"Math is HARD! Let's Study Art as Social Commentary 101, Instead!"
When Greta Gerwig guested on NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!" she was asked this by the host, Peter Sagal: "Do you know—one of the things that happens, it seems, is that young, talented independent directors who make a successful movie on a low budget are immediately handed enormous Hollywood blockbusters. Have you picked yours?"
"Oh!" she gasped."A Hollywood blockbuster? No, I have not picked my blockbuster yet. But, when I do...get ready..."
This is not much to base a movie on. And Barbie is, after all, merchandise. My prejudice—and I confess I went in prejudiced—was this: Barbie is as important to the art of cinema as the Transformers series is. As the recent Super Mario Brothers Movie is. As important as the Lego movies are. Bottom-line, it's the bottom-line: Selling product, and Barbie the movie will push kids pushing parents into the toy-aisles at far greater numbers then before its premiere.
I just didn't think it would satiric to the point of seditious, which I must confess warmed my guiltily paternalistic, capitalist-suspicious heart.
Narrator Helen Mirren explains things to us as she relates the relationship between the Real World and the Barbie Merchi-verse. In a sequence that compares to the morning rituals of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Barbie (Margot Robbie) wakes up perfectly in her Dream-House, takes a shower (there's no water, of course, as Dream-Houses didn't), mimes brushing her teeth, has a plasticized breakfast, dresses, and floats down to her car as if being carried by an invisible hand, to greet the day and the many varying Barbies, Skippers and Midge (the discontinued pregnant one), before spending the day at The Beach, where she plays with her friends, under the ever-watchful, ever-worshipful gaze of Ken (Ryan Gosling, in a lighter mood than of late), who, as they say, covets. He has no idea why as he's a toy and has no chromosomes or hormones.
After another in a perpetual string of "girls' nights", Barbie starts noticing that things aren't so perfect: she wakes up with morning breath, the water that still doesn't come out of the shower is cold, the plastic breakfast is burned, and when she steps off her balcony to get to her car, she lands with a splat. No broken parts or joints, but when she gets to the beach, things get really "off the shelf"--taking off her high heels, instead of remaining walking on tippy-toes, her HEELS touch the ground...she has FLAT FEET!
What is happening? Barbie is supposedly perfect—she is, self-admittedly, "the original stereotypical Barbie"—and suddenly things are going wrong—"I feel sad, and mushy, and complicated"—and she even has thoughts about death. The other Barbies (and Kens) are totally grossed-out (totally!) and advise Barbie to go visit "Weird Barbie" (Kate McKinnon)—she's the one that was played with a little too hard and a little too long—because she's seen things...and she might know what is happening to our doll.
She does, of course, speculating that somehow a portal has opened up between Barbieland and the Real World*, and it has (no doubt) been caused by the Real World person playing with this Barbie, after all, "it takes two to rip a portal." Truer words were never said.
She sends Barbie on a mission to the Real World to find the little girl playing with her and existence as she knows it, and fix the rift, while also being showered with thanks by all those women who owe their wonderful lives to Barbie.
Oh, dear, this will not go well. And, she is figuratively and literally in for a world of hurt. To make matters worse, Ken has stowed-away in Barbie's C4 Barbie Corvette for the trip, although he doesn't know why, just that he has to, despite the fact that she is capable and talented and pretty enough to handle the assignment on her own. "You'll just slow me down!" she yells at Ken, without even bothering to mention that he might cause her to "settle" and derail a budding career in just about anything you can imagine for domestic bliss. Barbie's, after all, live in their own little world of accomplishment—and the movie makes the point that they don't even know where the Kens live.
But, it's a different story in The Real World, where men rule everything, can be anything they want—and women can be anything they want...at 60% the pay, and the thermostats in offices are always set for men's comfort, not women's. There's no day-care, and no parental leave, and, heck, women don't even have control of their own bodies in the eyes of the legal system, and heck, it's like they're just dolls whose job it is to please no matter the mood, and have no agency...and wait a minute, Barbie really IS in the real world!
Okay. Enough of the scenario, you might know where this is going. It's a polemic on the aspirational aspects of Barbie's play-world and the ways it differs from the reality into which those playing children will grow up. It's a satire with one eye on the world of imagination and potential and what happens when play-time is over and responsibility and irresponsibility go hand-in-fist, and life is a lot less fun. Just as hedonistic and materialistic, sure, but a lot less fun.
Credit Gerwig and Baumbach for threading the needle to make this laugh-out-loud funny and entertaining, while also making it smart, and almost too smart. There's a lot of talk of existential crises, depression-era Barbies, and prescient flashbacks ("Remember 'Proust Barbie?' Didn't sell well!") that are going to sail right over kids' heads (and some adults'), but hits a lot of sophisticated points. It tells you the Barbie movie is more aspirational in its own goals than your standard kids' movie that gets by with Saturday morning "don't be mean" social lessons. Here, it skewers stereotypical patriarchy and male egotism--which will make some adults and Ron DeSantis squirm--but, the kids will like the bright colors and the fashions and the sparkling gayness of it all (which will also make DeSantis squirm) while the parents worry about questions they'll be asked later ("I'll tell ya when yer older!").
Hey, parents, be glad there's no mention of "Barbie-heads"!
In the same way that "Rocky and Bullwinkle" skewered the Cold War 1960's while mixing in the most childish of jokes, Barbie treads (on tippy-toes!) the highly-charged issues of gender inequities and sexual politics in our "Old Man" Society, and doing it cheekily, with the knowledge that by aiming high, the kids will eventually catch up while giving the oldsters something to chew on during the ride home. Anyone wondering what audience the filmmakers were aiming for can be answered with the simple "Everyone...eventually."
And in so doing, it gives one more aspiration for little girls to fantasize about becoming: block-busting director.
Billie Eilish and Finneas do the final credits song and once again nail it.
Somehow...after the movie, that wink seems a lot more conspiratorial....
* I would point out that there is a natural barrier between Barbie-land and The Real World called the "checkout counter"...with uniformed guards!...but that would only complicate things in an already complicated scenario,
Shaun (Simu Liu), your friendly valet down at that swanky San Francisco hotel is seen by most not to be living up to his potential, and that includes the family of his pal, Katy (Awkwafina), who also valets, and she might agree with them, if she didn't also enjoy the slacker lifestyle and its freedoms.
But, they don't know the half of it. Not even the tenth of it. Shaun is actually Shang-Chi, son of the immortal villain Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung, MVP), who, after the death of his mother (Fala Chin) by enemies of his father, was trained as a martial arts assassin to avenge her death. When charged by Wenwu to carry out an assassination, Shang-Chi disappeared, leaving behind his sister Xialing (Meng'er Zhang) and becoming invisible in the world, and leaving behind the world of evil in which his father lives.
All this is to say: tip your valet next time. You don't know what he's been through to get there.
Look. This movie has spent a long time getting made. Marvel was going to do something with "The Ten Rings" as far back as the original Iron Man movie, kind of fluffed the chance when they botched the character of The Mandarin in Iron Man 3—it is alluded to here in this film—and it looks—for now—that they're going to center "Phase 4" of the Marvel films around it (at least until something better comes along).
I mean, c'mon, if nothing else this movie has Tony Leung in it...Tony Leung!
That's great. One could speculate as to why Marvel chose to go with "The Infinity Stones" story-line in the last phase, but it would be to the detriment of the studio and its perception of their audience. No, let's just say this next step opens up the Marvel Universe to other cultural worlds and can expand their exploration of the Asian culture beyond ninja's and sumurai.
Because, let's face it, the origin of Shang-chi (or "Master of Kung Fu" or "Brother Hand" as he's been known) at Marvel is a little cringe-worthy: unable to obtain the rights to adapt the TV series "Kung Fu" to comics, Stan Lee and the creators at Marvel decided to make their own, snagging the rights to Fu Manchu and creating Shang-Chi as his son. When the "Fu" rights expired, the writers changed the story-line/origin story and allowed the character to mature beyond pulp stereotypes.
The Ten Rings story is an interesting one—not unlike the Infinity Stones, but they're more complex and can do more things,* and it appears that the MCU is making them bracelets as opposed to the comics' finger-rings to make them visually more distinct than the Infinity Gauntlet thing. I'm sure there will be moans from the comics fans that everything isn't completely faithful to the originals, but then, the X-men never wore leather in the comics, either.
So, how's the movie? Pretty good—the first Marvel character movies have traditionally been good to great and then slide into mediocrity (with the exception of the Captain America series, interestingly) although the story is not much to write home about—Delusional Evil Dad wants son back and sends his agents to find him and bring him home. What makes it special isTony Leung Chiu-Waiis such a great actor that you actually work up some sympathy for him. Plus,Michelle Yeohis there as "Aunt Nan" (really) and she's always welcome.
Director Cretton keeps things fast and moving, including the dialogue, and as so much of this movie is fighting, he has a great way of filming choreography, which is always a plus in a genre where one should be as expert as possible in animating fisticuffs.
Again, an interesting start for Marvel which makes one excited for things to come.
* And I guess that may be my major complaint about the movie—the Rings aren't explained, they're just a given. They're magic. They do magical things. Why? And how? It tends to negate any sense of tension when there aren't any rules or limitations explained, so that when somebody gets the upper hand you think "Wait! Can he do that?" It's like playing a board game without reading the instructions. There's no meaning to it. It's an adjunct of the visually stunning Marvel comics that had those magnificent ships appearing over a cityscape and having it explained by a character that said "I don't know what it is, but it sure is BIG!"
