Barbie follows the doll with the same name as she tries to understand why she is feeling new emotions for the first time. She travels to the real world and uncovers the illusion of how women are treated between both worlds and figures out her place between these worlds. The film stars Margot Robbie (I, Tonya, Babylon, The Suicide Squad) , Ryan Gosling (Blade Runner 2049, The Notebook) , Issa Rae (Insecure, Spider-Man: Across the SpiderVerse) , Simu Liu (Shang-Chi, Kim’s Convenience) , and America Ferrera (Superstore, The Sisterhood of Travelling Pants). The film released on July 21, 2023.
This movie honestly felt like one of those 2000’s coming-of-age movies. One that came to mind while watching was 13 going on 30. Both movies have the main character learning their place in the world and finding themselves and how to be better. Everything in the Barbie movie was so well thought out for the viewer, even the jokes were about current events for relate-ability. The sets were so eye popping and aesthetically accurate to Barbie and her world.
The soundtrack as well is so fantastic and catchy. Most of the songs are in the movie so it’s fun to listen back and remember the scenes. My personal favorites songs are Silver Platter by Khalid, Speed Drive by Charli XCX, and Dance the Night by Dua Lipa. The beginning of the movie starts with Lizzo’s ‘Pink’ playing shows how perfect Barbie's days are. As the movie reaches the conflict, 'Pink' matches Barbie’s mindset and how she’s unhappy. The song ‘What was I made for’ by Billie Eilish played throughout the film, specifically during scenes when Barbie is questioning her purpose.
A lot of opinions online try to explain how the purpose of Barbie is to show how women are treated and their stance in the world. From Barbie’s perspective, women are important and are treated equally, without hatred towards one another. This is shown in the scene at the middle school where Sasha (Ariana Greenbelt) describes her as an unrealistic standard for women when Barbie is trying to introduce herself and ask for help. The movie also presents the argument of how men evolve from loving everyone and treating everyone equally to acting selfishly and cold-hearted for attention. This is shown with Ken entering the real world and seeing how men are treated by women and each other. Men stick together and applaud themselves over the smallest accomplishments and women stand back. Eventually, Ken does realize the error of his ways and talks to Barbie about who he wants to be, his own individual being.
My opinion of the movie? I loved and enjoyed every minute of it. Barbie has so many fun moments for people to talk about and also makes some serious points on how women are brought up in today's world. One scene I enjoyed was when Barbie is at the school, looking for her dolls owner. She's there with good intentions and faces the harsh reality of what Barbie is to some women, an unfair expectation. The movie will forever remain a classic and hopefully won't be dragged down by the future sequels and other Mattel movies coming out.
Rating: 10/10
