The iconic doll comes to life Greta Gerwig's magnificent 'Barbie' movie

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn't exist.

Does anyone do propaganda quite like the American movie industry? It could hardly be otherwise, given how it passes itself off as a bastion of liberal progressivism - albeit to limited success - while embracing how it is just as likely to consume its brightest stars.

Hollywood then, has drawn the crowds both for its depiction as a magical place where dreams come true and as a seductively hellish landscape which unleashes spectacular and voraciously consumed public tragedies. Regardless of whether its protagonists live out the dream or the nightmare, the machine churns on. That is, until it finally doesn’t.

The reaction can be far more mixed when a film tries to tell a story with various shades of gray, or at least more complicated messaging. But stakes and standards alike are raised considerably when a movie attempts to take on anything resembling seriousness, or god forbid, feminism.

2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

So while Greta Gerwig may have co-wrote the screenplay for “Barbie” with her husband and frequent collaborator Noah Baumbach, she is very much in the spotlight on this one, and the light could easily become glaring. Nevermind that she’s practically built her career, directorial and otherwise, on critically and commercially successful female-centric content. To direct a feminist film in the current cultural landscape is to take on the risk of bombardment from all sides, from a right obsessed with taking down anyone who dares to think that someone besides a straight white cis male should have rights, and even from many on the left who are just as likely to dish out cruelty to anyone who deviates from their vision of progress.

Mind-boggling as it may be to call a film made by very established filmmakers whose latest effort is courtesy of one of the biggest and most recognizable corporations in the world and stars one of today’s most beautiful and popular actresses in the title role an underdog, the sheer amount of scrutiny might just push it in that territory. For one of the most successful products ever sold no less.

At least you can count on a filmmaker like Gerwig to embrace the contradictions of that very premise while getting a certain amount of leeway from Mattel to criticize corporate policy. But first, Margot Robbie works her own magic as her Stereotypical Barbie introduces us to Barbie Land, a plastic paradise where she and the other Barbies live perfect lives where they imagine they’ve solved all the problems of womankind.

Such perfection is made to crack, and Barbie finds herself in an all-out existential crisis where she must travel to real world Los Angeles to connect with the girl who plays with her in order to solve it, Ken (Ryan Gosling) in tow. Once they arrive, Barbie is not only forced to contend with a patriarchy where she feels the sting of catcalling and self-consciousness for the first time, she discovers that the blame for consumerism and sexism is laid at her feet, and is even accused of being a fascist.

2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

However, Ken finds the perfect outlet for his feelings of resentment at being taken for granted and ignored, and quickly brings male domination back to Barbie Land. Barbie must quickly contend with saving both her world and the real world, with LA residents America Ferrera and Ariana Greenblatt as a mother and daughter to provide the grounding influence as well as tips on how to take on male entitlement.

Embedding a good story in a corporate product isn’t new by any means, and is practically a given for filmmakers whose options for smart, thoughtful storytelling have become severely limited in the age of IP. But “The Lego Movie” never faced expectations like this, and it certainly doesn’t help that there are whiffs of early 2000s (a time which is also right on for Gerwig’s brand) feminism in making a beautiful white blonde the face of female empowerment, regardless of the diversity of the supporting cast.

All the meta acknowledgment of this very fact can’t save the film from the stench of those corporate expectations, even as the movie skewers the all-male Mattel boardroom, which is led by a reliably hilarious CEO Will Ferrell. Even attempting to make Barbie a feminist heroine in the first place feels obligatory, a result of Mattel demanding that the doll appeal to a new generation which is far more savvy to attempts to cater and condescend to them.

Perhaps the real shocker is that there’s no way to predict the places “Barbie” goes with the concept, even if many elements of the film (and whole scenes) will be familiar due to omnipresent marketing. Some will also find the feminist statements about the expectations for women trite, but there’s still a good chance that it will be new for a fairly sizable portion of audiences who have been shielded by environment and algorithms alike, and who will find such relief in their experiences being voiced in a blockbuster film.

2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

What Gerwig is attempting to accomplish is limited by the very nature of the industry, yet Barbie shows a remarkable resilience to being pulled in so many directions. Thankfully, the film never loses its heartfelt, sincere determination to do right by audience and product alike, and that sincerity is clearly shared by the supporting cast, which includes Rhea Perlman, Michael Cera, Issa Rae, and Kate McKinnon as a standout among standouts as Weird Barbie.

With so much going for it, chances are that audiences will very much relate to what may be the lasting message, that of making a world better rather than perfect. Especially when it comes coated in so much pink fun.

Rating A-