Movie Poster

I was arrested for tax evasion, but that's another movie.

# Review

I finally watched the other half of Barbenheimer. The story follows Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) in Barbie Land, an idyllic world where different Barbies and Kens live carefree lives. Stereotypical Barbie suddenly starts experiencing human worries such as existential dread and cellulite; she decides to travel to the real world to find the child playing with her in order to fix the child’s problems.

The story is very silly and the entire film is riddled with a very meta and oftentimes self-deprecating sense of humour, which I enjoyed. While the Barbies and the female characters were entertaining, I actually really enjoyed the very exaggerated male characters, such as the insecure Beach Ken (Ryan Gosling) and the ironic male CEO of Mattel (Will Ferrell). The soundtrack is very tasteful, especially Billie Eilish’s What Was I Made For? which tied the film together and the very nostalgic revamped Barbie World by Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice, and Aqua. The aesthetics of the film is also very cohesive and the cinematography is very fun. Casting Margot Robbie as Stereotypical Barbie is perfect and Gosling’s Ken makes for a hilarious foil.

The film’s messaging, however, is where the film starts falling short. The messaging is designed to be satirical but feels very heavyhanded. This is especially true for the character of Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt), who is supposed to represent the modern feminist viewpoint, but came off very obnoxious and unlikeable. There are also many contradictions within the messaging itself and the core plot isn’t fully flushed out (probably to make space for the prescriptive messaging). I felt that the film could’ve been perfect if it just made the messaging more nuanced and intellectual but instead the film went for the explicit and shallow.

# Conclusion

A well-made film that could've been great.

# Overall rating: 7.4

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