Greta Gerwig, once an icon of American independent cinema, an actress and director, makes her definitive entry into the mainstream with a film that is risky in many of its artistic, economic and even political aspects. It cost $145 million to make Barbie, and thanks to one of the most impressive marketing campaigns of the past years (it cost $150 million alone), it was able to recoup its production in its first three days only in American theaters alone (it has 4,200 halls at its disposal). . A film that opens a cultural, ideological and commercial discussion…
American feminist Gloria Steinem once said that Barbie represents “everything the feminist movement has tried to escape from.” Slender and blonde at first, the doll was the epitome of a culture of consumerism and commodification of women, responsible for imposing stereotypes of beauty and hypersexuality among girls who, in the long run, were frustrated at not being able to reach the perfection that Mattel had made the standard associated with its beloved doll.
Greta Gerwig — who had already made a feminist splash in her two previous softly-spoken films, the biopic Lady Bird (2017) and then brought it into the world of Louisa May Alcott in Little Women (2019) — not only escapes this controversy, she embraces it and makes it part of it. essential of her story.
In this sense, if “Barbie” is indeed a primarily female film (I am not saying that it utters men, but it is clear that they are not its primary goal), then in the hands of Gerwig it is more focused on that feminist group known as the “Green Tide”, which is a group of Abortion rights movements across the Americas have collectively adopted the color green as their symbol. Not only that, director and co-writer (and husband) Noah Bomback also incorporates Mattel itself into the film, and its founder, Ruth Handler, the Jewish businesswoman who created Barbie in 1959, before she was kicked out of her own company due to fraud cases and later had to retire. Her breasts were removed, and then she made a second fortune by creating a breast prosthesis company!
It is precisely this political realm, if you will, that makes Barbie a relatively risky venture in the world of mass-aspirational blockbusters designed for the holiday season, as well as limiting the target audience even more, given the fatigue that younger girls may feel. Amidst many questions about the patriarchal system, the film feeds them throughout its duration and at times overshadows the text itself. In any case, Gerwig always creates a second, more comical and superficial level that guarantees that “Barbie” will be the successful commercial film that the producing company needs (Warner Brothers, which chose to release it in American cinemas in conjunction with the movie “Oppenheimer” by its former director, Christopher Nolan).
Imagine a Toy Story film peppered with the aesthetics of The Wizard of Oz, the writings of feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey, and the film worlds of Jacques Demy or Stanley Donen, and we begin to approach the postmodern, complex, and exhilarating mix suggested by Greta Gerwig in Barbie, the ambitious and fun comedy that She takes unexpected risks without giving up her ambition to become a major pop star. It’s a movie that desperately wants to be “musical,” but the market doesn’t allow that much. It is easier for families to accept the complex discussions Gerwig enables about the ambiguous relationship between men and women in the different phases and concepts of feminism than it is for an entire movie in which people say things and ideas while performing songs. But the prevailing spirit is that of the Hollywood musical par excellence, those films that operate in the most rarefied of worlds and in which, somehow, sheer fantasy mixes with stark reality.
The first few minutes are staggeringly beautiful and dizzying, with the sumptuous art design (Sarah Greenwood) occasionally reminiscent of Wes Anderson style, while Mexican camera Rodrigo Brito (a regular Martin Scorsese collaborator) and Gerwig’s playful, funny, and flowing narrative immerse the viewer in the everyday life of Barbie. Land, that pink world where no one questions a thing, where everything works perfectly and always magically. Until one day, to the amazement of the entire community, Barbie (Margot Robbie, who seems to have been born to play this role) begins to contemplate death, after discovering that her body suffers from cellulite, and at the suggestion of her strange therapist (Kate McKinnon), she should go to the real world ( Los Angeles) to confront the girl/owner who must have those thoughts and feelings in the real world, and to solve them you have to go there, find her and see what she is.
When Barbie drives off to Los Angeles in her motorless convertible, she discovers that Ken (Ryan Gosling, in what might be the best performance of his career), the hot, jealous, sweetheart seeking boyfriend, has snuck into her car and has no choice but to accept him as her ride. Once in California, they realize that not only is the real world irrelevant to the world they live in, but everything is quite the opposite. Men control everything, and women there are like Kens of Barbie Land, and there is something called “patriarchy” which for Ken is a discovery, so that he will try to impose it in “Barbie Land” itself. Alongside this culture shock, Barbie tries to find the girl who cast her spell on her and caused such an existential and physical crisis, who turns out to be rebellious Latino teen Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt), who along with her mother Gloria (America Ferrera) will be a major presence throughout the half. The second, when Mattel executives try to catch Barbie before things get too complicated.
Although Barbie gets some very effective occasional appearances (for example, Will Farrell appears as the president of Mattel), and explores many provocative situations, at times the film is too obvious in its totally unnecessary and easy descent. Calligraphy in the context of a story has these distinctive characteristics. But far from these obsessions and excesses, the film was shot with a great deal of intelligence and prudence, as it was elegantly designed and embodied by an effective cast (starting with the flawless Robbie and Gosling). All the elements harmonize with a bombastic, excessive, and delirious tone that the director gives to the story in general, which makes it easily digestible and often subversive for a spectator who has never dealt with something like patriarchy, or perhaps never had to.
Whether Barbie achieved the commercial success that everyone expected thanks to an advertising campaign that cost more than the budget of the film itself will remain a topic of debate and controversy, but it is clear that Gerwig did not betray herself or her style, but rather entered the mainstream with a rare lightness and freedom that deserves to be celebrated. It was already known that Gerwig would feminize Barbie. But “Barbie” became not only a feminist movie, but a movie about feminism. Not only does it align with feminism, but it also rethinks and reflects on it, without making unnecessary statements.
