Tropic Sprockets / Barbie

By Ian Brockway

“Barbie” by Director Greta Gerwig (Ladybird) is an entertaining and visual tour de force that works both as a popcorn movie and an art film. Warm and engaging with an affectionate heart, the film resonates with social commentary, but it is also pure fun. [Showtimes and trailer at Tropiccinema.com]

Barbie (Margot Robbie) wakes up in her pink and blue wonderland but something feels different to her. She is shocked and confused with absolutely no idea how to describe her sensations. To her horror, Barbie suddenly realizes that she is thinking dark thoughts specifically about death.

As a symptom of this, she realizes that she has flat feet that actually touch the ground. The other Barbies in her land are thrown in a tizzy and she resolves to speak to Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) for advice.

Weird Barbie tells her that there is a rip between the real world and Barbieland and Barbie must go to the real world to fix matters.

Barbie insists on traveling alone but Ken (Ryan Gosling) manages to go with her. After all, Barbie is the reason that Ken exists.

In the real world, Ken realizes to his surprised delight that people in Venice Beach treat him not as a doll but as an actual human being and he likes it. Ken asks businessmen how it feels to be in a patriarchy, and he then desires to be a man in absolute control, the master of his domain.

By contrast, Barbie is dismissed and objectified judged purely by her physical appearance. She is aghast and greatly saddened.

There is more here than glitter and glare. This film is philosophical. As an updated Pinocchio tale, this story is rich in surrealistic concepts and social commentary. It is even subversive in its unapologetic willingness to credit all of what is unique and magical to the imagination of women.

Margot Robbie is wonderful as the Barbie who wishes to live fully and completely and Ryan Gosling is perfect as the robotic and comically shallow Ken.

Though there are plenty of jokes here and fans of the Barbie toys will love the film, the story also echoes many films from “The Truman Show” (1998) to “The Stepford Wives” (1975).

Ultimately, this film may soon grow to seasonal cult status on par with “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (1975). The dialogue is that off kilter and memorable enough to rival any Midnight Movie.

Camp and Kitsch this film has in abundance but that is the point. “Barbie” is a work of Pop Art, but the art also has subtlety and reverence, there is something wonderfully human in Barbie’s startled shock and it is human too seeing Rhea Perlman as Barbie creator Ruth Marianna Handler, a modest septuagenarian with a twinkle in her eye. Barbie was created by women with both positive and negative potential. As such the toy and the film is as much a Frankenstein or Alice in Wonderland story as it is a Pinocchio one. The magic of this film is that it can touch on these varied concepts (as well as the Bollywood genre) in such a bubbly entertaining package.

Write Ian at [email protected] 

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