes \/ 1.90 hours<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll admit that the only reason I watched Barbie<\/em> (2023) was because Greta Gerwig directed it. I loved her style in Lady Bird<\/em><\/a> (2017) and Little Women<\/em><\/a> (2019). Going into Barbie<\/em>, I was prepared for a full commentary on feminism, especially through the lens of the \u201cperfect woman\u201d that so many girls grew up with. And while the casting was flawless, there still felt like moments where Barbie<\/em> could have gone deeper with the subject matter but declined due to pressure from Mattel. Its writing was smart and snappy, but it\u2019s also a movie about a beloved childhood toy.<\/p>\n

Of course, a lot of Barbie<\/em> wouldn\u2019t work if the cast was different. Margot Robbie is the epitome of the classic Barbie look. Ryan Gosling gnaws on the scenery and almost steals the show (thus enforcing the patriarchy, ironically enough). Other standout performances go to Kate McKinnon, Michael Cera, and America Ferrera. That there are two movies about a beloved childhood toy with Will Ferrell as the \u201cbusiness antagonist\u201d is weird enough, but it definitely works for him. It definitely seemed like everyone had a lot of fun making this movie, and it shows.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also interesting how The LEGO Movie<\/em> (2015) and Barbie<\/em> become self-aware that they are toys used by children to live out creative fantasies. However, Barbie<\/em> has a bit more baggage (figuratively and literally) to unpack. Discussing the unfairness of the patriarchy is a heavy burden, and Barbie<\/em> handles it well at a surface level. Because, ultimately, a pithy plan to distract men and abolish the patriarchy can work in a made-up world like the Barbie<\/em> universe\u2014but not in the real world. And maybe that\u2019s why I\u2019m a little disappointed. I expected a scathing solution to the systemic problem to come from Greta Gerwig, but the movie ends up playing it safe.<\/p>\n

A well-cast, well-written lens through which to examine feminist problems, I give Barbie<\/em> 4.0 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n

\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" \"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" \"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" \"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barbie Year: 2023 Rating: PG-13 Length: 114 minutes \/ 1.90 hours I\u2019ll admit that the only reason I watched Barbie (2023) was because Greta Gerwig directed it. I loved her style in Lady Bird (2017) and Little Women (2019). Going into Barbie, I was prepared for a full commentary on feminism, especially through the lens […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,2,370,369],"tags":[3407,3592,3588,3589,1186,3590,2566,3591,13,921,8,25,1807,3593],"class_list":["post-3716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4-0-stars","category-movie","category-nominee","category-oscar","tag-3407","tag-america-ferrera","tag-barbie","tag-feminism","tag-greta-gerwig","tag-kate-mckinnon","tag-margot-robbie","tag-michael-cera","tag-movie","tag-patriarchy","tag-review","tag-ryan-gosling","tag-the-lego-movie","tag-will-ferrell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3716"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3719,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3716\/revisions\/3719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}