Barbie Review: A Satisfying, Out-of-the-Box Celebration

Love her or hate her, there is one thing that everyone can agree on: Barbie is ubiquitous. The iconic Mattel doll is such a cultural entity that everyone knows something about Barbie, which makes the idea of a big-budget, live-action movie about Barbie a curiosity even before the film starts. Would Barbie be a long, glossy commercial for a doll? What message would a movie about a toy with a lot of baggage — metaphorical, of course — send? Is there even a story here that’s worth telling and, if so, how can you take a candy-colored fantasy world of plastic and make it something more? Fortunately for moviegoers, Barbie fans, and Barbie haters, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie delivers beyond wildest dreams with the idea that a life in plastic itself may not be fantastic, but it is subversive, insightful, funny, and inspiring — with just the right amount of Kenergy.

In Barbie, viewers are taken to Barbieland, a pink-drenched fantasy world where everything and everyone is perfect, until it’s not, when Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) finds herself malfunctioning with invasive thoughts of death and her feet suddenly going flat. This sends her to visit Barbieland’s mysterious sage Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), who reveals that a rift has opened between Barbieland and the real world and that Barbie must find the girl playing with the doll version of herself to fix things. An eye-opening adventure to California ensues, with Ken (Ryan Gosling), eager for Barbie’s attention and affection, along for the ride.

California ends up being a point of no return for Barbie and where the real story of the film unfolds as Barbie’s sense of self begins to unravel while Ken’s is also altered, and it’s where the brilliance of this film really starts to shine. Written by both Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, Barbie manages to be razor-sharp in its look at society with its sexism, double standards, and complicated power structures, while also sensitive, humane, and hilarious in equal measure. There is some incredible writing all throughout this film, so much so that even the goofier, more “plastic” aspects of things just work and make it much easier to just nod and accept the things that make a little less sense than maybe they could — the inclusion of the Mattel bigwigs, for example, genuinely feels mostly unnecessary.

That writing is elevated to its peak level by truly outstanding performances. Gosling, who has already shown that he has great Kenergy in the Barbie press tour, takes things to the next level and steals nearly every single scene he’s in. His Ken, an earnest, wide-eyed, good-intentioned, if not dim and misguided himbo of a doll man, is easily one of the best performances in the film and if there is justice in this world, it will make him an Oscar contender. Robbie’s Barbie is also a true artistic feat, with Robbie bringing a quiet nuance to an over-the-top character that is in many respects unlike anything we’ve seen from her before. Yes, there are times when she channels some of her previous characters — particularly that of Harley Quinn — as she embodies the physical energy of some of her more “manic” roles into pure physical comedy, but as Barbie starts to become more real, there’s this haunting stillness and, well, humanity that weaves its way into her inflection and expression. America Ferrera also delivers a fantastic performance as Gloria, a regular human Mattel employee who, in particular, has one of the most important speeches in the film and her performance throughout is just incredibly relatable. As for the supporting cast, there’s not a miss in any of the performances — though Michael Cera’s Allan may be the film’s unsung hero and is quite possibly the film’s best casting decision outside of Robbie as Barbie.

Yet, for all of the things that work in Barbie, just like the doll itself, the movie is not without some flaws. There’s the Mattel bit of the corporate plot that, while used as a gateway for some important larger story elements, feels a bit like a rough transition (though Will Ferrell’s performance does not miss). There’s also a bit of underdevelopment of the human characters. While Ferrera and Ariana Greenblatt deliver great performances as Gloria and her daughter, Sasha, their characters feel a little flat as compared to the very dynamic Barbies and Kens. There’s also a bit of a challenge with the pacing of how things wrap up in Barbieland.

Even for these tiny things, Barbie is quite possibly Gerwig’s best film to date. It is insightful, hilarious, and packed with thoughtful commentary as well as an incredible amount of Easter eggs and one-liners that will reward audiences of every age and opinion on Barbie, not just on the first watch, but on multiple rewatches. Barbie pulls off the near-impossible task of taking what could have been merely a capitalist IP-driven cash grab and turned it into a celebration of and commentary on culture that gives the audience permission and encouragement to challenge not only everything they think Barbie represents, but what the world asks of us mere humans as well so that we never go back into the box again.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Barbie opens in theaters July 21st.