'Plastic is fantastic in a gleeful messy (feminist) romp for new Barbie movie'
If you’ve been anywhere near the internet over the past six months, you may feel like you’ve had enough of Barbie already.
A ruthlessly efficient marketing campaign has involved more than 100 brand collaborations and a barrage of viral memes including a spoof AirBnb listing for Barbie’s “Dreamhouse”.
But dollmakers turned film producers Mattel have saved their smartest move for the big screen.
Barbie (the movie) is funny, unhinged and definitely isn’t for young girls. After all, it’s their nostalgia-seeking parents who will be expected to cough up £350 for the actual Barbie Dreamhouse.
Writer-director Greta Gerwig, and her co-writer partner Noam Baumbach, soothe progressive parents’ worries over that impossible hourglass figure by remodelling her as a feminist icon. It begins by parodying Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi classic 2001: A Space Odyssey.
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Little girls are playing with boring baby dolls in the dirt when Margot Robbie’s blonde “Stereotypical Barbie” materialises like Kubrick’s monolith.
The new Barbie movie is "fantastic" (FILM STILL / HANDOUT)Helen Mirren’s narrator reminds us that aspirational new dolls including Astronaut Barbie, Doctor Barbie, and President Barbie followed. “And so all problems with feminism and equal rights have been solved,” says Mirren. We then land in Barbie Land, a plastic world where all the Barbies live in joyous sisterhood and the Kens are their bored sidekicks. Robbie’s Ken (a very funny Ryan Gosling), only comes to life when she looks at him. His job is “beach”, which mostly involves standing in the sand looking hunky.
But Barbie’s perfect world is shaken when she wakes up to discover cellulite and her stiletto-ready feet flattened.
Kate McKinnon’s “Weird Barbie”, a misshapen guru who has been doodled on by her owner, tells her these are signs her owner has become troubled and sends her to “The Real World”.
Gosling’s Ken tags along and when they rollerblade into LA, they get a surprise. It seems California is stuck in the 1970s. Workmen make suggestive comments, and when she visits Mattel HQ, she discovers the board is all male.
Meanwhile, Ken reads a book about “patriarchy” and heads back to Barbie Land to start a macho revolution involving “brewski beer”, man caves and leather trousers.
As a battle of the sexes develops, Gerwig stages gleeful musical routines and the script delivers some sharp lines. Her feminist parable doesn’t always make sense and some characters like Michael Cera’s Allan (Ken’s discontinued friend) fail to come to life.
But after over-polished blockbusters, this messiness feels refreshing. Barbie is a rare studio movie which is prepared to take risks. And for long stretches, it comes close to living up to its hype.
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