Barbie

Each person is unique and Film Barbie is the biggest. For some time I didn't know if all the components could fit together, and truth be told, I hesitated if they would at least be able to fit in some way. But the plan worked out, and the combination of satire, musical, family drama, commentary, and the craziest comedy can work as a summer spectacle and as a topic for endless conversation. And it doesn't matter that it's drenched in three layers of pink absurdity. (08/13/2023)

It's cute, it's funny and smart, it looks and sounds beautiful, but I felt like I'd seen it before. Rather than the copycat of The Lego Movie that the trailer smacked of, Barbie ends up reminding me of a run-of-the-mill but still more than good Pixar film. But I really like the campaign around the film, which for the first time in a long time (at least where I live, anyway) managed to get a lot of people excited about going to the cinema wearing something pink, from a baseball cap to a bathrobe, and just go have fun. That's good. (07/29/2023)

I didn't fall for it. At its very core, Barbie is as shallow and superficial as what it mocks all along. I can totally see the brainstorming sessions between the Mattel and Warner Brothers executives, in roundtables similar to the one Will Ferrell had in the film: "Hey, we need to boost the sales of our rubber dolls, how about we make some seemingly socially critical pulp fiction, wrap it in basic lessons about the workings of the patriarchy and the status of women in society, and just take a little dig at our corporation on the side to make it look self-aware to the naysayers of our product line.... ". Well, what comes out of a corporation making fun of corporatist? Yes, just corporate toothless humor, created on commission, and made to answer to those at the top who pay for it. PS: I'll slap two stars, for the opening (really funny) reminiscence of A Space Odyssey and then for the brief scene where Margot tells a naturally aged woman that she's beautiful. That's what the Botox princesses, led by Nicole Kidman, should be playing in a loop to light up their barbie heads. (12/13/2023)

My daughter recently told me she was absolutely pink with joy that I took her to the playground. That phrase kept coming back to me as I watched this film, because it is essentially about the loss of joy, but pretends to be about something else. It's not grim philosophy, but a terribly simple and basic petty battle of the sexes. The sequence of sketches and funny scenes works well, including the great cast. The finale, however, is all about the fact that from a certain point onwards, the pink joy disappears and I'll have to watch it live, unable to do anything about it. (08/05/2023)

The exploration of the real world by people coming from Barbie Land is stimulating and original and hints at the promise of a clever, fresh and original satire reflecting the pseudo-problems of contemporary (western) society. But the potential inherent in that is cut dead by the subsequent “gender conflict” and its childish resolution to which the film resorts. And that’s a shame. Even the balance of entertainment for children and adults doesn’t work here, since the movie is not for kids at all. But let’s be glad that audiences are returning in large numbers to cinemas now that the pandemic is over. Barbie deserves thanks for that. And special praise goes to the originator of the brilliant “Barbenheimer” marketing concept, though the hardworking crew around Tom Cruise didn’t deserve to have M:I-7 overshadowed. (08/16/2023)