Barbie ★★★

In 1972, a group of feminist activists called the National Organization for Women picketed the New York City wholesale Toy Fair accusing Barbie of, according to the New York Times, perpetuating “sexual stereotypes by encouraging little girls to see themselves solely as mannequins, sex objects or housekeepers.” That is not the only time that the best-selling toy in the world has been criticized as a bad influence on little girls. With its long blonde hair and inhuman body shape, a University of Sussex research team conducted research published in a 2006 “Developmental Psychology” that found that Barbie reinforced unnatural beauty standards and low self-esteem in young girls. 

Impossibly high and unnatural standards of living are not presented to little girls and women from only Barbie. They underline everything from art to fashion to cuisine to social media, and much more. How often do you see a photo of a celebrity and wish that some part of your body looked like theirs? How often do you feel just a little bit lonelier after a friend posts about their romantic relationship on social media? The conceit of Greta Gerwig‘s Barbie is that these societal pressures are so strong that they permeate out of the real world and into the pink utopia of Barbieland. 

Beginning with a delightful parody of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the audience is introduced to Barbieland. Every day in Barbieland is a disco party. The Barbie’s, Ken’s, Skipper’s, Midge’s and Allan’s spend the day playing volleyball on the beach before heading to Barbie Dreamhouse for dancing and sleepovers. The plastic joy of Barbieland is thrown through a loop when Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie), whom we are informed by the narrator (Helen Mirren) is the image of blonde perfection that everyone conjures up when they hear the word ‘Barbie’, develops flat feet, cellulite, and intrusive thoughts of death. In order to fix this “tragedy,” Barbie is forced to leave her Garden of Eden and travel to the real world. Along for the ride is Ken (Ryan Gosling, giving a theatrical performance reminiscent of Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda, perfectly controlled in its hamminess.) a dopey, shallow stud, with a job not of a surfer, or a lifeguard, but only of “beach,” standing out on the sand, holding a surfboard. Landing in the real world in Venice Beach, Barbie is forced to learn about the realities of life as a woman in the 21st century and re-evaluate her perception of herself. This Barbie has an existential crisis. 

Barbie rests on the charismatic, assured shoulders of Robbie. Many other actresses would have condescended to Barbie, playing up the plastic, iconographic qualities, and the movie would have been turned into a cynical full-length commercial. Robbie turns it into an actual story, bestowing deep, recognizably human emotions onto the doll. She fully embraces the wide emotional spectrum, the arc of moving from youth into adulthood, that the movie asks of its lead. Robbie doesn’t reach, she simply is.

As director, Gerwig moves along the proceedings with the lightness, grace and rhythm of a classic MGM musical. She finds just the right note to play, and does so with such precision that the skill may not be noticeable at first. Like many great cinematic fantasies, from Groundhog Day to The Wizard of Oz, the whimsical script from Gerwig and Noah Baumbach knows which questions about its world to answer, and which ones to leave alone. Is Barbieland an alternate plane of existence, or an earthly state somehow hidden? How was it created? How are the life-size Barbie connected to their doll counterparts and its owner? Gerwig’s vision of the world is so enveloping, her storytelling so canny that she understands these questions do not matter.

Barbie is at its most charming when it stays in Barbieland, and it often finds itself in a tug-of-war between Gerwig’s artistic desires and the crass consumerism of making a movie for the production department of a toy company. Every so often there’s a whiff of self-consciousness, the feeling of Gerwig trying to head complaints off at the pass. Still, the singularity, the charm of Barbie is strong enough to overcome most problems. The strengths far outway anything else. Barbie is a delightful movie, full of girlish exuberance, grace, and intelligence. It is sure to become a perennial standard of sleepover movie nights.