what is the barbie movie reviews

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors.

Now streaming on:

"Barbie," director and co-writer Greta Gerwig ’s summer splash, is a dazzling achievement, both technically and in tone. It’s a visual feast that succeeds as both a gleeful escape and a battle cry. So crammed with impeccable attention to detail is "Barbie” that you couldn’t possibly catch it all in a single sitting; you’d have to devote an entire viewing just to the accessories, for example. The costume design (led by two-time Oscar winner Jacqueline Durran ) and production design (led by six-time Oscar nominee Sarah Greenwood ) are constantly clever and colorful, befitting the ever-evolving icon, and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (a three-time Oscar nominee) gives everything a glossy gleam. It’s not just that Gerwig & Co. have recreated a bunch of Barbies from throughout her decades-long history, outfitted them with a variety of clothing and hairstyles, and placed them in pristine dream houses. It’s that they’ve brought these figures to life with infectious energy and a knowing wink.

“Barbie” can be hysterically funny, with giant laugh-out-loud moments generously scattered throughout. They come from the insularity of an idyllic, pink-hued realm and the physical comedy of fish-out-of-water moments and choice pop culture references as the outside world increasingly encroaches. But because the marketing campaign has been so clever and so ubiquitous, you may discover that you’ve already seen a fair amount of the movie’s inspired moments, such as the “ 2001: A Space Odyssey ” homage and Ken’s self-pitying ‘80s power ballad. Such is the anticipation industrial complex.

And so you probably already know the basic plot: Barbie ( Margot Robbie ), the most popular of all the Barbies in Barbieland, begins experiencing an existential crisis. She must travel to the human world in order to understand herself and discover her true purpose. Her kinda-sorta boyfriend, Ken ( Ryan Gosling ), comes along for the ride because his own existence depends on Barbie acknowledging him. Both discover harsh truths—and make new friends –along the road to enlightenment. This bleeding of stark reality into an obsessively engineered fantasy calls to mind the revelations of “ The Truman Show ” and “The LEGO Movie,” but through a wry prism that’s specifically Gerwig’s.

This is a movie that acknowledges Barbie’s unrealistic physical proportions—and the kinds of very real body issues they can cause in young girls—while also celebrating her role as a feminist icon. After all, there was an astronaut Barbie doll (1965) before there was an actual woman in NASA’s astronaut corps (1978), an achievement “Barbie” commemorates by showing two suited-up women high-fiving each other among the stars, with Robbie’s Earth-bound Barbie saluting them with a sunny, “Yay, space!” This is also a movie in which Mattel (the doll’s manufacturer) and Warner Bros. (the film’s distributor) at least create the appearance that they’re in on the surprisingly pointed jokes at their expense. Mattel headquarters features a spacious, top-floor conference room populated solely by men with a heart-shaped, “ Dr. Strangelove ”-inspired lamp hovering over the table, yet Will Ferrell ’s CEO insists his company’s “gender-neutral bathrooms up the wazoo” are evidence of diversity. It's a neat trick.

As the film's star, Margot Robbie finds just the right balance between satire and sincerity. She’s  the  perfect casting choice; it’s impossible to imagine anyone else in the role. The blonde-haired, blue-eyed stunner completely looks the part, of course, but she also radiates the kind of unflagging, exaggerated optimism required for this heightened, candy-coated world. Later, as Barbie’s understanding expands, Robbie masterfully handles the more complicated dialogue by Gerwig and her co-writer and frequent collaborator, filmmaker Noah Baumbach . From a blinding smile to a single tear and every emotion in between, Robbie finds the ideal energy and tone throughout. Her performance is a joy to behold.

And yet, Ryan Gosling is a consistent scene-stealer as he revels in Ken’s himbo frailty. He goes from Barbie’s needy beau to a swaggering, macho doofus as he throws himself headlong into how he thinks a real man should behave. (Viewers familiar with Los Angeles geography will particularly get a kick out of the places that provide his inspiration.) Gosling sells his square-jawed character’s earnestness and gets to tap into his “All New Mickey Mouse Club” musical theater roots simultaneously. He’s a total hoot.

Within the film’s enormous ensemble—where the women are all Barbies and the men are all Kens, with a couple of exceptions—there are several standouts. They include a gonzo Kate McKinnon as the so-called “Weird Barbie” who places Robbie’s character on her path; Issa Rae as the no-nonsense President Barbie; Alexandra Shipp as a kind and capable Doctor Barbie; Simu Liu as the trash-talking Ken who torments Gosling’s Ken; and America Ferrera in a crucial role as a Mattel employee. And we can’t forget Michael Cera as the one Allan, bumbling awkwardly in a sea of hunky Kens—although everyone else forgets Allan.

But while “Barbie” is wildly ambitious in an exciting way, it’s also frustratingly uneven at times. After coming on strong with wave after wave of zippy hilarity, the film drags in the middle as it presents its more serious themes. It’s impossible not to admire how Gerwig is taking a big swing with heady notions during the mindless blockbuster season, but she offers so many that the movie sometimes stops in its propulsive tracks to explain itself to us—and then explain those points again and again. The breezy, satirical edge she established off the top was actually a more effective method of conveying her ideas about the perils of toxic masculinity and entitlement and the power of female confidence and collaboration.

One character delivers a lengthy, third-act speech about the conundrum of being a woman and the contradictory standards to which society holds us. The middle-aged mom in me was nodding throughout in agreement, feeling seen and understood, as if this person knew me and was speaking directly to me. But the longtime film critic in me found this moment a preachy momentum killer—too heavy-handed, too on-the-nose, despite its many insights.  

Still, if such a crowd-pleasing extravaganza can also offer some fodder for thoughtful conversations afterward, it’s accomplished several goals simultaneously. It’s like sneaking spinach into your kid’s brownies—or, in this case, blondies.

Available in theaters on July 21st. 

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

Now playing

Brian Tallerico

Simon Abrams

Space: The Longest Goodbye

Marya e. gates.

The American Society of Magical Negroes

Robert daniels.

Nandini Balial

Film credits.

Barbie (2023)

Rated PG-13 for suggestive references and brief language.

114 minutes

Margot Robbie as Barbie

Ryan Gosling as Ken

America Ferrera as Gloria

Will Ferrell as Mattel CEO

Kate McKinnon as Weird Barbie

Ariana Greenblatt as Sasha

Issa Rae as President Barbie

Rhea Perlman as Ruth Handler

Hari Nef as Doctor Barbie

Emma Mackey as Physicist Barbie

Alexandra Shipp as Writer Barbie

Michael Cera as Allan

Helen Mirren as Narrator

Simu Liu as Ken

Dua Lipa as Mermaid Barbie

John Cena as Kenmaid

Kingsley Ben-Adir as Ken

Scott Evans as Ken

Jamie Demetriou as Mattel Executive

• Greta Gerwig
• Noah Baumbach

Cinematographer

• Rodrigo Prieto
• Alexandre Desplat
• Mark Ronson

Latest blog posts

Second Sight Drops 4K Releases for Excellent Films by Brandon Cronenberg, Jeremy Saulnier, and Alexandre Aja

Wagner Moura Is Still Holding On To Hope

A Plea for Someone to Save Megalopolis

The End of the World is Going to be Weird on Prime Video’s Quirky, Clever Adaptation of Fallout

Review: ‘Barbie’ is a film by women, about women, for women.

This essay contains spoilers for “Barbie.”

When we walked into the AMC Lincoln Square 13 in New York City for the Thursday 3 p.m. viewing of “Barbie,” we found ourselves surrounded by pink. Women wore heels and sparkling jewelry, and young girls in sundresses clutched their Margot Robbie Collectible Barbies . We had come prepared—adorned in our own pink outfits, we happily took photos for a friend group in exchange for a few of our own. People laughed and chatted through the trailers, and broke out in whooping cheers as the movie began. Every seat was filled. The positive energy was palpable. It felt like a party.

In a nuanced approach characteristic of the director Greta Gerwig, whose previous projects “Lady Bird” (2017) and “Little Women” (2019) received critical acclaim, the Barbie movie is a hilarious, vibrant tribute to an iconic doll central to decades of imaginative play. At the same time, the film manages to be an exploration of Barbie’s cultural impact—good, bad and in-between. Through on-the-nose commentary on everything from Barbie’s representation of independent female adulthood to her unrealistic, idealized body proportions, Gerwig makes a movie as layered and paradoxical as the reputation of the doll itself.

Greta Gerwig has made a movie as layered and paradoxical as the reputation of Barbie itself.  

“Barbie” dives head-first into many controversial topics: consumer culture, growing up, parental relationships, gender dynamics and a multitude of other issues—offering commentary while managing to make the doll look great in the process. Mattel allowed the societal perceptions of Barbie to be examined, though the film ultimately reclaims Barbie, because Barbie can be whatever you want, and Barbie supports all women. Whether Barbie’s feminism is direct or ironic, the movie seemed to say, it is guilt-free to buy her.

But for a project that is arguably an action-packed, 114-minute commercial for a doll, the main thematic takeaway from “Barbie” is that life as a real woman is significantly more difficult but resolutely more worthwhile than “life in plastic” could ever be.

For those who have been anticipating the release of “Barbie,” the sold-out theaters and tremendous box office numbers (Barbie brought in $155 million on its opening weekend) come as no surprise—nor does the vibrant appearance of the audience, a result of Mattel’s marketing campaign, which included pre-film partnerships with brands like Gap and Crocs .

The promotion worked because it tapped into an existing market of people who grew up with Barbie. Created in 1959 as one of the first grown-up woman dolls for children, the affordable toy has been a controversial yet beloved plaything for decades. Like many in the audience, the two of us played with Barbies as little girls, and therefore had firsthand access to the complicated influence that such a doll—who is anything she wants to be while always looking perfect—can have on a young girl.

Using the aesthetic history of the doll as inspiration, the first portion of the movie is set in Barbie Land, where self-proclaimed “Stereotypical Barbie” (played by Margot Robbie) and the other Barbies live in a peaceful paradise, partaking in various occupations and leisure activities. Their counterparts, the Kens, do nothing except “beach” and act as platonic companions for the Barbies (when desired). These scenes are packed with clever humor and nostalgia for those who remember playing with Barbies—just like in our games, the Barbies never use stairs, only pretend to drink liquids, and say “Hi Barbie!” to every other doll in sight.

The Stereotypical Barbie’s blissful naïvete is disrupted one morning when she starts to develop self-awareness and anxiety, accompanied by dreaded flat feet and “thoughts of death.” In order to return to how things were, Barbie needs to venture into the “real world,” where she is instantly sexualized and objectified, accused of being a fascist by teenagers and jailed for assault after punching a man who catcalls her.

The main takeaway from “Barbie” is that life as a real woman is significantly more difficult but resolutely more worthwhile than “life in plastic” could ever be.

The movie follows somewhat of a hero(ine)’s journey arc, complete with a car chase and a rise to leadership, as Barbie tries to rid herself of emotional turmoil—and eventually, as she tries to save Barbie Land from Ken (Ryan Gosling), who had a much more enjoyable time in the real world and decided to bring patriarchy back to Barbie Land with him.

But while the dolls and their conflicts (full of inside jokes from Barbie history) are certainly the most fun, vibrant part of the movie, the human characters in the movie—particularly Gloria, a Mattel employee played by America Ferrera, and her daughter Sasha, played by Ariana Greenblatt—shift the focus away from an analysis of dollhood and toward an exploration of womanhood.

As Gloria and Sasha discover that they are at fault for Barbie’s weird behavior, they attempt to help the doll reachieve stability for herself and her community. In doing so, the audience is privy to a moving exploration of what it means to grow up as a woman, from the perspective of both mother and daughter.

The movie is almost painfully upfront about the struggles women face, giving voice to a certain exasperated frustration that may seem overly explicit, but for many responding to the film, just feels true. After Barbie is ready to give in to self-pity and existential dread, Gloria encourages Barbie to forgive herself for her mistakes and imperfections, expressing all the impossible expectations placed on modern women. “It’s too hard,” she says about womanhood, “It’s too contradictory.” Stereotypical Barbie stares at her wide-eyed, and Gloria’s daughter gives her a surprised smile. In giving voice to the emotions that started this journey, Gloria empowers the Barbies to reclaim Barbie Land.

The movie is for everyone to see and enjoy, but ultimately “Barbie” is truly a film by women, about women, for women. 

In the end, Barbie, having seen the gendered challenges of the real world for herself and heard from Gloria the exhaustion that comes with them, still decides to become a human—a woman.

In an emotional scene between the ghost of Ruth Handler, the creator of the doll, and Barbie herself, they discuss what it would mean for Barbie to leave dollhood behind. Handler holds Barbie’s hands and tells her to “feel.” The scene fades into a montage of videos of young girls and grown women, laughing, talking, playing and enjoying their lives. The videos feature women involved in the process of making the movie. When Barbie opens her eyes again, she has tears on her face (so did many in the audience).

For us, this felt very reminiscent of St. Ignatius Loyola’s Contemplation on the Incarnation , which asks the retreatant to imagine the three Divine Persons gazing down on the earth full of people and considering what stimuli imbue their senses. These scenes, of so many different people and emotions, flash before Barbie, and she is overwhelmed with the joys and sufferings of the world, with women at the forefront.

The movie ends with Barbie, newly human and clad in her designed-for-the-partnership pink Birkenstocks, going to the gynecologist. This joke wraps up all the references to dolls not having any genitals (which Barbie ostensibly receives when she makes the choice to become human), while, we think, stressing the importance of reproductive health and bringing to the big screen public discourse about a taboo topic. Like every part of the movie, Gerwig pushes boundaries of conversation through humor that is written to make women, in particular, feel seen.

At its core, the Barbie movie is a much needed tribute to womanhood. This is evident in one of the most subtle but moving scenes from the film, which occurs early in Barbie’s trip to the real world, when she sits at a bus stop, crying because nothing seems to be going her way. She looks over and sees an old woman, played by the famous costume designer Ann Roth (aging doesn’t exist in Barbie Land). Barbie smiles at her and says, “You’re beautiful.” The woman smiles serenely and replies simply, “I know.” In retrospect, this deeply humane and moving encounter prefaces Barbie’s decision to join the real world. It seems as if Barbie is recognizing the magnitude of everything a real woman is, and everything she later chooses to be.

The female characters Barbie meets in the real world show her that women manage to exist in a world that is so often against them, and do so best when working together. The movie is for everyone to see and enjoy, but ultimately “Barbie” is truly a film by women, about women, for women. It is a film we certainly will be seeing again.

Brigid McCabe is an editorial intern at America Media . She studies History and American Studies at Columbia University.

Laura Oldfather is an editorial intern with America Media . She studies Theology and Journalism at Fordham University. 

Most popular

Your source for jobs, books, retreats, and much more.

The latest from america

Filed under:

The Barbie movie finds all the fun in laughing at the men’s rights movement

It’s a takedown of toxic masculinity tied up with a pretty pink wrapper

If you buy something from a Polygon link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement .

Share this story

• Share this on Facebook
• Share this on Reddit
• Share All sharing options

Share All sharing options for: The Barbie movie finds all the fun in laughing at the men’s rights movement

I grew up in a Barbie household, as well as a deeply feminist household. Along with My Little Pony, Cherry Merry Muffin , and (prized above all) my extensive collection of She-Ra action figures, my mother gave me and my sister Barbie dolls for “imaginative play,” something Mom encouraged just as much as she encouraged us to play video games — for hand-eye coordination and for our potential careers in STEM, naturally.

Our TV habits were mediated with feminism in mind, too; I watched and rewatched She-Ra: Princess of Power on VHS, but I barely knew He-Man, whom I considered as irrelevant as Ken. As I grew older and met other kids, though, I realized I had been living in Opposite Land. Everybody else knew He-Man better than She-Ra. The female-dominated world of Barbie, She-Ra, My Little Pony, and so on was a farce. The real world was made for Ken.

Polygon Recommends is our way of endorsing our favorite games, movies, TV shows, comics, tabletop books, and entertainment experiences. When we award the Polygon Recommends badge, it’s because we believe the recipient is uniquely thought-provoking, entertaining, inventive, or fun — and worth fitting into your schedule. If you want curated lists of our favorite media, check out What to Play and What to Watch .

Heading into the press screening for Barbie , I regressed back into the beautiful, childlike misconceptions of my toy collection. I spent my drive to the movie thinking back on my love of Margot Robbie in Birds of Prey and I, Tonya , as well as my admiration for Greta Gerwig’s body of work, from Frances Ha to Little Women . Even knowing this movie would have to wrestle with Mattel’s involvement and control over the massive Barbie brand, I knew director Greta Gerwig and co-writer Noah Baumbach would find their own way to unpack and analyze modern standards of femininity and feminist thought. I figured it’d be a little funny, a little deep, maybe a little too basic, but hopefully smarter than The Lego Movie .

I did not expect Barbie to be a movie about Ken — and more importantly, a movie Ryan Gosling steals with such glorious aplomb that I can’t even be that mad at him for it.

[ Ed. note: Minor setup spoilers ahead for Barbie .]

Don’t get me wrong. Margot Robbie is no slouch as what the movie calls “Stereotypical Barbie” — the blond bombshell that kids in Mattel focus groups point to when presented with diverse Barbie dolls and asked, “Which one is Barbie?” Stereotypical Barbie starts the movie as a confident woman who knows exactly who she is, and doesn’t ever want anything to change. She lives in Barbieland, a fantasy realm conjured by Mattel that’s powered by the imaginations of kids who play with Barbie dolls. It’s a world ruled by Barbies, and unashamed of traditional feminine tropes. The president is a Barbie (played by Issa Rae, in a pink silk “President” sash). The Supreme Court is all Barbie. And every Nobel Prize winner in history is — you guessed it — a Barbie. Every pink-washed DreamHouse mansion in Barbieland is owned by a woman who makes her own money and spends her free time indulging in “girls’ nights” where everybody shares a glorious communal wardrobe.

Stereotypical Barbie has no reason to leave this beautiful feminine realm. She’s forced to trek into the harsh world of Reality only because somewhere, someone is playing with her while experiencing such intense existential angst that their emotions are reaching Barbieland and drilling into Barbie’s psyche. Her real-world owner is inadvertently causing her to think about death, get actual cellulite on her thighs, and even develop articulated ankles that experience all-too-real pain when she stuffs her feet into stiletto heels.

But even before the wall between Barbieland and Reality starts breaking down, it’s all too clear that this is Ken’s movie. At the film’s outset, Barbie has it all, and Robbie sells Barbieland’s bland, uncomplicated happiness with a frozen-but-satisfied smile. For Ken, though, it’s never been that simple. Barbie is happy by default, but Ken is only happy when Barbie acknowledges him. In a world where every night is girls’ night, Ken can never experience satisfaction.

Ken isn’t just frustrated about competing with all the many other Kens for Barbie’s affection — although that is an issue, with hot, comparatively youthful it boy Simu Liu playing a version of Ken who makes Gosling’s Ken sweat bullets. Ken lacks purpose in Barbieland, and he wants that to change. Without Barbie, he’s nothing — and most of the time, Ken is without Barbie. He’s an afterthought whose main role in life is holding her purse.

Barbie starts off slow, doing the work of establishing the cutesy realm of Barbieland so there’s a clear, dark contrast when the film eventually enters Reality. But even in this opening act, Gosling swipes each scene from the sidelines, his face wracked by the near-constant heartbreak of Barbie’s lack of interest in him. As a viewer, I was far more drawn to his arc, even as I worried, Is it a bad thing that Ken is the best thing about the Barbie movie?

But Barbie stays one step ahead of that thought, because it’s all leading up to an expert commentary on how little girls will always realize, sooner or later, that the real world is run by men, and that its Kens have more power than its Barbies. And once Gosling’s Ken makes it to Reality, he realizes this too, and he goes full men’s rights activist, transitioning from Barbie’s placeholder boyfriend into one of the most fascinating antagonists in modern pop cinema.

The film’s comedic yet incisive commentary on toxic masculinity is its strongest throughline, as it infects Gosling’s Ken, and eventually all of the rest of Barbieland’s Kens and Barbies. Whenever the movie is joking about the patriarchy and the very idea of the men’s rights movement, it sings. It also literally sings, with frequent in-jokey background songs, and a sequence where all the Kens bore their respective Barbie girlfriends to tears by whipping out acoustic guitars to sing at her rather than to her. We all know what we don’t want in a man. The far more difficult point to make, it turns out, is about Barbie herself, and what she represents. Who is Barbie in 2023?

Margot Robbie’s Barbie asks that question in a lot of different ways, but the answer becomes no clearer once she visits Reality. It’s useful to capitalize Reality when describing Barbie , because unlike Splash or Enchanted , this movie does not attempt to depict a recognizable version of our human world. Reality as depicted in Barbie is as much of a caricature as Barbieland, stuffed with recognizable tropes: sexist, catcalling construction workers; fist-pumping gym bros; and well-heeled white-collar executives who helpfully explain how the patriarchy works. That works perfectly to illustrate the extreme cartoonishness of men’s rights as interpreted by Ken, but it falls a bit short when it comes to illustrating the complexities of Barbie’s identity as a doll, a global brand, and a social phenomenon, much less a character attempting to understand contemporary American womanhood.

There’s a third rail that Gerwig and Baumbach scarcely dare to touch in Barbie : body image. Barbie designers at Mattel have struggled in this arena, too, as Barbie’s nonstandard but idealized body proportions have remained controversial, even as the company has introduced several variations in recent years . (They include a “curvy” Barbie, a “petite” Barbie , and a Barbie with articulated knees who can use a wheelchair.) Yes, Barbie can have every career imaginable — she can be president , even if real-life women can’t — but can she manage to rise above a size 6?

In the Barbie movie, she certainly can. Robbie definitely doesn’t have the proportions of the original “stereotypical Barbie,” although I’d say she’s close enough. (I don’t care to look up the numerical comparison, because it would only depress me.) But this movie’s full cast of Barbies would absolutely not be able to share their outfits, which the movie never explicitly addresses or resolves. Sharon Rooney of Hulu’s My Mad Fat Diary gets to be a Barbie without her size ever being mentioned. Hari Nef , the first transgender model to sign with IMG Models, is also a Barbie. Like all the other Barbies (and unlike so many trans people), she never has to worry about anybody questioning her genitalia, because nobody in Barbieland has any genitalia whatsoever.

Barbieland is a fantasy of perfect inclusion, yet it’s also a flattened one, because even in Reality, the issues facing non-Barbie-type women never fully surface. They get a quick, pointed acknowledgement from the mouth of Gloria (America Ferrera), a put-upon Reality mom who works for Mattel and still loves Barbie in spite of all the baggage that comes with her. At one point, Gloria runs down the ever-expanding list of double standards that modern American women face, such as the pressure to be “thin,” which women must claim is because they want to be “healthy” so they don’t look vain or shallow, even though they’ll really just be judged for not being thin. None of the non-thin Barbies react to this point, because they don’t quite work in a narrative that has to simplify all the social and gender issues it raises, at least if the credits are ever going to roll.

By the same token, the nonwhite Barbies and Kens argue about “the patriarchy” among themselves upon learning about it, but they don’t ever seem to learn about racial politics, even though Simu Liu’s Ken wouldn’t have existed 13 years ago. (The first-ever Asian Ken doll was, um, “ Samurai Ken ” in 2010.) And Kate McKinnon, playing a so-called Weird Barbie who experienced an extreme haircut and makeover at the hands of an experimental child, never actually answers the question anybody would have upon seeing her gay-ass haircut and knowing the actor’s sexuality. Yet even if no one says it, Weird Barbie is clearly Gay Barbie.

Skipping over all those conversations isn’t an oversight: It’s a series of intentional decisions designed to keep an already overstuffed, heady, and cerebral film moving along at a sprightly pace. I don’t need the Barbie movie, brought to me with Mattel’s approval, to offer incisive political commentary on every issue of the day. It’s more than enough that it unravels so many of America’s masculine anxieties of the moment, and that it does its job backward and in high heels.

Barbie the doll has to be everything for everyone, and she’s never succeeded. Barbie the movie has been asked to perform the same impossible trick — and just like I still feel a sentimental attachment to Barbie, I feel an overwhelming fondness and admiration for the movie’s daring attempt to make it work. I had forgotten that I had ever even experienced the dream world Barbieland offered me as a young girl. Barbie made me remember. That alone is enough to make the whole movie sparkle with surprising, refreshing fire.

Barbie opens in theaters on July 21.

Barbie World

• The untold history of Barbie Fashion Designer, the first mass-market ‘game for girls’
• ‘Cut and Style’ Barbie gave me the queerest moment of my childhood
• Meet the voice of all your favorite Barbie toys and games
• Barbie and drag queens share the same dreams
• Barbie Horse Adventures: Riding Camp helped me navigate the dreaded ‘Pink Aisle’
• Cock Ring Ken is in the Barbie movie, so let’s talk about Cock Ring Ken
• Everything Ryan Gosling has said about playing — no, becoming — Ken for the Barbie movie
• Barbie’s mugshot is now a nerdy fan art meme
• The Barbie movie is teaching us about all her discontinued friends
• Barbie movie set used so much pink paint it caused a shortage
• There are more than 40 Barbie movies, and we ranked them all
• The best Barbie gifts for fans
• The Barbie Crocs are my most coveted piece of movie merch
• Barbie’s iconic pink Corvette is coming to Forza
• Ice Spice and Nicki Minaj remade Aqua’s iconic Barbie anthem for the new movie

Loading comments...

Common Sense Media

Movie & TV reviews for parents

• For Parents
• For Educators
• Our Work and Impact

Or browse by category:

• Get the app
• Movie Reviews
• Best Movie Lists
• Best Movies on Netflix, Disney+, and More

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

• Best TV Lists
• Best TV Shows on Netflix, Disney+, and More
• Common Sense Selections for TV
• Video Reviews of TV Shows

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

• Book Reviews
• Best Book Lists
• Common Sense Selections for Books

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

• Game Reviews
• Best Game Lists

Common Sense Selections for Games

• Video Reviews of Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

• Podcast Reviews
• Best Podcast Lists

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

• App Reviews
• Best App Lists

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

• YouTube Channel Reviews
• YouTube Kids Channels by Topic

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids Channels for Gamers

• Preschoolers (2-4)
• Little Kids (5-7)
• Big Kids (8-9)
• Pre-Teens (10-12)
• Teens (13+)
• Screen Time
• Social Media
• Online Safety
• Identity and Community

Explaining the News to Our Kids

• Family Tech Planners
• Digital Skills
• All Articles
• Latino Culture
• Black Voices
• Asian Stories
• Native Narratives
• LGBTQ+ Pride
• Best of Diverse Representation List

Celebrating Black History Month

Movies and TV Shows with Arab Leads

Celebrate Hip-Hop's 50th Anniversary

Common sense media reviewers.

Clever, colorful comedy with sophisticated themes, script.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Promotes idea that feminism is inclusive of all wo

Barbie is curious, empathetic, brave, and kind, an

The main Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosl

A big fight among a lot of characters involves use

Ken asks Barbie to spend the night. When she asks

One bleeped "motherf--," plus a few uses of words

Barbie and Mattel brands are in nearly every scene

The Kens have a lot of "brewskis" (beers), as well

Parents need to know that writer-director Greta Gerwig's all-star take on Barbie has a sophisticated message about feminism and the patriarchy (and, consequently, a screenplay that will likely go over younger kids' heads). The movie follows "Stereotypical Barbie" (Margot Robbie) and her handsome but insecure …

Positive Messages

Promotes idea that feminism is inclusive of all women -- and that being a woman is complicated and sometimes messy. Barbieland is welcoming, if naive about the ways the real world works. Encourages women to support one another, to be free of the many standards thrust upon them by society. Emphasizes importance of finding out who you are separately from your relationships with other people.

Positive Role Models

Barbie is curious, empathetic, brave, and kind, and she doesn't give up on her goals. She realizes that she doesn't have to be "perfect" to have value. Ken is insecure and shallow but develops meaningfully over the course of the story. The Barbies have power (until they fall under the sway of the patriarchy), and they eventually learn how to coexist with the Kens. Gloria is an observant, loving mother, and her daughter, Sasha, is smart and bold.

Diverse Representations

The main Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) are White and conventionally attractive -- to the point where traits like flat feet and cellulite are, albeit satirically, treated as disgusting. The rest of the Barbies and Kens in Barbieland are diverse and inclusive in many ways. There are Barbies and/or Kens who are of color, have a disability (one Barbie uses a wheelchair), and represent a range of body types, backgrounds, and professions. One Barbie is played by Hari Nef, who's trans, but her identity isn't referenced in the movie. Gloria is played by Honduran American actor America Ferrera, and her daughter, Sasha, is played by Ariana Greenblatt, who's Latina. The movie was directed and co-written by female filmmaker Greta Gerwig.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

A big fight among a lot of characters involves use of silly weapons and physical grappling; another fight includes a chokehold. Barbie runs away from the Mattel executives who want to "box" her; they chase her in a scene with a lot of slapstick. There's a high-speed pursuit, but no one is injured. The Barbie cars spin out and flip over, but no one gets hurt. Ken has a fall and is taken to an ambulance/clinic for treatment. Barbie admits to having persistent thoughts about death.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Ken asks Barbie to spend the night. When she asks why, he says because they're boyfriend and girlfriend, but he doesn't know what that really entails. Barbie makes a comment about her and Ken not having genitals. A character wonders what kind of "nude blob" a Ken is "packing." Suggestive pickup lines and double entendres. After the Kens take over, several Barbies are shown flirting with and serving the Kens, often scantily clad. The primary Ken is frequently shirtless; some of the other Kens are too. Ken tries to kiss Barbie a couple of times, but she tells him no or dodges it.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

One bleeped "motherf--," plus a few uses of words including "damn," "hell," "crap," "bimbo," "tramp," "stupid," "penis," "vagina," "crazy," "nut job," "jeez," "oh my God," "for Christ's sake," "freaking," "frigging," "shut up," "up the wazoo," the suggestive euphemism "beach you off," and catcalls and double entendres.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Barbie and Mattel brands are in nearly every scene of the movie, including references to real Barbie dolls and accessories. Other featured brands include Duolingo, Hydro Flask, Hummer, Suburban, Chevy, Birkenstock, and Chanel. Clips from movies like The Godfather and Pride & Prejudice are seen.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

The Kens have a lot of "brewskis" (beers), as well as red cups, and a party scene shows the primary Ken holding what looks like a wine glass. He also mentions being "day drunk" at one point.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that writer-director Greta Gerwig 's all-star take on Barbie has a sophisticated message about feminism and the patriarchy (and, consequently, a screenplay that will likely go over younger kids' heads). The movie follows "Stereotypical Barbie" ( Margot Robbie ) and her handsome but insecure (boy)friend, Ken ( Ryan Gosling ), as they venture into the human world and discover the shocking-to-them truth that Barbie dolls didn't actually solve the problems of sexism and patriarchal control. While there's no sex in the movie (the Barbies and Kens are frank about not having genitals), Kens are shown shirtless, Barbies get catcalled, and there are suggestive references to the dolls' bodies -- including Ken's "nude bulge" -- and how a male-dominated society expects women to be ornamental and helpful. There's a bleeped use of "motherf--" (plus "crap," "shut up," "oh my God," etc.), a couple of big brawls with silly weapons, slapstick chases, beer drinking, and near-constant mentions of Barbie-maker Mattel. Characters demonstrate empathy and perseverance, and Barbieland is populated by a diverse group of Barbies and Kens from a range of body sizes, abilities, genders, and racial and ethnic backgrounds. The supporting cast includes Simu Liu , Issa Rae , America Ferrera , Will Ferrell , Emma Mackey , and Michael Cera . To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (184)
• Kids say (207)

Based on 184 parent reviews

Ruined by Political Messaging and Cheap Potshots

It’s pg-13 and i think that’s about right. but you know your child., what's the story.

BARBIE opens with a Helen Mirren -narrated 2001: A Space Odyssey homage that explains how the advent of the Barbie doll changed girls' playtime forever, allowing them to imagine unlimited futures and roles beyond motherhood. Then viewers are taken to a parallel universe called Barbieland, where myriad Barbies live in harmony with a bunch of Kens and their pals Midge and Skipper. Since Barbies rule this idealistic, inclusive land -- serving as everything from president ( Issa Rae ) and Supreme Court justices to Nobel laureates, surgeons, etc. -- they believe that the real world is similarly woman- and girl-friendly. None is more sure of that than "Stereotypical Barbie" ( Margot Robbie ), who's always perfect from head to toe, hosting nightly parties and sleepovers and occasionally paying attention to Ken ( Ryan Gosling ), who does little more than stand around at the beach with the other Kens and yearn after her. But when Barbie starts to have thoughts about death, she loses her permanent foot arch and sprouts a spot of cellulite, forcing her to visit the wise but isolated "Weird Barbie" ( Kate McKinnon ). Weird Barbie explains that Stereotypical Barbie will continue to deteriorate if she doesn't cross over into the human world, find the girl who's playing with her, and cheer her up. So Barbie and stowaway Ken set off on a quest to Los Angeles. As Barbie tries to find her human, she realizes that the human world isn't at all what she expected. Meanwhile, Ken is in awe of how much more powerful men are in the real world than they are in Barbieland.

Is It Any Good?

Greta Gerwig 's delightful comedy adventure is bolstered by Robbie and Gosling's impeccable performances, a top-notch ensemble cast, and a witty screenplay. The two stars are perfectly cast in the iconic lead roles, humanizing the doll characters and nailing both the emotional beats and the comedic aspects of Barbie's and Ken's development. The sprawling supporting cast is also well selected, with memorable performances from Rae as the Barbie president, America Ferrera as truth-telling human mom Gloria, Simu Liu as Gosling's rival Ken, and Will Ferrell as the smarmy CEO of Mattel. Three young actors from Sex Education -- Emma Mackey , Ncuti Gatwa , and Connor Swindells -- make notable appearances in supporting roles, and Academy Award-winning filmmaker/screenwriter Emerald Fennell turns up as Barbie's discontinued pregnant friend, Midge. Overall, Barbieland is a pleasingly inclusive place, where the Barbies and Kens can be more than thin, White, and blond as they sing and dance in their carefully curated outfits.

This movie isn't like the many animated Barbie movies , and its sophisticated themes may land better with teens and adults than tweens and kids. But the contrast between the movie's serious societal commentary and the trippy, nostalgic comedy manages not to feel off-putting or off-balance. Ken's explanations about the benefits of the patriarchy (horses, hats, all the top jobs!) are laugh-out-loud funny, while Gloria's passionate speech about the ways women must and mustn't act in human society rings soberingly true. For all of the jokes, there's a ton of heart in the screenplay, with Robbie and Gosling both getting many scene-stealing, moving monologues. Their memorable portrayals carry the movie, but the behind-the-scenes technicians deserve awards, too, including production designer Sarah Greenwood for the film's pink-infused Barbie-core set pieces, music supervisor George Drakoulias for the Mark Ronson-produced soundtrack, Oscar-winning costume designer Jacqueline Durran for the hundreds of authentic Barbie and Ken costumes, and director of photography Rodrigo Prieto for the fizzy cinematography. An ideal mother-daughter pick and a collaborative achievement worthy of the hype, this Barbie is a keeper.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Barbie 's message: that society has sexist, contradictory, unattainable expectations for women. Do you agree? What are your thoughts about what it means to be a girl and a woman?

Discuss the way that patriarchy and feminism are explored or explained in the movie. Does Barbieland treat Kens the way women are treated in the human world? Why is Ken so delighted to return to Barbieland?

Although the movie is about a children's doll, it's not really aimed at young kids, with its mature themes and humor. Do you think a movie inspired by and about toys needs to be appropriate for little kids?

Talk about the relationship between human mom Gloria and her middle school-age daughter, Sasha. What changes about their connection once they meet Barbie?

Did you notice positive diverse representation in the movie? Why is that important?

Movie Details

• In theaters : July 21, 2023
• On DVD or streaming : October 17, 2023
• Cast : Margot Robbie , Ryan Gosling , America Ferrera , Will Ferrell
• Director : Greta Gerwig
• Inclusion Information : Female directors, Female actors, Latino actors, Female writers
• Studio : Warner Bros.
• Genre : Comedy
• Topics : Princesses, Fairies, Mermaids, and More , Friendship , Great Girl Role Models
• Character Strengths : Empathy , Perseverance
• Run time : 114 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : suggestive references and brief language
• Awards : Academy Award , Common Sense Selection , Golden Globe
• Last updated : March 11, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

Our editors recommend.

Turning Red

Toy Story 2

The Brady Bunch Movie

Legally Blonde

Barbie Princess Adventure

Little Women (2019)

Goofy Comedy Movies to Watch with Tweens and Teens

Best classic comedy films, related topics.

• Perseverance
• Princesses, Fairies, Mermaids, and More
• Great Girl Role Models

Want suggestions based on your streaming services? Get personalized recommendations

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

• Tickets & Showtimes
• Trending on RT

Barbie First Reviews: Hysterically Funny, Perfectly Cast, and Affectionately Crafted

Critics say greta gerwig's send-up of the iconic doll is a thoughtfully self-aware, laugh-out-loud comedy that benefits from a flawless margot robbie and a scene-stealing ryan gosling..

TAGGED AS: Comedy , First Reviews , movies

Here’s what critics are saying about Barbie :

Is the movie funny?

“ Barbie can be hysterically funny, with giant laugh-out-loud moments generously scattered throughout.” – Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com

“Often funny, occasionally very funny, but sometimes also somehow demure and inhibited, as if the urge to be funny can only be mean and satirical.” – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

“The entire screenplay is packed with winking one-liners, the kind that reward a rewatch.” – Devan Coggan, Entertainment Weekly

“One of the funniest comedies of the year.” – Ross Bonaime, Collider

Will fans of Greta Gerwig’s other movies enjoy Barbie?

“In some ways, Barbie builds on themes Gerwig explored in Lady Bird and Little Women .” – Lovia Gyarkye, Hollywood Reporter

“ Barbie balances the incredibly pointed specificity of the jokes and relatability of Lady Bird , with the celebration of women and the ability to show a new angle of something we thought we knew like we saw with Gerwig’s take on Little Women .” – Ross Bonaime, Collider

“Never doubt Gerwig.” – Devan Coggan, Entertainment Weekly

(Photo by ©Warner Bros. Pictures)

How is the script?

“It’s almost shocking how much this duo gets away with in this script, and in certain moments, like a major speech by America Ferrera’s Gloria, who works at Mattel, it’s beautiful that some of these scenes can exist in a big-budget summer film like this.” – Ross Bonaime, Collider

“One character delivers a lengthy, third-act speech about the conundrum of being a woman and the contradictory standards to which society holds us… [and it’s] a preachy momentum killer — too heavy-handed, too on-the-nose, despite its many insights. ” – Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com

“The moments that aren’t just laughing at and with the crowd, however, are shoved into long, important monologues that, with each recitation, dull the impact of their message.” – Lovia Gyarkye, Hollywood Reporter

Does it stick the landing?

“The second half of Barbie bogs down a bit.” – Michael Philips, Chicago Tribune

”It’s frustratingly uneven at times. After coming on strong with wave after wave of zippy hilarity, the film drags in the middle as it presents its more serious themes.” – Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com

How does it look?

“It’s a visual feast.” – Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com

“Highest honors to production designer Sarah Greenwood, costume designer Jacqueline Durran and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto.” – Michael Philips, Chicago Tribune

How is Margot Robbie as Barbie?

“She’s the perfect casting choice; it’s impossible to imagine anyone else in the role… Her performance is a joy to behold.” – Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com

“She gives an impressively transformative performance, moving her arms and joints like they’re actually made of plastic.” – Devan Coggan, Entertainment Weekly

“Anything Gerwig and Baumbach’s verbally dexterous script requires, from Barbie’s first teardrop to the final punchline, Robbie handles with unerring precision.” – Michael Philips, Chicago Tribune

“Robbie is simply incredible in the title role… She has often excelled in these types of roles where we see the power a woman truly has in her environment, but there might not be a better example of that than in Barbie .” – Ross Bonaime, Collider

What about Ryan Gosling’s Ken?

“For an actor who’s spent much of his career brooding moodily, here, he finally gets to tap into his inner Mousketeer.” – Devan Coggan, Entertainment Weekly

“Ryan Gosling is a consistent scene-stealer… He’s a total hoot.” – Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com

“Ken allows Gosling to go broad in a way that we’ve never seen him go before, and the result is charming, bizarre, and one of the most hysterical performances of the year.” – Ross Bonaime, Collider

Does it feel like a toy commercial?

“It’s Gerwig’s care and attention to detail that gives Barbie an actual point of view, elevating it beyond every other cynical, IP-driven cash grab.” – Devan Coggan, Entertainment Weekly

“ Barbie could’ve just been a commercial, but Gerwig makes this life of plastic into something truly fantastic.” – Ross Bonaime, Collider

“This movie is perhaps a giant two-hour commercial for a product, although no more so than The Lego Movie , yet Barbie doesn’t go for the comedy jugular anywhere near as gleefully as that.” – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

“The muddied politics and flat emotional landing of Barbie are signs that the picture ultimately serves a brand.” – Lovia Gyarkye, Hollywood Reporter

Are there any big problems?

“If the film has a flaw, it’s that Barbie and Ken are so delightful that their real-world counterparts feel dull by comparison.” – Devan Coggan, Entertainment Weekly

“The only segment of Barbie that doesn’t work as well as it maybe should is the addition of Mattel into this narrative.” – Ross Bonaime, Collider

“Because the marketing campaign has been so clever and so ubiquitous, you may discover that you’ve already seen a fair amount of the movie’s inspired moments.” – Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com

Who is the movie ultimately for?

“ Barbie works hard to entertain both 11-year-old girls and the parents who’ll bring them to the theater.” – Devan Coggan, Entertainment Weekly

“ Barbie doesn’t have that tiring air of trying to be everything to everybody. With luck, and a big opening, it might actually find the audience it deserves just by being its curious, creative, buoyant self.” – Michael Philips, Chicago Tribune

Barbie opens in theaters everywhere on July 21, 2023.

Thumbnail image by ©Warner Bros. Pictures

On an Apple device? Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Apple News.

Related News

CinemaCon 2024: Day 2 – Universal Showcases Nosferatu , Twisters , Wicked , and More

Fallout First Reviews: A ‘Violent, Fun, Emotional, Epic’ Video Game Adaptation, Critics Say

Weekend Box Office Results: Godzilla x Kong Holds Strong

TV Premiere Dates 2024

Movie & TV News

Featured on rt.

April 11, 2024

April 10, 2024

April 8, 2024

Top Headlines

• Best Movies of 2024: Best New Movies to Watch Now –
• 25 Most Popular TV Shows Right Now: What to Watch on Streaming –
• 30 Most Popular Movies Right Now: What to Watch In Theaters and Streaming –
• Best Horror Movies of 2024 Ranked – New Scary Movies to Watch –
• Box Office 2024: Top 10 Movies of the Year –
• Best TV Shows of 2024: Best New Series to Watch Now –

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

‘barbie’ review: margot robbie and ryan gosling in doll comedy from greta gerwig that delivers the fun but fudges the politics.

Barbie and Ken venture into the real world to try to save Barbieland in this fantasy adventure from the director of 'Lady Bird' and 'Little Women.'

By Lovia Gyarkye

Lovia Gyarkye

Arts & Culture Critic

• Share this article on Facebook
• Share this article on Twitter
• Share this article on Flipboard
• Share this article on Email
• Show additional share options
• Share this article on Linkedin
• Share this article on Pinit
• Share this article on Reddit
• Share this article on Tumblr
• Share this article on Whatsapp
• Share this article on Print
• Share this article on Comment

There isn’t exactly a God in Greta Gerwig ’s Barbie (unless you count Helen Mirren’s omniscient narrator), but the director does experiment with creation myths. Barbieland, a parallel universe populated by iterations of the Mattel doll, is her sandbox. The toy conglomerate’s vast archive, a trove of successful products, middling ideas and discontinued merch, are the tools. 

Related Stories

'bridgerton' season 3 trailer teases a polin friends-to-lovers storyline, ryan gosling is chris stapleton's no. 1 fan in 'snl' promo.

With Gerwig, the pleasure is always in the details. Her Barbieland — thanks to Sarah Greenwood’s production design and Jacqueline Durran’s costuming — is a pink fever dream. A phantasmagoria of magenta and blush soundtracked by funky compositions by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, and bubblegum anthems from Dua Lipa, Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice. Plastic trees and identical two-story Barbie dream homes line each avenue of this manufactured oceanside locale. Engineless vehicles roam the road but flying is the preferred mode of transportation. Think about it: Have you ever seen a Barbie take the stairs?  

An army of Kens patrol the land’s pristine beaches. The chiseled dolls can’t rescue a drowning person or save anyone for that matter, but they do stand around and look pretty. Barbies do the real work: She is the president and all the members of the Supreme Court. She is a doctor and a physicist. She has won every Nobel prize and probably cured cancer. Barbieland is feminist utopia as inversion of our patriarchal reality. Voiceover commentary by Mirren adds to its storybook quality.

Gerwig populates her pink vista with a range of Barbies played by a formidable and starry cast: Issa Rae , Emma Mackey, Alexandra Shipp and Hari Nef are a few of the faces in the film. But the protagonist of this wily and fun comedy is Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie), the blonde-haired, blue-eyed manifestation of Ruth Handler’s imagination. Her Ken counterpart is played with impressive heart and humor by Ryan Gosling (with Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir and John Cena among the film’s other assorted Kens). The pair are a version of Eve and Adam, if Eve were God’s favorite and Adam acknowledged as the liability he was. 

Their fall is not as righteous but just as dramatic. When Barbie finds her perfect life suddenly hobbled by existential thoughts, she seeks answers from Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), a doll whose traumatic history (she was played with “too hard”) has turned her into the kingdom’s sage. On the outcast Barbie’s advice, Stereotypical Barbie, with an all-too-eager Ken in tow, heads to real-world Los Angeles to find her little girl. The relationship between Barbies and their human owners is tenuously outlined, so it’s best not to think too deeply about how it all works. 

Greta slips in au courant commentary through Barbie’s encounters with real people: the all-male executive suite of Mattel (which includes Will Ferrell playing CEO); Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt), a teenager whose disdain for Mattel’s dolls is only outmatched by her hatred of fascism; and Sasha’s mother Gloria (a brilliant America Ferrera ), a Mattel secretary with an indiscriminate love of the toy.

Those worried that the film would uncritically pedestal Handler’s invention have little to fear. Barbie lives up to its early tagline: “If you love Barbie…if you hate Barbie, this movie’s for you.”

Fulfilling this mission comes at a cost, though. There’s a tension between Gerwig’s effort to keep Barbie fun and to texture her source material with the emotional dexterity of her previous projects. After an unplanned detour separates her from Ken, Barbie makes her way back home ready to restore perfection to her routine. But her homecoming is a dour one; Barbie returns to see that Ken, armed with his newfound knowledge of the patriarchy, has transformed Barbieland.

In some ways, Barbie builds on themes Gerwig explored in Lady Bird and Little Women . The film wrestles with the twisting journey of self-definition and the mercurial relationships between mothers and daughters. It’s fraught with the questions that plague artists and women trapped in a category-obsessed society.

The tension between Barbie as object and subject can be felt especially through Robbie’s performance. Barbie’s increased consciousness plays across the actress’ expressive eyes, which become steadily weighted by the forces of the human world. Her physical presence tells us something, too: Robbie moves mechanically in Barbieland because she’s a toy, but who’s to say she’s any less rigid in the real world?

However smartly done Gerwig’s Barbie is, an ominousness haunts the entire exercise. The director has successfully etched her signature into and drawn deeper themes out of a rigid framework, but the sacrifices to the story are clear. The muddied politics and flat emotional landing of Barbie are signs that the picture ultimately serves a brand.

This wouldn’t be as concerning if the future of films weren’t blighted by Mattel’s franchise ambitions . After all, we can’t get all our humanist lessons from corporate toymakers.

Full credits

Thr newsletters.

Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Santa barbara film fest: dates set for 40th edition in february 2025, with two more days added on, ‘the absence of eden’ review: zoe saldaña in a border crisis drama that couches its topicality in self-conscious filmmaking, epic first ‘gladiator 2’ footage leaves cinemacon very entertained, ‘a quiet place: day one’ trailer brings chills to cinemacon as paramount forges ahead despite sale talks, ‘damaged’ review: not even samuel l. jackson and dramatic scottish setting can freshen up stale serial killer flick, ‘the smurfs movie’ sets starry cast to join rihanna; dave bautista, eric nam board ‘airbender’ franchise.

Advertisement

Supported by

‘Barbie’ Reviews Are In: Slickly Subversive or Inescapably Corporate?

Some critics viewed the highly-anticipated movie as satirically capitalistic, while others saw it as capitalistically satirical.

• Share full article

By Julia Jacobs

As reviews for “Barbie” rolled out ahead of its weekend opening, a critical divide emerged.

Some thought that Greta Gerwig, the acclaimed director of “Lady Bird” and “Little Women,” had met the expectations for a more subversive take on the 11.5-inch Mattel phenomenon. They thought Gerwig’s script, which she collaborated on with her partner, Noah Baumbach, succeeded in acknowledging the criticisms that the Barbie brand has received over the years — including unrealistic representations of women’s bodies and, up until recent years, a lack of diversity in its collection — while presenting a comedy that leans into the delightful weirdness of the Barbie universe. Others felt that the director did not go far enough in dinging her corporate sponsors, keeping the critiques of consumerism and female beauty standards at surface level.

Critics tended to be unified in their praise of the movie’s stars, however, celebrating Margot Robbie’s surprising emotional depth as the so-called stereotypical Barbie who embarks on an eye-opening journey outside of the meticulously manufactured dolls’ world, as well as Ryan Gosling’s deadpan comedy as a Ken who delights in his discovery of the patriarchy.

Read on for some highlights.

‘Barbie’ May Be the Most Subversive Blockbuster of the 21st Century [ Rolling Stone ]

The movie does more than avoid delivering a two-hour commercial for Mattel, David Fear writes, suggesting that the movie could be “the most subversive blockbuster of the 21st century to date.”

“This is a saga of self-realization, filtered through both the spirit of free play and the sense that it’s not all fun and games in the real world — a doll’s story that continually drifts into the territory of ‘A Doll’s House,’” Fear writes. “This is a movie that wants to have its Dreamhouse and burn it down to the ground, too.”

We Shouldn’t Have to Grade Barbie on a Curve [ Vulture ]

In one of the most critical reviews of the movie’s approach to gender politics, Alison Willmore writes that “it’s not a rebuke of corporatized feminism so much as an update,” noting “a streak of defensiveness to ‘Barbie,’ as though it’s trying to anticipate and acknowledge any critiques lodged against it before they’re made.”

“To be a film fan these days is to be aware that franchises and cinematic universes and remakes and other adaptations of old IP have become black holes that swallow artists, leaving you to desperately hope they might emerge with the rare project that, even though it comes from constrictive confines, still feels like it was made by a person,” she writes. “‘Barbie’ definitely was. But the trouble with trying to sneak subversive ideas into a project so inherently compromised is that, rather than get away with something, you might just create a new way for a brand to sell itself.”

There are limits to how much dimension even Greta Gerwig can give this branded material [ New York Times ]

Manohla Dargis, the chief film critic for The Times, offers high praise to Gerwig as a director, writing that her “directorial command is so fluent she seems born to filmmaking,” but she asserts that the movie largely dodged the “thorny contradictions and the criticisms that cling to the doll.”

“While Gerwig does slip in a few glints of critique — as when a teenage girl accuses Barbie of promoting consumerism, shortly before she pals up with our heroine — these feel more like mere winks at the adults in the audience than anything else,” Dargis writes.

A doll’s life is richly, unexpectedly imagined by Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie [ The Chicago Tribune ]

“Any $145 million studio movie based on a doll, accessories sold separately, no doubt comes with a few restrictions,” Michael Phillips writes. “And yet this one actually feels spontaneous, and fun.” Giving the film 3.5 starts out of 4, he contends that Mattel “could have played things far more safely” and that “a lot of the biggest laughs in ‘Barbie’ come at Mattel’s expense.”

Ryan Gosling is plastic fantastic in ragged doll comedy [ The Guardian ]

Peter Bradshaw was among the critics who felt that Gosling steals the show with Barbie herself reduced to the “bland comic foil.” He was in the more cynical camp of reviewers when it came to the film’s self-awareness, calling the film “entertaining and amiable, but with a softcore pulling of punches: lightly ironised, celebratory nostalgia for a toy that still exists right now.”

Welcome to Greta Gerwig’s fiercely funny, feminist Dreamhouse [ Entertainment Weekly ]

Describing the movie as “packed with winking one-liners,” Devan Coggan acknowledges the praise of Gosling but contends that Robbie “remains the real star.”

“Physically, the blonde Australian actress already looks like she stepped out of a Mattel box (something the film itself plays on during one particular gag), but she gives an impressively transformative performance,” she writes, “moving her arms and joints like they’re actually made of plastic. Robbie has brought a manic physicality to previous films including ‘Babylon’ and ‘Birds of Prey,’ but she now embraces physical comedy to the max.”

Greta Gerwig’s World of Plastic Is Fantastic [ Collider ]

Ross Bonaime writes that “Barbie” could have been “little more than a toy ad,” but it instead became an “existential look at the difficulties of being a woman, the terrifying nature of life in general, the understanding that trying to be perfect is absurd, while also encapsulating everything that Barbie has meant to people — both good and bad.”

Calling Gerwig’s work behind the camera “vibrant and bold,” Bonaime also praises the narrative work of the popstar-packed soundtrack, which includes songs from Lizzo, Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice.

Margot Robbie doll-ivers [ Los Angeles Times ]

Describing the film as a “conceptually playful, sartorially dazzling comic fantasy,” Justin Chang suggests that “Barbie” succeeds in making the arguments both for Barbie haters and Barbie lovers.

“Gerwig has conceived ‘Barbie’ as a bubble-gum emulsion of silliness and sophistication, a picture that both promotes and deconstructs its own brand,” he writes. “It doesn’t just mean to renew the endless ‘Barbie: good or bad?’ debate. It wants to enact that debate, to vigorously argue both positions for the better part of two fast-moving, furiously multitasking hours.”

Explore More in TV and Movies

Not sure what to watch next we can help..

Even before his new film “Civil War” was released, the writer-director Alex Garland faced controversy over his vision of a divided America with Texas and California as allies .

Theda Hammel’s directorial debut, “Stress Positions,” a comedy about millennials weathering the early days of the pandemic , will ask audiences to return to a time that many people would rather forget.

“Fallout,” TV’s latest big-ticket video game adaptation, takes a satirical, self-aware approach to the End Times .

“Sasquatch Sunset” follows the creatures as they go about their lives. We had so many questions. The film’s cast and crew had answers .

If you are overwhelmed by the endless options, don’t despair — we put together the best offerings   on Netflix , Max , Disney+ , Amazon Prime  and Hulu  to make choosing your next binge a little easier.

Sign up for our Watching newsletter  to get recommendations on the best films and TV shows to stream and watch, delivered to your inbox.

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Barbie and Ken are having the time of their lives in the colorful and seemingly perfect world of Barbie Land. However, when they get a chance to go to the real world, they soon discover the ... Read all Barbie and Ken are having the time of their lives in the colorful and seemingly perfect world of Barbie Land. However, when they get a chance to go to the real world, they soon discover the joys and perils of living among humans. Barbie and Ken are having the time of their lives in the colorful and seemingly perfect world of Barbie Land. However, when they get a chance to go to the real world, they soon discover the joys and perils of living among humans.

• Greta Gerwig
• Noah Baumbach
• Margot Robbie
• Ryan Gosling
• 1.7K User reviews
• 447 Critic reviews
• 80 Metascore
• 191 wins & 422 nominations total

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

• Trivia Barbie is 23% larger than everything in Barbieland to mimic the awkward, disproportionate scale that real Barbies and Barbie activity sets are produced in. This is why Barbie sometimes appears too large for things like her car or why ceilings seem to be too low in the Dreamhouses.
• Goofs Gloria drives a Chevrolet Blazer SS EV, yet during the car chase scene her electric vehicle makes conventional gas engine acceleration noises.

Ken : To be honest, when I found out the patriarchy wasn't just about horses, I lost interest.

• Crazy credits All the actors playing Barbies and Kens are not indicative of which Barbie and Ken they portray, and are simply listed as playing "Barbie" and "Ken", with the exception. (Just for clarification's sake, Margot Robbie plays "Stereotypical Barbie", Kate McKinnon plays "Weird Barbie", Issa Rae plays "President Barbie", Hari Nef plays "Dr. Barbie", Alexandra Shipp plays "Writer Barbie", Emma Mackey plays "Physicist Barbie", Sharon Rooney plays "Lawyer Barbie", Ana Cruz Kayne plays "Judge Barbie", Dua Lipa plays all the "Mermaid Barbies", Nicola Coughlan plays "Diplomat Barbie", and Ritu Arya plays "Journalist Barbie".)
• Alternate versions The IMAX version, released on September 22, 2023, has an extended runtime of two hours.
• Connections Edited from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
• Soundtracks Requiem (1963/65): 2. Kyrie Written by György Ligeti Performed by Bavarian Radio Orchestra (as Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks), Francis Travis Courtesy of Deutsche Grammophon GmbH Under licence from Universal Music Operations Ltd

User reviews 1.7K

• Jul 19, 2023

Incredible Looks From the 'Barbie' Press Tour

• How long is Barbie? Powered by Alexa
• July 21, 2023 (United States)
• United States
• United Kingdom
• Official Instagram
• Official Site
• Venice Beach, Venice, Los Angeles, California, USA
• Warner Bros.
• Heyday Films
• LuckyChap Entertainment
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $100,000,000 (estimated)
• $636,238,421
• $162,022,044
• Jul 23, 2023
• $1,445,638,421

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 54 minutes
• Dolby Digital
• IMAX 6-Track
• 12-Track Digital Sound
• D-Cinema 96kHz 7.1
• Dolby Atmos

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• IMDb Answers: Help fill gaps in our data
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed

Find anything you save across the site in your account

“Barbie” Is Brilliant, Beautiful, and Fun as Hell

By Richard Brody

It’s unfortunate that fantasy has glutted the movies and tarnished the genre’s name with the commercial excesses of superhero stories and C.G.I. animation, because fantasy is a far more severe test of directorial art than realism. This is, first off, because the boundless possibilities of the fantastical both allow for and require a filmmaker’s comprehensive creativity. But, crucially, fantasy is also a vision of reality—the subjective truth of filmmakers’ inner life, the world as it appears in their mind’s eye. The great directors of fantasy are the ones who make explicit the connection between their fantasy worlds and lived reality, as Wes Anderson recently did in “ Asteroid City ,” and as Greta Gerwig has done spectacularly in her new film, “Barbie.” Unlike Anderson, who has spent his entire career on the far side of the imagination, Gerwig’s previous features as solo director, “ Lady Bird ” and “ Little Women ”—both ardently crafted, both modestly literal—did little to foreshadow the overwhelming outburst of inventive energy that makes “Barbie” such a thrilling experience. Though “Lady Bird,” Gerwig’s breakthrough feature, is a fictionalized story of her own adolescence, her family life, and her home town, “Barbie”—yes, a movie about a doll made under the aegis of its manufacturer, Mattel —is the far more personal film. It’s a film that’s energized throughout by a sense of artistic freedom and uninhibited creative passion greater than what Gerwig has brought to even her previous projects made outside the ostensible constraints of studio filmmaking.

The underlying subject of “Barbie” is how to play with Barbie dolls and why. Playing with Barbies, after all, is the D.I.Y. version of adaptation, the enactment in private of the kind of free and wild play that Gerwig (who wrote the script with her romantic and creative partner, Noah Baumbach ) enacts in the movie. “Barbie” is about the intellectual demand and emotional urgency of making preëxisting subjects one’s own, and it advocates for imaginative infidelity, the radical off-label manipulation of existing intellectual property. Moreover, it presents such acts of reinterpreting familiar subjects, as a crucial form of self-analysis, a way to explore one’s own self-image and to confront the prejudices and inequities built into prevailing, top-down interpretations of them. “Barbie,” in other words, is a film of the politics of culture and, by extension, of the need for a creative rebellion to reëstrange the familiar for the sake of social change.

The movie begins with one of the most ingenious parodies I’ve seen in a while, an origin story of the Barbie doll based on the opening sequence of “ 2001: A Space Odyssey .” A group of girls is stranded in a barren primordial landscape. A voice-over narration (by Helen Mirren) explains that, since the beginning of time, they had only baby dolls to play with, leaving them nothing to imagine themselves as except mothers. Then came Barbie (Margot Robbie), who, with her many varieties and guises, offered the girls (who now smash their baby dolls to pieces) the chance to imagine themselves as astronauts, doctors, judges, even President, and thus heralded a future of equality and opportunity. It’s in the abyss between this promised utopia and the world as we know it, between the merchandising of professional feminism and the endurance of patriarchal realities, that the movie is set.

“Barbie” contains a potent paradox that is fundamental to its effervescent delights. A single frame of the film packs such profuse and exquisite detail—of costume and settings, gestures and diction—that it’s impossible to enumerate the plethora of inventions and decisions that bring it to life. With its frenetic pace and its grand-scale, wide-ranging inspirations, it plays like a live-action cartoon, and captures the anything-is-possible spirit of classic Looney Tunes better than any other film I’ve seen. Yet its whimsical plot is constructed with a dramatic logic that manages to transform phantasmagorical leaps into persuasive consequences, with the result that the details of the story seem utterly inseparable from, and continuous with, the riotously ornamental visual realms that it sets into motion.

The driving conceit is that Barbie comes to life and enters the real world, but Gerwig grounds that transformation ingeniously by giving Barbie a prior life of her own as a doll. The Barbie played by Robbie, who’s called Stereotypical Barbie, lives in Barbieland along with all the other Barbies who have been put on the market, whether Astronaut Barbie or Doctor Barbie or President Barbie, as well as Barbies of a wide range of ethnicities and body types, all named Barbie, all residing in doll houses, all calling to one another every bright and sunny morning, “Hi, Barbie!,” and offering identical side-to-side hand-wave greetings. Stereotypical Barbie drinks imaginary milk poured from a carton to a cup, eats a plastic waffle that pops from a toaster as a perfectly shaped dollop of butter lands atop it, and—because, as the narrator explains, Barbies can be carried and placed anywhere—glides from her balcony through the air to behind the wheel of her pink fifties-style Corvette convertible.

Stereotypical Barbie has a stereotypical suitor, the hunky blond Ken (Ryan Gosling)—one of many in Barbieland—who courts her with a droll sexual ignorance to match hers. There’s a strong gay subtext to the movie’s well-coiffured and accessorized Kens; in one scene, Ken and another Ken (Simu Liu) get into a dispute and threaten each other to “beach you off.” (A nerdy friend of the Kens, called Allan, played by Michael Cera, is the only non-himbo around.) The narrator makes the distinction—one that proves to be of great narrative significance—that for Barbie every day is a good day, whereas for Ken a day is good only when Barbie looks at him. Ken takes awkward pains to get Barbie to look, but she’s content in her Barbie-centric world. In lieu of a date, she invites him to a girls’-night bash at her house—the best party ever, but then, they all are—complete with a whirlwind-spectacular dance sequence. In the middle of the festivities, though, Barbie embarrassingly blurts out her own sudden premonition of death.

Something troubling is disturbing the pristine perfection of Barbie’s permalife in Barbieland, and she consults the closest thing to a troubled outcast in her midst, Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), to find out what’s going on. Weird Barbie has a punk haircut, a malformed body, and something like face tattoos—the result, it is said, of a human who played with her “too hard.” To get to the source of her disturbance, Barbie will have to make passage to the human world and find her own owner, whose play has perhaps left an emotional mark just as Weird Barbie’s has left a physical one. Travelling between Barbieland and the human world involves transit via, among other Mattel-certified vehicles, Barbie’s convertible, a space rocket, a tandem bicycle, and a Volkswagen camper van. Ken stows away on Barbie’s journey, and the duo eventually lands on the beach in—where else?—Los Angeles, another land of artifices, where Barbie quickly has her illusions burst.

In L.A., Barbie encounters such human-world phenomena as catcalling, old age, anxiety, and the social dynamics of real-life girls, most notably a young high-school intellectual named Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt), who calls Barbie a “bimbo,” a menace to feminism, even a “Fascist.” Barbie finds her way into Mattel headquarters, where the C.E.O. (Will Ferrell) wants to trap and twist-tie her in a display box. Instead, Barbie escapes, but, while she’s on the run, Ken—who’s read up in the school library about patriarchy—heads to Barbieland and exports the notion there. When Barbie returns home, she finds it transformed into a manosphere, full of Kens slaking grudges against Barbies and Barbies content with subservience to Kens, and she has to plot to restore it to its ostensible original form as a feminist paradise. Spoiler alert: the Ken-centric patriarchy that Barbie finds at home is both appalling and hilarious, with lots of horses (“man extenders,” Ken calls them) and ardent guitar playing “at” Barbie, especially of the Matchbox Twenty song “Push,” which the Kens have adopted as a male anthem.

The trait that enables Barbie to fight to take back Barbieland is the very weirdness that she’d sought to cure. It’s the “hard” play of a human owner—the use of Barbie as an avatar of a real person’s emotional crises—that gives Stereotypical Barbie the perspective to see what’s wrong with Barbieland, the wiles to take action to reclaim it for herself and the other Barbies, and the open-mindedness to see that she herself is in need of personal change. The uninhibited expression of Barbie’s human has taught Barbie, above all, the concept of freedom; and it’s no spoiler to note that the concept, here, meshes with an existentialist tradition that links such freedom to the inevitability of death. (In a magnificent meta-touch, Barbie has an encounter with the creator of Barbie, Ruth Handler, who, in real life, died in 2002; here, she’s played by Rhea Perlman.)

Far from being a feature-length commercial for Barbie, Gerwig’s movie puts in bright critical light the trouble with Barbie’s pure, blank perfection. Instead of projecting their own imperfections or thoughts onto the doll, girls have been socialized to strive for an impossible doll-like perfection in their own lives. Barbie can be anything in Barbieland—a doctor, a President, an astronaut—but only because Barbieland is a frictionless Brigadoon. There’s no Fox News in Barbieland, no political demagogy, no religion, no culture. Any girl who plays with Barbie and imagines that she can do anything will discover, eventually, that she’s been the victim of a noxious fantasy. Playing weird with Barbie means ascribing the tangled terms of one’s own environment to Barbieland, one’s own conflicts to Barbie. It means turning Barbie human—into a character whom a child can use to give voice to an inner life, in the second person, when her first person feels stifled or repressed.

“Ordinary”: pay attention to the arrival, in “Barbie,” of that word, which reverberates like a tuning fork through the entire story, conveying longing for the day when a woman’s life doesn’t demand heroic struggle against societal limitations and contradictory demands. (The movie features a fervent monologue on the subject, built of familiar talking points that are energized by the fast and furious indignation of the speaker, Sasha’s mother, a Mattel employee played by America Ferrera.) The idea inflects Gerwig’s aesthetic, too, in a way that’s made clear, again, in the contrast between her filmmaking and that of Wes Anderson, the current cinema’s preëminent stylist. Anderson’s films borrow copiously from pop culture without making films of pop culture; his rigorous visual compositions set the action at a contemplative distance that keeps one eye on history and the other on the future. Gerwig, by contrast, is out to conquer the moment, and her visual compositions reflect this immediacy. Her images (with cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto) offer, in effect, a mighty sense of style without a corresponding sense of form: they teem and overflow, because they’re meant not to be limited to the screen but to burst out and fill the theatre and take their place in the world at large. She doesn’t borrow pop culture ironically; she embraces it passionately and directly, in order to transform it, and thereby to transform viewers’ relationship to it and to render that relationship active, critical, non-nostalgic. Her art of reinterpreting society’s looming, shiny cultural objects, in the interest of progress, dramatizes the connection between playing in a child’s doll house and on the big screens of the world. ♦

New Yorker Favorites

Why facts don’t change our minds .

The tricks rich people use to avoid taxes .

The man who spent forty-two years at the Beverly Hills Hotel pool .

How did polyamory get so popular ?

The ghostwriter who regrets working for Donald Trump .

Snoozers are, in fact, losers .

Fiction by Jamaica Kincaid: “Girl”

Sign up for our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from The New Yorker .

By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

By Justin Chang

Screen Rant

10 reasons the barbie movie's reviews are so great.

Barbie reviews are out, and it's one of the highest-rated movies of the year with a "fresh" 90% on Rotten Tomatoes – here are the reasons why.

Barbie hits theaters on July 21, and the movie has already received rave reviews and earned a huge Rotten Tomatoes score. The long-anticipated movie is based on the iconic doll of the same name, but Warner Bros. has taken a much more creative approach to the movie compared to other IP-driven films. Barbie is directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Greta Gerwig, stars Academy Award-nominated actor Margot Robbie, and co-written by Academy Award-nominated scribe Noah Baumbach. Needless to say, the fantasy comedy movie has some serious talent and prestige behind it.

Barbie needs $300 million to break even , and even though it's being released on the same day as the hotly-anticipated new Christopher Nolan movie, Oppenheimer , box office projections indicate there's no doubt Barbie will achieve this goal. Not only has Warner Bros. cleverly marketed the movie to appeal to everyone, regardless of age, gender, or Barbie doll opinions, but the film has now also achieved glowing reviews. At the time of writing, Barbie has a shockingly high "fresh" 90% on Rotten Tomatoes , and while that's subject to change with more reviews that become available, it'll hardly drop by much. Given the mass appeal of the movie, critics have numerous reasons for loving Barbie .

10 Barbie Is One Of The Funniest Movies Of The Year

Barbie has been endlessly praised for its humor, as Christy Lemire writes, “ Barbie can be hysterically funny, with giant laugh-out-loud moments generously scattered throughout ” (via Roger Ebert ). The movie is full of comedy, fun Easter eggs, and cameos that will make audiences grin from ear to ear, with John Cena as Merman Ken ticking every one of those boxes. Barbie also nails the meta-humor that many recent comedies have been attempting ever since it was popularized in its current form by 21 Jump Street . Though a couple of reviews criticized a couple of mean-spirited jokes, for the most part, the humor lands, and not one but several critics have called it one of the funniest comedies of the year.

9 Barbie Continues Greta Gerwig's Little Women & Lady Bird Themes

When Greta Gerwig was announced as Barbie's director, it came as a surprise given that the filmmaker is best known for Academy Award-winning dramas such as Little Women and Lady Bird . However, based on the themes of those movies, Gerwig was the perfect Barbie director, and her films are led by strong female characters, which she could apply to Barbie . That's exactly what she has done, as Ross Bonaime notes, " Barbie balances the incredibly pointed specificity of the jokes and relatability of Lady Bird, with the celebration of women and the ability to show a new angle of something we thought we knew like we saw with Gerwig’s take on Little Women " (via Collider ).

8 Barbie Is Visually Stunning

Anyone who has seen the Barbie trailer can see how the crew has gone to such a painstaking effort to make Barbie so visually pleasing, even for viewers who don't like the color pink. Michael Philips writes, " Highest honors to production designer Sarah Greenwood, costume designer Jacqueline Durran and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto " (via Chicago Tribune ). The entire Barbie world, including a full-size Barbie dreamhouse, was built by a talented crew, and there was even a rumor about a shortage of pink paint due to the movie's production (via Los Angeles Times ). The costume design is equally impressive, and the wardrobe faithfully recreates iconic Barbie outfits that span decades.

7 Barbie Doesn't Feel Like An IP-Driven Cash Grab

With movies based on IP, specifically ones based on toys and board games, it's easy to churn out a low-quality cash grab, whether it's Battleship or the Transformers series. However, Barbie is anything but. Devan Coggan reveals that the movie is way more than just another one of those types of movies (via Entertainment Weekly ). The critic notes, " It’s Gerwig’s care and attention to detail that gives Barbie an actual point of view, elevating it beyond every other cynical, IP-driven cash grab ." With 2023 already having seen the release of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and several movies based on branded products, an IP-based movie that takes some creative risks comes as a breath of fresh air.

6 Barbie Is Delightfully Unpredictable

With the meta premise of Barbie leaving her world and meeting her creators at Mattel in the real world, absolutely anything can happen in the movie. When Barbie finds out about the real world, it's unclear whether she'll decide to go back and lead an ignorantly blissful life in her own world or stay in this new reality. While a few critics have slammed the final act for being tonally uneven, it has also been praised for being wholly unpredictable. Tori Brazier calls Barbie " a summer movie so unexpected and so unpredictable that it will demand repeat viewings and future essays galore " (via Metro ).

5 Margot Robbie Is Perfectly Cast As Barbie

Margot Robbie has gotten endless praise for her performance in Barbie . Ross Bonaime's Collider review mentions, " [Robbie] has often excelled in these types of roles where we see the power a woman truly has in her environment, but there might not be a better example of that than in Barbie ." With a huge "fresh" 90%, Barbie is tied for Margot Robbie's best Rotten Tomatoes score ever , as it shares its score with I, Tonya and The Suicide Squad , and that's largely thanks to the actor's commitment to the role. Not only does Robbie physically mirror the iconic figure, but she turns a decades-old doll into a three-dimensional character that's more relevant now than ever. Not only that, but she somehow acts and moves her joints as if they're made of plastic too.

4 Ryan Gosling Is A Scene-Stealer As Ken

In addition to Robbie being showered with praise, Ryan Gosling's role as Ken has turned heads. Coggan explains, " For an actor who’s spent much of his career brooding moodily, here, he finally gets to tap into his inner Mousketeer ." Gosling is best known for his roles in Drive , Blade Runner 2049 , and The Gray Man , and he rarely ever cracks a smile in any of them. Even in romcoms like Crazy, Stupid, Love, he's remarkably stoic. However, he has 100% leaned into the campy vibes of the movie. Gosling hasn't dropped the Ken character either, as he has been embracing Ken during the press junkets with " Big Himbo Kenergy. "

3 Barbie Appeals To Both Children And Adults

Barbie was surprisingly rated PG-13 by the MPAA, meaning that anyone below 13 should be accompanied by an adult. The reason for the movie's MPAA rating is " suggestive references and brief language. " However, while there are a few sexual innuendos here and there that'll fly over children's heads, Barbie is suitable for kids . In fact, despite being a movie based on a doll originally marketed towards little girls, Barbie appeals to kids, teens, and adults. Coggan reveals, " Barbie works hard to entertain both 11-year-old girls and the parents who’ll bring them to the theater ."

2 Barbie Is A Clever & Biting Satire

Mireia Mullor is one of many critics who have been won over by Barbie 's clever satire (via Digital Spy ). The critic writes, " Life in plastic is fantastic indeed: Barbie is a sharp, hilarious and joy-contagious satire of gender roles. " Margot Robbie had one Barbie condition when signing onto the movie, which was that she wanted a diverse roster of Barbies not tied to one skin color or body type. That helped the movie become a biting satire and a social commentary on the Barbie brand. The movie certainly indulges in exactly what the movie is satirizing, such as the flashy cars, houses, and outfits, and in that respect, it oddly draws similarities to Robbie's breakthrough movie, The Wolf of Wall Street .

1 Barbie Is Much More Than A Toy Commercial

In the best way possible, Peter Bradshaw points out that the 2023 movie is an elevated toy movie (via The Guardian ). The critic writes, " This movie is perhaps a giant two-hour commercial for a product, although no more so than The Lego Movie, yet Barbie doesn’t go for the comedy jugular anywhere near as gleefully as that. " While Barbie dolls will undoubtedly fly off the shelves with the release of the new Barbie movie, that clearly wasn't the first intention of Gerwig and Robbie. The movie is a tasteful take on the iconic doll, and with its meta-jokes and satirical take on the brand, Barbie is much more like The LEGO Movie than The Emoji Movie in regard to showcasing the product.

Key Release Dates

Barbie Movie Reviews: Critics Share Strong First Reactions

Greta Gerwig's Barbie movie is nearly here, and critics shared their first reactions after the first press screenings.

Featuring a massive cast of A-listers including Margot Robbie as the titular Barbie along with Ryan Gosling, Simu Liu , and plenty more, Barbie looks set to make a huge impression on moviegoers in a summer jam-packed with blockbusters.

Coming in with a somewhat expected PG-13 rating , Barbie will put the iconic Mattel doll into the big-screen spotlight for the first time, putting forth a wild adventure that will show fans how to see their own inner beauty.

Critics React to Barbie Screenings

Members of the press shared their first reactions to the upcoming Barbie movie after the film had its world premiere event and its first official screenings.

This comes only a few days after Time Magazine got to release its own write-up for the movie , with the reception being positive as it was called "a fun yet self-aware romp."

Variety's Katcy Stephan praised Barbie as "perfection," highlighting director Greta Gerwig for bringing "a nuanced commentary" on being a woman while celebrating leading actors Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling:

"'Barbie' is perfection. Greta Gerwig delivers a nuanced commentary on what it means to be a woman in a whimsical, wonderful and laugh-out-loud funny romp. The entire cast shines, especially Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in roles they were clearly born to play."

ComicBook.com's Jamie Jirak called Barbie her "favorite film of the year," urging critics and Oscar voters to "give Ryan Gosling an Oscar nomination" for his performance:

"I can't officially quit Twitter before telling you all that 'Barbie' is currently my favorite film of the year. Greta Gerwig somehow exceeded my expectations. She tackles the positives and negatives of Barbie so beautifully. Give Ryan Gosling an Oscar nomination, I'm dead serious!"

Collider's Perri Nemiroff noted that the "craftsmanship is incredible" in Barbie and praised the film for its "next-level work" on production design, but she felt "a bit more mixed" about the plot and the story:

"I have seen 'Barbie!' The craftsmanship is incredible. In particular the costume & production design includes next-level work that heavily contributes to creating the feeling that these truly are Barbies, their dream houses, and their worlds come to life. As for the story, that’s where I’m a bit more mixed. I think the film serves Margot Robbie’s Barbie and her journey especially well, but there are other characters experiencing important arcs that needed more screen time to really dig into and explore to the fullest."

Rotten Tomatoes critic Carla Renata confirmed that Barbie director Greta Gerwig had her "all in [her] feelings" and pointed out the "dance numbers led by Simu Liu" as some of her favorite moments:

"I saw 'Barbie The Movie' and Greta Gerwig left me all in my feelings as did the production design, costumes, Hair and makeup! I was living for the dance numbers led by Simu Liu! It’s overblown fun with a feminist twist"

YouTuber Sharronda Williams called Barbie "witty, heartfelt, and downright fun" while praising Robbie and Gosling, but she also pointed out that the "screenplay feels bloated at times:"

"'Barbie The Movie' is witty, heartfelt, and downright fun at times. Ryan Gosling is a scene stealer delivering most of the laughs while Margot Robbie’s heartfelt performance will tug at your heartstrings. While I enjoyed most of the film the screenplay feels bloated at times teetering between the camp 'Barbie' movie we expected to a sometimes too on the nose social commentary of society that takes away from important subplots & character development. The production and costume design is stunning but overall I left wanting a bit more from the film.

Screen Rant's Joe Deckelmeier noted that Barbie caught him "off guard...in the best possible way," praising the cast and director while calling the film "funny, bombastic, & very smart:"

"'Barbie' caught me off guard & I mean that in the best way possible. It’s funny, bombastic, & very smart. Greta Gerwig aims for the fences & hits a home-run. Margot Robbie’s performance is great & Ryan Gosling & Simu Liu are pure entertainment! The whole cast is brilliant!"

AAFCA's Ty Cole explained how Barbie "peels the layers off the superficial doll" on which the film was inspired while also putting Ken into the spotlight as he is "figuring his identity out:"

"'Barbie' is everything you wouldn’t expect. It peels the layers off the superficial doll we all grew up with while showing how Ken is more than an asset and is figuring his identity out."

Will Fans React Favorably After Positive Barbie Reviews?

Considering the heartwarming message laid out in Barbie , it's no surprise that critics are liking the blockbuster.

The big question now is whether fans will have the same positive reactions when the movie debuts to the public, especially with heavy competition coming this month in Mission Impossible 7 , Oppenheimer , and Haunted Mansion .

With plenty of moments deemed mature in nature coming in this story, Greta Gerwig and her team appear to have made an adventure that will appeal to all kinds of fans who have seen the Barbie brand evolve over the years.

And with such a jam-packed journey fitting seamlessly into a fairly-compact runtime of less than two hours , many are itching to see exactly what this Barbie world has in store.

Barbie will debut in theaters worldwide on Friday, July 21.

LATEST NEWS

Subversive, smart and pink all over: What to know about the ‘Barbie’ movie

• Show more sharing options
• Copy Link URL Copied!

If everything seems a little more pink lately, you can thank — and/or blame — Barbie.

The Greta Gerwig-directed “Barbie” movie, starring Margot Robbie as the titular doll and Ryan Gosling as Ken , heads to theaters July 21 following a promo blitz that ranges from insurance commercials to a real-life Malibu Dreamhouse on Airbnb .

During the press tour, Robbie wore iconic Barbie outfits inspired by looks originally created for the Mattel toy.

That’s not the only throwback. The “Barbie” movie showcases Gosling in a musical scene that could conjure up memories for those who grew up in the ’90s watching a young Gosling singing and dancing on the “Mickey Mouse Club” revival.

To create Barbie’s Pepto-colored world, so much fluorescent pink paint was needed that a company’s global supply was used up.

Meanwhile, people can’t get enough “Barbenheimer,” the social media mashup inspired by “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” sharing the same theatrical release date.

From overseas controversy to what the movie is actually about, here’s what to know about “Barbie.”

How hilarious ‘Barbie’ earworm ‘I’m Just Ken’ brings toxic masculinity to its knees

From ‘beach-off’ to dream ballet, The Times has just #Kenough guidance to help you make sense of the ‘Barbie’ movie’s climactic musical number.

July 28, 2023

Read the stirring monologue about womanhood America Ferrera delivers in ‘Barbie’

Ferrera, who co-stars in ‘Barbie’ as Gloria, a lifelong admirer of the doll, delivers a rousing speech about womanhood in the film. Here’s how it came together.

July 23, 2023

I did the ‘Barbenheimer’ doubleheader. Here’s what I learned

I saw Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’ and Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ back-to-back and lived to tell the tale.

July 25, 2023

Ryan Gosling and Greta Gerwig on how Ken became the subversive center of ‘Barbie’

Star Ryan Gosling and director Greta Gerwig open up about Ken’s journey to toxic masculinity and back in their comedy based on the iconic Mattel toys.

July 11, 2023

Column: The ‘Barbenheimer’ effect should scare the studios into ending the strike

Millions of people just proved that they still want to go to the movies. But if the studios don’t end the strike, the next ‘Barbenheimer’ will be DOA.

July 24, 2023

Entertainment & Arts

Commentary: ‘Barbie’ haters misunderstand what it takes to be Kenough

Haters who think ‘Barbie’ hates men are misunderstanding Greta Gerwig’s feminist movie. It’s actually pretty generous toward them.

July 26, 2023

Greta Gerwig did not expect a right-wing takedown of ‘Barbie’: ‘There’s a lot of passion’

‘Barbie’ director Greta Gerwig was surprised by the conservative takedown of her feminist feature, but she hopes everyone who sees it can get some ‘relief.’

America Ferrera delivers ‘Barbie’s’ big showstopper: ‘It just hit me as the truth’

As the human heart in a comedy filled with neurotic dolls, the ‘Ugly Betty’ award-winner is ready to take a bolder step toward the big screen with ‘Barbie.’

July 20, 2023

Not Kenough: ‘Barbie’ casting directors share a long list of actors who turned down Ken and Allan roles

The ‘Barbie’ casting director shared a surprising list of actors who were in the running for the roles of Ken and Allan but couldn’t make the logistics work.

Review: With Robbie in pink and Gosling in mink, ‘Barbie’ (wink-wink) will make you think

The much-memed, long-awaited feature from director Greta Gerwig is a delightful comic fantasy that promotes and deconstructs its own Mattel doll brand.

July 18, 2023

Are you ready for a ‘Barbenheimer’ sequel?

What better way to beat the summer heat than taking in a (another?) double-feature of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer”?

Photos: See the L.A. Barbies (and Kens) out in force at the movies this weekend

The double feature of ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ made for the biggest movie weekend of the year. The Times was on the scene to capture fans in costume.

De Los readers reflect on their complicated relationship with Barbie

We asked readers what Barbie meant to them. On Instagram, our followers shared a deep nostalgic connection, a lack of representation, and some said their families couldn’t afford the dolls.

July 21, 2023

Commentary: Barbie is ultra-feminine, and that is her power

Barbie has always been about more than pink and plastic. She’s a blank canvas upon which children could their draw own ideas and stories.

Panadería Barbie? The concha is a perfect accessory

In anticipation of the new “Barbie” film release this weekend, bakeries across the country have created a new type of Barbie to consume: a traditional Mexican concha.

July 19, 2023

‘Barbenheimer,’ the biggest cinematic event of the summer, is fantastic

‘Barbenheimer’ (the ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ double feature) starts Friday, so start practicing your costume change.

Column: I’m going to Barbie Land

Barbiephobes might say I became a feminist despite Mattel’s sexist grooming. They probably never played with Barbie.

Opinion: Yes, Barbie is a feminist — just don’t ask her creators

Looking at her history and evolution, Barbie is clearly a strong, independent woman — the sort advocated by all four waves of feminism.

July 16, 2023

‘Barbie’ movie is allowed in the Philippines — but will Warner Bros. edit the film?

The Philippines considered joining Vietnam’s ‘Barbie’ ban over a controversial map of the South China Sea. It’s now allowing the film to screen.

July 12, 2023

Commentary: Can Tom Cruise, Oppenheimer and Barbie save the summer box office?

Taken together, this trifecta of films has beleaguered industry-watchers breathlessly anticipating a boost to the summer box office, with the kind of ticket sales needed to soothe Hollywood’s frayed nerves when it comes to the future of the big screen.

Company Town

‘Barbie’ + ‘Oppenheimer’ = ‘Barbenheimer.’ Why Hollywood needs the movie mashup

The viral social media phenomenon, inspired by the same-day release of ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer,’ is the best advertising campaign for moviegoing that no studio could’ve come up with.

Ryan Gosling’s ‘I’m Just Ken’ from the ‘Barbie’ movie is here to take over your summer

Ryan Gosling — bare-chested and in his feelings as Ken in the ‘Barbie’ movie — belts out ‘I’m Just Ken’ in a teaser for the Greta Gerwig-directed film.

What a doll! Margot Robbie’s best Barbie-inspired looks

From Enchanted Evening Barbie to Solo in the Spotlight Barbie, Margot Robbie’s ‘Barbie’ movie premiere looks have been inspired by the doll itself.

July 13, 2023

How ‘Barbie’ crossed a line in Vietnam’s dispute with China and ended up banned

Politics and China play a major part in the reason the the live-action ‘Barbie’ has been banned from theaters in Vietnam ahead of its July 21 release.

July 5, 2023

Ken has taken over Barbie’s Malibu Dreamhouse. And it’s listed on Airbnb

Barbie’s real-life Malibu Dreamhouse will once again be available to book on Airbnb to promote the ‘Barbie’ movie. But this time Ken is hosting.

June 27, 2023

This is our ‘Barbie’ era: From a dream house to Margot Robbie and Issa Rae Barbie dolls

We’re in our ‘Barbie’ era: From HGTV’s real-life dream house, to Barbie dolls that look like Margot Robbie, Issa Rae and America Ferrera.

June 6, 2023

‘Barbie’ production emptied a company’s worldwide supply of pink paint

The ‘Barbie’ film used so much pink paint that it depleted the global reserves of its supplier, Rosco, which were already limited by supply chain issues.

June 3, 2023

Dua Lipa and friends just joined the cast of ‘Barbie’: Get ready for future nostalgia

New character posters for Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’ movie have revealed some major casting news: Dua Lipa is about to make her acting debut.

April 4, 2023

From scorched earth to pink paradise: ‘Barbie’ teaser introduces Margot Robbie’s doll

The first teaser trailer for Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’ has arrived, introducing audiences to Margot Robbie’s towering take on the famous Mattel doll.

Dec. 16, 2022

Margot Robbie says leaked ‘Barbie’ photos were ‘the most humiliating moment of my life’

“We look like we’re like laughing and having fun, but we’re dying on the inside,” Robbie said of the incident.

Sept. 21, 2022

Neon outfits. Bleach-blond hair. Margot and Ryan. Here’s what we know about ‘Barbie’

Starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, “Barbie” won’t hit screens until next summer, but filming at Venice Beach has already whet appetites.

June 28, 2022

More From the Los Angeles Times

Review: ‘Civil War’ shows an America long past unraveling, which makes it necessary

How the creators of HBO’s ‘The Sympathizer’ explore the ‘American War’ through a Vietnamese lens

April 11, 2024

Margot Robbie boards Lionsgate and Hasbro’s ‘Monopoly’ movie as producer

April 10, 2024

Renée Zellweger and Hugh Grant are reuniting for fourth ‘Bridget Jones’ movie

• Entertainment
• <i>Barbie</i> Is Very Pretty But Not Very Deep

Barbie Is Very Pretty But Not Very Deep

T he fallacy of Barbie the doll is that she’s supposed to be both the woman you want to be and your friend, a molded chunk of plastic—in a brocade evening dress, or a doctor’s outfit, or even Jane Goodall’s hyper-practical safari suit—which is also supposed to inspire affection. But when you’re a child, your future self is not a friend—she’s too amorphous for that, and a little too scary. And you may have affection, or any number of conflicted feelings, for your Barbie, but the truth is that she’s always living in the moment, her moment, while you’re trying to dream your own future into being. Her zig-zagging signals aren’t a problem—they’re the whole point. She’s always a little ahead of you, which is why some love her, others hate her, and many, many fall somewhere in the vast and complex in-between.

With Barbie the movie —starring Margot Robbie, also a producer on the film—director Greta Gerwig strives to mine the complexity of Barbie the doll, while also keeping everything clever and fun, with a hot-pink exclamation point added where necessary. There are inside jokes, riffs on Gene Kelly-style choreography, and many, many one-line zingers or extended soliloquies about modern womanhood—observations about all that’s expected of us, how exhausting it all is, how impossible it is to ever measure up. Gerwig has done a great deal of advance press about the movie, assuring us that even though it’s about a plastic toy, it’s still stuffed with lots of ideas and thought and real feelings. (She and Noah Baumbach co-wrote the script.) For months now there has been loads of online chatter about how “subversive” the movie is—how it loves Barbie but also mocks her slightly, and how it makes fun of Mattel executives even though their real-life counterparts are both bankrolling the whole enterprise and hoping to make a huge profit off it. The narrative is that Gerwig has somehow pulled off a coup, by taking Mattel’s money but using it to create real art , or at least just very smart entertainment.

Read More: Our Cover Story on Barbie

It’s true that Barbie does many of the things we’ve been promised: there is much mocking and loving of Barbie, and plenty of skewering of the suits. But none of those things make it subversive. Instead, it’s a movie that’s enormously pleased with itself, one that has cut a big slice of perfectly molded plastic cake and eaten it—or pretend-eaten it—too. The things that are good about Barbie — Robbie’s buoyant, charming performance and Ryan Gosling’s go-for-broke turn as perennial boyfriend Ken, as well as the gorgeous, inventive production design—end up being steamrollered by all the things this movie is trying so hard to be. Its playfulness is the arch kind. Barbie never lets us forget how clever it’s being, every exhausting minute.

That’s a shame, because the first half-hour or so is dazzling and often genuinely funny, a vision that’s something close to (though not nearly as weird as) the committed act of imagination Robert Altman pulled off with his marvelous Popeye. First, there’s a prologue, narrated by Helen Mirren and riffing on Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, explaining the impact of early Barbie on little girls in 1959; she was an exotic and aspirational replacement for their boring old baby dolls, whose job was to train them for motherhood—Gerwig shows these little girls on a rocky beach, dashing their baby dolls to bits after they’ve seen the curvy miracle that is Barbie. Then Gerwig, production designer Sarah Greenwood, and costume designer Jacqueline Durran launch us right into Barbieland, with Robbie’s approachably glam Barbie walking us through . This is an idyllic community where all the Dream Houses are open, not only because its denizens have no shame and nothing to hide, but because homes without walls mean they can greet one another each day with the sunrise. “Hello, Barbie!” they call out cheerfully. Everyone in Barbieland—except the ill-fated pregnant Midge , based on one of Mattel’s many discontinued experiments in toy marketing—is named Barbie, and everyone has a meaningful job. There are astronaut Barbies and airline pilot Barbies, as well as an all-Barbie Supreme Court. Garbage-collector Barbies, in matching pink jumpsuits, bustle cheerfully along this hamlet’s perpetually pristine curbs. This array of Barbies is played by a selection of actors including Hari Nef, Dua Lipa, Alexandra Shipp, and Emma Mackey. The president is also Barbie—she’s played by Issa Rae. (In one of the early section’s great sight gags, she brushes her long, silky tresses with an overscale oval brush.)

Barbieland is a world where all the Barbies love and support one another , like a playtime version of the old-fashioned women’s college, where the students thrive because there are no men to derail their self-esteem. Robbie’s Barbie—she is known, as a way of differentiating herself from the others, as Stereotypical Barbie, because she is white and has the perfectly sculpted proportions and sunny smile of the Barbie many of us grew up with—is the center of it all. She awakens each morning and throws off her sparkly pink coverlet, her hair a swirl of perfectly curled Saran. She chooses an outfit (with meticulously coordinated accessories) from her enviable wardrobe. Her breakfast is a molded waffle that pops from the toaster unbidden; when she “drinks” from a cup of milk, it’s only pretend-drinking, because where is that liquid going to go? This becomes a recurring gag in the movie, wearing itself out slowly, but it’s delightful at first, particularly because Robbie is so game for all of it. Her eyes sparkle in that vaguely crazed Barbie-like way; her smile has a painted-on quality, but there’s warmth there, too. She steps into this role as lightly as if it were a chevron-striped one piece tailored precisely to her talents.

Barbie also has a boyfriend, one Ken of many Kens. The Kens are played by actors including Kingsley Ben-Adir and Simu Liu. But Gosling’s Ken is the best of them, stalwart, in a somewhat neutered way, with his shaggy blond hair, spray-tan bare chest, and vaguely pink lips. The Kens have no real job, other than one known as “Beach,” which involves, as you might guess, going to the beach. The Kens are generally not wanted at the Barbies’ ubiquitous dance parties—the Barbies generally prefer the company of themselves. And that’s why the Kens’ existence revolves around the Barbies . As Mirren the narrator tells us, Barbie always has a great day. “But Ken has a great day only if Barbie looks at him.” And the moment Robbie does, Gosling’s face becomes the visual equivalent of a dream Christmas morning, alight with joy and wonder.

Sign up for Worth Your Time for weekly recommendations on what to read, watch, and listen to.

You couldn’t, of course, have a whole movie set in this highly artificial world. You need to have a plot, and some tension. And it’s when Gerwig airlifts us out of Barbieland and plunks us down in the real world that the movie’s problems begin. Barbie awakens one morning realizing that suddenly, nothing is right. Her hair is messy on the pillow; her waffle is shriveled and burnt. She has begun to have unbidden thoughts about death. Worst of all, her perfectly arched feet have gone flat. (The other Barbies retch in horror at the sight.) For advice, she visits the local wise woman, also known as Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), the Barbie who’s been “played with too hard,” as evidenced by the telltale scribbles on her face. Weird Barbie tells Robbie’s confused and forlorn Barbie that her Barbieland troubles are connected to something that’s going on out there in the Real World, a point of stress that turns out to involve a Barbie-loving mom, Gloria (America Ferrera), and her preteen daughter, Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt), who are growing apart. Barbie makes the journey to the Real World, reluctantly allowing Ken to accompany her. There, he’s wowed to learn that men make all the money and basically rule the land. While Barbie becomes more and more involved in the complexity of human problems , Ken educates himself on the wonders of the patriarchy and brings his newfound ideas back to empower the Kens, who threaten to take over the former utopia known as Barbieland.

By this point, Barbie has begun to do a lot more telling and a lot less showing; its themes are presented like flat-lays of Barbie outfits , delivered in lines of dialogue that are supposed to be profound but come off as lifeless. There are still some funny gags—a line about the Kens trying to win over the Barbies by playing their guitars “at” them made me snort. But the good jokes are drowned out by the many self-aware ones, like the way the Mattel executives, all men (the head boob is Will Ferrell), sit around a conference table and strategize ways to make more money off selling their idea of “female agency.”

The question we’re supposed to ask, as our jaws hang open, is “How did the Mattel pooh-bahs let these jokes through?” But those real-life execs, counting their doubloons in advance, know that showing what good sports they are will help rather than hinder them. They’re on team Barbie, after all! And they already have a long list of toy-and-movie tie-ins on the drawing board.

Meanwhile, we’re left with Barbie the movie, a mosaic of many shiny bits of cleverness with not that much to say. In the pre-release interviews they’ve given, Gerwig and Robbie have insisted their movie is smart about Barbie and what she means to women, even as Mattel executives have said they don’t see the film as being particularly feminist. And all parties have insisted that Barbie is for everyone.

Barbie probably is a feminist movie, but only in the most scattershot way. The plot hinges on Barbie leaving her fake world behind and, like Pinocchio and the Velveteen Rabbit before her, becoming “real.” Somehow this is an improvement on her old existence, but how can we be sure? The movie’s capstone is a montage of vintagey-looking home movies (Gerwig culled this footage from Barbie ’s cast and crew), a blur of joyful childhood moments and parents showing warmth and love. Is this the soon-to-be-real Barbie’s future, or are these the doll-Barbie’s memories? It’s impossible to tell. By this point, we’re supposed to be suitably immersed in the bath of warm, girls-can-do-anything fuzzies the movie is offering us. Those bold, bored little girls we saw at the very beginning of the film, dashing their baby dolls against the rocks, are nowhere in sight. In this Barbieland, their unruly desires are now just an inconvenience.

More Must-Reads From TIME

• Exclusive: Google Workers Revolt Over $1.2 Billion Contract With Israel
• Jane Fonda Champions Climate Action for Every Generation
• Stop Looking for Your Forever Home
• The Sympathizer Counters 50 Years of Hollywood Vietnam War Narratives
• The Bliss of Seeing the Eclipse From Cleveland
• Hormonal Birth Control Doesn’t Deserve Its Bad Reputation
• The Best TV Shows to Watch on Peacock
• Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time

Contact us at [email protected]

You May Also Like

Let’s Never Stop Questioning What Barbie Is Really About

As the secrets of the film are slowly stripped away, there’s a case for maintaining the debate over Barbie ’s true intentions.

So—wait. Do we know what Barbie ’s about? Maybe we should keep debating?

The text below is from the original article, published July 11, ahead of Barbie ’s release:

For months, the Barbie movie’s vast unknown has been one of its greatest assets. What little we understood amounted to a pair of highlighter-yellow rollerblades, dangled aloft by the spray-tanned arms of a bleached-blond Ryan Gosling: nostalgic, symbolic, a triumph of marketing honed along a (plastic) razor’s edge. Every new set photo, character poster, and teaser trailer that collected over the months leading up to Barbie ’s July 21 release has been received and dissected with the self-serious thrill of an 8-year-old planning their themed birthday party. Which, to be clear, is exactly as it should be. Questioning Barbie , like assembling an identity as a child, is a necessary pursuit. This is what movies like Barbie —and icons like the doll herself—are made for: both the indulgent pleasure and the outrageous nuance of mythologizing.

The secrets of director Greta Gerwig’s long-anticipated film are, in fact, starting to dissolve: The Los Angeles premiere prompted a round of spoiler-free first reactions (mostly positive), and the official critic review embargo is reportedly up soon. But even with the film finally accumulating eyeballs, there’s still a collective sense of protectiveness over the Barbie brouhaha. We don’t want the mania to break, not yet. There are still ample dopamine deposits to be discovered in deliberating what, precisely, Barbie has to say. After a promotional music video dropped yesterday featuring Gosling’s Ken serenading his second-rate status, one particular TikTok comment best summarized this feeling: “Every time I see a trailer for this movie I am more confused but I also want to see it more.”

Even Barbie star Issa Rae has enjoyed the opacity. As she shared in a December 2022 Hollywood Reporter story , she was perplexed when Gerwig first presented the story to her. “I’ll be 100 percent honest, when she was talking, like, it was entertaining, but I didn’t get it.” she said. “I was like, ‘I don’t know what the fuck she was talking about, but whatever it is, I’m excited she’s behind it.’ And then reading it was, like, ‘Oh my God, I love her even more.’”

So, then, what is Barbie about? My hope is that actually watching the plot play out will only heighten the debate. The film’s IMDb logline encourages that possibility: “Barbie suffers a crisis that leads her to question her world and her existence.” If Barbie’s questioning herself, why would we not want to do the same?

Thus far, we’ve had such fascinating theories on the objective of her eponymous film:

1) It’s about having an existential crisis (and also, death).

Here’s what we know for sure: In Barbie , our protagonist finds herself losing her grip over her inherent Barbie-ness. “Do you guys ever think about dying?” she asks during one of her classic blowout parties, earning stunned, judgment silence in response. Dolls don’t die ! Matters only worsen from there: Suddenly, her fake shower is freezing; she falls, rather than floats, from her rooftop into her convertible; her feet slump from their iconic arch. To remedy this imperfection, she’s instructed to explore the “real world,” so she can know “the truth about the universe.”

The problem with the “truth about the universe” is that it’s a hot mess, and people die. Barbie is not a mess, nor does she ever die. She doesn’t even age. This supposedly irreconcilable truth seems to be Gerwig’s entry point to dissecting the artifice we’ve built around Barbie as a symbol of idealized femininity. What about perfectionism remains so enticing, even when we know and acknowledge its fruitlessness? And what about the changelessness of Barbie makes her seem like the perfect woman?

2) It’s about Ken becoming a villain. Or something.

The logline attached to the full Barbie trailer lays out an intriguing path for Ken, Barbie’s eternal boyfriend: “To live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken.”

One TikTok theory posited that Ken didn’t belong in Barbie Land because he’s “an imposter,” owing to the unexpected casting of Gosling in the role. The “Just Ken” music video further establishes that Ken can’t extricate himself from Barbie, though she finds him only ancillary. If Barbie were to cozy up to Don’t Worry Darling , the film might depict Ken growing resentful over his lesser billing beside a more successful female partner. He might even discover the real world is a rather agreeable place for cis, white, supposedly heterosexual men like himself. (Of course, we shouldn’t assume Ken’s sexuality isn’t fluid. Or that he has a sexuality! He’s a doll!) Might he then want to stay?

Even if Barbie doesn’t lay out its “men are problematic” bent quite so literally, it’s already clear Gosling’s performance is one of the best of the film. If that’s the case, there’s one hell of a debate to be had over why Ken’s character arc is so essential to our understanding of Barbie herself.

3) It’s about the inescapable clutch of corporations.

We can’t talk about Barbie without talking about the marketing of Barbie . It is everywhere: on Krispy Kreme donuts and Ruggable rugs and OPI nail polish and GAP T-shirts and toothbrushes and luggage and pool floats and ice cream and frozen yogurt and makeup and cars and blankets and hairbrushes and heels. Her Dreamhouse is on Airbnb. Every publicist pushing sunglasses or sex toys has retooled their strategy around “Barbiecore” for the summer. I have never worn so much pink in my life.

The problem with all this consumerism is jarringly obvious, even (and perhaps especially) when it’s a great deal of fun. And with fervor comes backlash, as witnessed in critiques that Barbie is little more than a flashy commercial for toy brand Mattel. These critiques, by the way, are correct . At the same time, the Mattel CEO is an actual character in Barbie (played by Will Ferrell), and all signs point to him as a primary antagonist. Therein lies the rub: Barbie is a brand, and is therefore about branding, and is then a critique of branding, in the same breath as it further establishes that branding. You see? We could keep talking about this! Forever!

4) It’s about feminism.

Well, yeah. Duh.

5) It’s about the swan song of girlhood.

[Young girls] are “funny and brash and confident, and then they just—stop,” Gerwig told Vogue in May. “How is this journey the same thing that a teenage girl feels? All of a sudden, she thinks, Oh, I’m not good enough .” It’s clear that a big chunk of Barbie ’s aim is to explore why girls abandon not only their Barbie dolls, but some of the positive beliefs associated with them.

“We haven’t played with Barbies since we were, like, five years old,” a group of teens tell Margot Robbie’s Barbie in the film trailer. Her face falls. If girls don’t need Barbie, what does she exist for? And who (or what) do they turn to instead? What happens to a girl to make her abandon what was previously such a source of enrichment? What does it mean to age, when Barbie herself cannot?

6) It’s about ... Barbie.

Barbie is a plastic paradox. She is a narrow vision of womanhood, and she is also an everywoman. She has hundreds of jobs and has never worked a day in her life. (She is also, importantly, not alive.) She is more than 60 years old and eternally, vaguely 20-something. (Past reports indicate Mattel claims she’s 19 .) She is sexy but sexless. She’s a child’s plaything, with influence felt widely on adults.

“If you love Barbie, this movie is for you,” reads the copy in the Barbie trailer . “If you hate Barbie, this movie is for you.” There is no clearer case for why the Barbie discourse should continue long past the film’s ecstatic release. She is— as the memes tout —everything! Her movie is all of the above! We need not agree on every one of Barbie ’s precise intentions; we need only recognize why there’s so much more to dissect than an endless onslaught of pink.

Movies & TV 2024

'The Hedge Knight' Starts Filming Spring 2024

Was Beatrice Involved in Andrew’s BBC Interview?

All About the Possible 'Legally Blonde' Spinoff

Eugene Levy Joins 'Only Murders' Season 4

The Bear Season 3 Starts Filming Soon

The Nuanced Optimism of ‘Girls State’

Will There Be a Season 2 of Ripley ?

The True Story Behind Scoop

How to Catch Episodes of Mary & George

Everything We Know About Freaky Friday 2

'Emily in Paris' Season 4 Starts Filming in Jan.

• Search Please fill out this field.
• Manage Your Subscription
• Give a Gift Subscription
• Newsletters
• Sweepstakes
• Entertainment

'Barbie' PEOPLE Review: Margot Robbie Is a Doll for the Ages but Ryan Gosling Steals the Movie

'Barbie' opens in theaters Friday

Tom Gliatto reviews the latest TV and movie releases for PEOPLE Magazine. He also writes many of the magazine's celebrity tributes. 

Warner Bros.

One of the most anticipated movies of the past year, director Greta Gerwig’s subversive comedy fantasy Barbie —starring Margot Robbie as the Mattel doll—is finally here, and it triggers a truly radical thought: Ken has stolen the film.

That may not have been what Gerwig, Mattel or Warner Bros. had in mind with this bright-pink extravaganza, but Ryan Gosling is flawlessly funny as the plastic male who exists only as a sort of chaste, chisel-chested consort to Barbie.

In Barbie’s heady but over-intellectualized script (by Gerwig and Noah Baumbach), Ken tags along when Barbie journeys to real-world Los Angeles. Dressed in a cowboy uniform that suggests either Toy Story's Woody or Jon Voight in Midnight Cowboy, he learns that men still seem to hold most of the power, and returns to Barbie Land with visions of establishing a new patrimonial order.

Now favoring a faux fur coat that makes him look like a surfer pimp, he moves into Barbie's Dreamhouse and reduces the whole Barbie line to subservient, man-obliging nitwits who don’t mind pretending to enjoy a mansplained screening of The Godfather.

Warner Bros. Pictures

Ken is a sexist, a fascist and still pretty dumb, but he’s also fully realized psychologically. He’s the closest a toy will ever come to Raging Bull . Gosling hits the precise middle note between flesh and plastic. But, of course, the movie is really about Ken’s other, better half, played by Robbie with a radiant sweetness that might have worked better with a bit more satiric bite ( Amy Schumer was to have starred in a much earlier incarnation).

Barbie is a very clever attempt — perhaps an exceedingly clever attempt — to breathe new meaning and significance into the doll. But this isn’t often distinguishable from an attempt to subvert the conceptual and marketing genius  that have made Barbie, with her melted-lozenge figure and fashion-accessorized careers and lifestyles, the most recognizable doll in civilization and a controversial feminine fantasy figure. 

Warner Bros. 

These contradictory impulses, to reinterpret Barbie with a degree of teasing reverence or simply to pull her apart, tussle throughout the movie from the first scene, a joke inspired by 2001 :  An enormous Barbie, as tall and vertical as that film’s black monolith, appears before a society of girls playing with baby dolls.

This Barbie (we’re told by Helen Mirren, who narrates from time to time) will lead girls to a new level of imaginative play — from now on they’ll engage with a doll who can represent the women they will grow up to be. And yet this Barbie, who looks as if she could have upheld the roof of the Parthenon, is somehow also monstrous and alien, a Mattel goddess banishing the competition. If Gerwig depends on pop-culture memory to connect Barbie and the 2001 monolith, it's only fair to say that you might also be reminded of the killer doll in Squid Game . (And doesn't 2001 end with the image of a glowing astral fetus — the ultimate baby doll? But never mind.) It’s complicated.

At any rate, the narrative now introduces us to Barbie Land, a sort of Swiftian utopia — reference point: Jonathan Swift, not Taylor — where cute Barbies of all types are in charge, while a corresponding league of Kens (including Simu Liu) play on the beach and hope that someday they’ll feel empowered and validated by being acknowledged by a Barbie of their own. (The film all but forces you to talk in this sort of jargon.)

Everything is well, until Robbie’s Barbie begins having fleeting intimations of mortality, little oatmilk clouds in her coffee. Soon after that her feet flatten out and she develops a small but alarming patch of cellulite.  These irrepressible death thoughts (as the film describes them) don’t make too much sense — does Paddington Bear worry about nonexistence? But this is the narrative Barbie must follow — she’s Gerwig’s plaything — and it’s why she travels into the real world.

She has a quest: To discover the girl whose sense of sadness, disenchantment and frustration may have caused her to play with Barbie in a hostile or degrading manner. (A hand just shot up in the back. Yes, you have a question? “I do, but it’s really more of an observation: Why shouldn’t a girl be allowed to play with a Barbie in a hostile or degrading manner? If a kid wants to feed a toy to the dog, or throw it out the window and into the birdbath, is that really a problem? Is Mattel trying to rewire our brains with Barbie care instructions?”)

Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

The mingling of fantasy and reality in Los Angeles has some of the fun of  Woody Allen’s Purple Rose of Cairo: Mattel’s male-dominated executive board (headed by Will Ferrell) panics at the prospect of what a human-sized, free-will Barbie will do to the company’s bottom line. He and his staff of suits try to capture her, put her back in her packaging — an enormous cardboard box — and return her to Barbie Land. (For the rest of your life you may not be able to see a Barbie in a store aisle without imagining her trapped in a bright little casket, airless beneath a lid of cellophane.) 

The L.A. expedition also provides the movie’s most touching and emotional moments, as Barbie encounters humanity and, unlike Ken, warms to a world that offers a richer, more ambiguous form of happiness.

When she tells an old woman at a bus stop, “You’re beautiful,” the woman looks startled, then answers: “I know I am.” Gerwig handles these exchanges gracefully and simply, as if she had gone back to Louisa May Alcott and come up with Little Plastic Women . If only there had been more scenes like that. Robbie smiling through tears is an extraordinary thing to experience.

Meanwhile, the movie gears up for a strange, elaborate finale that has something to do with Ken’s determination to suspend the Barbie Land Constitution. It’s House of Cards Barbie! She outfoxes him, as you’d expect. But no summer movie should ultimately hinge on its heroine grasping the idea of “cognitive dissonance.” Again, it’s complicated. 

At times you may wish the script had been handed to Paul Rudnick, with his sharp, neat sense of camp, absurdity and hypocrisy. Just google Addams Family Values, which he wrote, and “Malibu Barbie.” You’ll find an insane little disquisition, performed by Joan Cusack, that’s possibly as telling as all of Barbie.

Barbie opens in theaters Friday.

Related Articles

• Newsletters

Site search

• Israel-Hamas war
• 2024 election
• Solar eclipse
• Supreme Court
• All explainers
• Future Perfect

Filed under:

In the beginning, there was Barbie

Turns out Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie is a Biblical metaphor after all.

Share this story

• Share this on Facebook
• Share this on Twitter
• Share this on Reddit
• Share All sharing options

Share All sharing options for: In the beginning, there was Barbie

In a May feature in Vogue , Barbie director and co-writer Greta Gerwig cheekily compared Barbie and Ken to Adam and Eve. “Barbie was invented first,” she said. “Ken was invented after Barbie, to burnish Barbie’s position in our eyes and in the world. That kind of creation myth is the opposite of the creation myth in Genesis.”

The quote snagged some attention, in part because Gerwig has played with theological themes before in her work — most notably in Lady Bird , in which Sister Sarah Joan borrows the wisdom of philosopher and mystic Simone Weil to advise her titular charge. The Genesis comparison does sound a bit like a joke, though, at least when applied to plastic dolls. In the Bible, God makes the first man, Adam, from the dust of the ground, and then knocks him out, takes his rib, and fashions it into a companion for him: Eve, the first woman. They live in a perfect world, the Garden of Eden.

God has one command for his creations: They can eat the fruit of any tree in the Garden except one, the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” Naturally, that’s what they do. (It’s humanity’s first failure in the “you had one job” department.) Immediately they realize they are naked, and they feel ashamed, and after receiving a series of curses having to do with labor (both of the agricultural and natal kind) they are sent out into the cold, hard, not-so-paradisiacal world.

And that’s the story of why life sucks.

While that’s not strictly the story of Barbie — a delightful and often gaspingly funny movie, by the way — it turns out Gerwig wasn’t just having a laugh when she brought up the creation myth in the Vogue interview. Barbie is thoroughly, and more or less textually, a surprisingly wise excavation of one interpretation of the text and its meaning, as well as the meaning of Barbies as products of culture, the gender wars, and feminism more broadly. You know, typical blockbuster stuff.

There’s a history of filmmakers talking a big game when it comes to taking existing intellectual properties (Marvel characters, say, or nostalgia sequels) and “saying something” with them. Occasionally it works (see Black Panther or Rogue One ). More often it is, at best, pretty shallow; consider Ocean’s Eight or Captain Marvel or, wondrously, Cats , which director Tom Hooper described as being about the “perils of tribalism.”

The Barbie movie, explained.

• Why is everyone so excited?
• What is the movie about?
• Why the marketing campaign has everyone talking.
• What is Barbieheimer?
• What does it mean to be Ken?
• Why did Vietnam ban Barbie?
• Why playing with Barbie gets so weird.

Barbie is not the kind of IP that naturally lends itself to cinematic and philosophical musings. But in Gerwig’s hands, along with her co-writer Noah Baumbach, it’s sly and just about as subversive as a movie can be while still being produced by one of its targets (toy manufacturer Mattel, which the movie relentlessly tweaks over discontinued Barbies and Kens) and distributed by another (Warner Bros. Discovery, which gets one expertly barbed zinger). Loaded with movie references from the ’60s beach party genre to the trippy dream ballets of midcentury musicals — and, uh, Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey — it is cinephile wish-fulfillment rolled in nerdiness and covered in pink sprinkles. Should Barbie be a smash hit, Mattel may wish to replicate its success with other IP, but it’s hard to imagine any future films rising to Barbie ’s level of sheer cleverness, rather than pure corporate pandering.

On the 2001 point: The movie (like one of its trailers ) begins at the very beginning, with a scene ripped from Kubrick’s film. In his, a tribe of apes in a barren prehistoric landscape learn to make tools and then are suddenly confronted by a giant, mysterious, towering rectangular monolith. In Gerwig’s, a group of little girls equipped only with baby dolls and tea party accessories are suddenly confronted with a giant towering monolith of their own: a curvy Barbie, which inspires them to smash their boring baby dolls. In voiceover, Helen Mirren announces that, thanks to the creation of Barbie and then her many career-focused iterations (Doctor Barbie, Scientist Barbie, President Barbie, and so on), “all problems of feminism and equal rights have been solved” in the real world.

“At least,” she says, as the crowd snickers, “that’s what the Barbies think.”

The Barbies live in Barbieland, an analog for the Garden of Eden, where every day is a sunny and perfect day — especially for our heroine, Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie). Her home is a Barbie Dream House in Barbieland, where the Barbies run all aspects of the world. She has a load of friends, all named Barbie, and a boyfriend named Ken (Ryan Gosling) who hangs out with the other Kens at the beach. He is not a lifeguard, nor is he a surfer; his job, he insists, is “beach.”

One day, in the middle of a party, Barbie suddenly starts thinking about death, for no reason at all (especially because she’s a plastic doll and one that is, as you probably know, virtually indestructible). When a tragedy strikes — I won’t ruin it — Barbie is forced to leave paradise and go to the real world, and Ken hitches a ride. When they get there, they discover that they’re suddenly self-conscious and aware of being looked at (this movie’s version of Eve and Adam discovering their nakedness). The plot soon thickens, because not only does Barbie realize that women do not have the same kind of standing in the real world as they do in hers, but men can leer and jeer and make crude comments and stupid decisions, and it’s just sort of what they do. Meanwhile Ken ... discovers patriarchy.

I should say at this juncture that while Robbie is a reliably excellent Barbie, it is Gosling who absolutely steals the show, in part because the character of Ken is terrific and in part because he’s committed so hard to the bit that just looking at him move his arms is somehow hysterical. Gosling’s face is just a little odd, a little asymmetrical, and he pulls off “big doofus with a big doofus face” and “vaguely sinister idiot” with equal aplomb.

Ken’s discovery of patriarchy (which seems to have a lot to do with the subjugation of women and with horses, as far as he can tell) is the means through which a sort of original sin leaks into Barbieland, though by the end of the film it’s clear that this isn’t a typically shallow Hollywood take on feminism. Sure, Barbies were created to teach girls that they could be anything, but what else did they do? (By the end, we learn that in a truly ideal world, the Barbies and the Kens would live in harmony and equality — and that won’t happen overnight.)

But the path the movie traces is more than a little theologically familiar: a paradise lost, destroyed by the “knowledge” of “good” and “evil,” and a path back to restoration (with some bonus reflections on being created for a purpose by a Creator). And there seems to be some built-in interrogation of the Genesis narrative, too. Would it be better, after all, for Barbie and Ken to have continued living naively in a paradise where Ken is just “and Ken” and everyone seems happy all the time? Or did gaining knowledge of the outside world actually make them aware of their free will and equip them to live better, more fulfilled lives? It’s a question some theologians have approached throughout history, and one that recurs when we think about history: Golden ages often appear that way because we were naive to what was “really” going on back then, not because they were actually better.

Let me not give you the wrong impression here: Barbie is an impressive achievement as a film and far, far funnier than any studio comedy I can remember in recent history. There are perfect jokes about everything from stilettos to boy bands to fascism and Matchbox Twenty; I’m still giggling at some of the gags. Barbie probably isn’t for very young children, though the spectacle could get them engaged, but tweens and up will find something to love.

Yet fun and thoughtfulness can go together; a blockbuster (or a doll) need not be brainless to be fun. Gerwig’s solo directing career thus far (which includes Lady Bird and Little Women ) is a triumph of reimagination, an exploration of what it means to find out who you are and not allow yourself to be shaped by nostalgia and sentimentality while also living with deep, real love. That she managed to infuse the same sensibilities into Barbie is something near a miracle. I can’t wait to go see it again.

Barbie opens in theaters on July 21.

Will you support Vox today?

We believe that everyone deserves to understand the world that they live in. That kind of knowledge helps create better citizens, neighbors, friends, parents, and stewards of this planet. Producing deeply researched, explanatory journalism takes resources. You can support this mission by making a financial gift to Vox today. Will you join us?

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via

Your guide to the 2024 Oscars

• The Boy and the Heron treats growing up with the seriousness it deserves
• No, the director of Zone of Interest did not disavow his Jewish identity at the Oscars
• A harrowing film exposes the brutality of Russia’s war in Ukraine
• The movies to watch for this fall
• The profound weirdness of Robert Downey Jr.’s Oscar win — and the category he won
• In American Fiction, a Black writer who “doesn’t see race” pens a race novel
• Poor Things stars Emma Stone as a horny Frankenstein’s monster coming of age
• The year’s scariest horror film is The Zone of Interest
• Oppenheimer is an audacious inquiry into power, in all its forms
• The nuclear bomb’s enduring, evolving place in pop culture
• The Cannes movies everyone will be talking about this year
• 7 winners and 0 losers from the surprisingly delightful 2024 Oscars
• 4 winners and 3 losers from this year’s Oscar nominations
• What does the EGOT even mean, anyway?
• Does Barbie need all the Oscars for feminism?
• This year’s “great man” biopics have a couple of things in common
• How to win an Oscar
• Stop watching movie trailers
• What does winning an Oscar even mean anyway?
• No one wants an Oscar as badly as Bradley Cooper
• How should we remember Trinity Site, where the first nuclear bomb was tested?
• The true story behind Oppenheimer’s atomic test — and how it just might have ended the world
• “Cry baby scientist”: What Oppenheimer the film gets wrong about Oppenheimer the man
• What does it mean to be “just Ken”?
• Lessons from a Barbenheimer summer
• Barbieheimer: Destroyer of worlds, savior of cinema
• A long history of kids doing weird stuff to Barbies
• Killers of the Flower Moon and who gets to tell an Osage story
• The wisest choice in Killers of the Flower Moon
• The horrifying, nearly forgotten history behind Killers of the Flower Moon
• What the end of Killers of the Flower Moon means
• The violence against Indigenous women in Killers of the Flower Moon isn’t just historical. It’s an ongoing crisis.
• Mary Kay Letourneau, the grim inspiration for May December, explained
• Taraji P. Henson’s salary issues point to a larger problem in Hollywood
• The lasting impact of The Color Purple
• It’s a movie! Now it’s a musical! Now it’s a movie musical!
• When is a nose just a nose? A brief history of non-Jews playing Jews onscreen.
• Elemental isn’t Pixar’s best, but it taps into the studio’s superpower
• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a gorgeous, daring triumph
• Why Spider-Verse fans see Gwen Stacy as a transgender allegory
• We can’t grieve what we can’t remember
• Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny reminds you how much Hollywood has changed

Sign up for the newsletter Today, Explained

Understand the world with a daily explainer plus the most compelling stories of the day.

Thanks for signing up!

Check your inbox for a welcome email.

Oops. Something went wrong. Please enter a valid email and try again.

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Barbie’s muddled feminist fantasy still bows to the patriarchy

Gosling’s charm and Gerwig’s mixed messages mean the real winner is Mattel’s male CEO, and dude-dominated capitalism in general

I t’s a shame about the weather but, in the eyes of many, the summer of 2023 is at least furnishing a triumph of feminism, and it’s been cinema’s privilege to host it. Supposedly, Greta Gerwig’s fantasy comedy Barbie is ushering womankind on to the true path to sisterly empowerment . Really?

It sounds plausible, at least at first. “She’s everything. He’s just Ken,” reads the film’s tagline. Gerwig proclaims Barbie to be “most certainly a feminist film”, and it has frightened some male pundits out of their wits. Toby Young has accused it of “unapologetic misandry”, while the Critical Drinker considered it “114 minutes of spiteful, bitter, mean-spirited, borderline unhinged hatred of men”. And, briefly summarised, the film does indeed sound like an almost ridiculously over-the-top feminist homily.

Barbieland, the fantasy world in which females rule the roost, is a paradise. Its womenfolk are wonderfully nice; its menfolk are acceptable only because they’re subjugated. In the real world, where men are on top, they’re stupid, incapable and offensive. When masculinity penetrates Barbieland and threatens to ruin it, women use their superior intelligence to re-establish their hegemony, before helping their grateful menfolk to relinquish their toxicity. Yet somehow the film’s actual import turns out to be the opposite of its apparent message.

It has been widely remarked that Ryan Gosling as Ken, Barbie’s boyfriend, steals the show from Margot Robbie as Barbie. No mean feat, since Ken is there to demonstrate that masculinity is foolish, yucky and reprehensible. Somehow, however, Gosling’s performance countermands his brief. A supposed parody of chauvinist iniquity comes across instead as a winsome display of male charm. Masculinity becomes more beguiling than abhorrent, and Ken’s eventual repentance therefore almost ironic.

Since men are to be portrayed as silly, the patriarchy has to be incompetent. When corporate America tries to put Barbie back in her box, it is defeated by its own inanity. Ken and his peers’ regrettable competitiveness and aggression prove self-destructive, and make them easy meat for the Barbieland counter-revolution. But this vulnerability drains the supposed oppressors of any degree of threat. The male ascendency, already sneakily attractive, turns out to be harmless as well.

Woman’s lot, on the other hand, remains as knottily problematic as ever, and Robbie’s challenge is consequentially an uphill one. Unlike Ken, Barbie is to be permitted no real flaws which might round out her character but undermine her gynocratic sanctity. Instead, she’s left to embrace a vision of the female mission that’s mired in banality and confusion.

At the film’s climax, America Ferrera’s Gloria, the LA mom whose angst has catapulted Barbie into the real world, presents her with a stirring litany of womanly woes. Its gist is that as long as the dudes are in charge, dames are doomed whatever they do. Gosh, it’s hard to be a woman. Reportedly, Ferrera’s rendition left everyone on the set in tears , even the men. Yet this speech sits uncomfortably alongside Barbie’s official slogan: “You can be anything.” Is aspiration a female fundamental, or an unfair imposition?

Whatever. Gloria’s outpouring is all it takes to galvanise the gals into vanquishing the guys. Awkward contradictions in the gameplan are casually sidestepped. The film virtually acknowledges this with a knowing but fatal joke. Helen Mirren’s voiceover dares to point out the mismatch between celebrating the female right to eschew perfection and choosing Robbie as a leading lady. Quite.

Women are counselled to discard illusions and confront real life, but what this might mean in practice remains unclear. Barbie consults a mystic oracle in the shape of the ghost of Ruth Handler, the Barbie doll’s inventor, but all she learns is that she’s allowed to be real. This turns out to mean she can visit a gynaecologist, but that’s pretty much it.

after newsletter promotion

Where a real path forward is actually discernible, it turns out to be disheartening. Male domination is overcome not by open engagement but by feminine wiles, an approach that seems neither progressive nor likely to be especially productive. Rather, it fosters the fear that things won’t be changing any time soon. Men are expected to abandon masculinity once women show them its folly, yet the film has inadvertently advertised its apparently irreversible appeal.

So, what are those bevies of pink-bedecked filmgoing females supposed to make of all this? They will see seductive but dubious stereotypes embellished rather than subverted. Muddled messaging may dispel rather than stimulate any impulse to crusade. What might therefore leave the most residual impact is Sarah Greenwood’s luscious production design . A clear call to action does in the end emerge: go forth and buy the products of the film’s sponsor, Mattel, and its galaxy of commercial partners.

If Barbie constitutes a triumph, it’s a triumph not of feminism but of the patriarchy’s so far most unassailable scion – capitalism. Women have been spending millions to watch a giant advertisement more likely to bewilder than inspire them. And now they’re spending millions more on the merch . Mattel’s (male) chairman and CEO, Ynon Kreiz, has plenty of cause to be pleased. But feminists? Perhaps not so much.

Most viewed

• Entertainment
• Celebrities
• Ticket Sales
• Promoted: What to Watch on Prime Video

Recommended

Johnny Oleksinski

‘barbie’ review: margot robbie’s mattel movie is lousy.

• View Author Archive
• Get author RSS feed

Thanks for contacting us. We've received your submission.

The packaging of “Barbie” is a lot more fun than the tedious toy inside the box. 

Ingeniously, a yearlong barrage of Mattel propaganda was foisted upon us and created a resistance-is-futile Summer of Barbie before anybody knew if the movie was any good. 

There were pop-up cafes , a Forever 21 clothing collaboration and viral Instagram filters galore. 

Running time: 114 minutes. Rated PG-13 (suggestive references and brief language). In theaters July 21.

And then the actual film arrived. To almost quote the Aqua song: Life in plastic — not fantastic.

“Barbie” is an exhausting, spastic, self-absorbed and overwrought disappointment.

Arthouse director/co-writer Greta Gerwig (the superb “ Lady Bird ” and “Little Women”) and co-writer Noah Baumbach (“ Marriage Story “) have churned out a smug tale that doesn’t boast a single sympathetic character. It does, however, have plenty of moral platitudes and pinky-out intellectual jokes.

Midway through this corporate cash grab masquerading as an art installation, a teenage girl shouts at Margot Robbie’s Barbie in a California high school cafeteria: “You represent everything wrong with our culture. You destroyed the planet with your glorification of rampant consumerism — you fascist!”

Barbie, not used to being criticized, cries, “She thinks I’m a fascist?! I don’t control the railways or the flow of commerce!”

That eye-roll-worthy interaction neatly encapsulates the entire enterprise’s high-on-its-own-supply sense of humor that always comes at the expense of character and plot development and turns off anybody who’s trying to have a good time.

Worse, the spat underlines the filmmakers’ delusion that this “Barbie” is something more than just another ploy to sell merchandise.

Gerwig’s movie starts with a cliche. A narrator (Helen Mirren) says, “Since the beginning of time, there have always been dolls,” as a group of little girls surround a giant Barbie and violently smash their old toys to smithereens. It’s sending up the monolith scene from “2001: A Space Odyssey” that has been parodied forever.

Mirren then goes on to tell us of a utopia called Barbie Land, where a diverse array of Barbies and Kens inhabit a matriarchal society in which a Barbie is president (Issa Rae) and the Supreme Court is made up entirely of Barbies. 

They all live in Malibu DreamHouses, go to the cardboard beach, innocently flirt with Kens and dance at slumber parties.

If you’re hoping to experience a multiverse of unique, strong-personality Barbies, you’re better off going to Toys “R” Us after a few martinis. Played by Hari Nef, Dua Lipa, Nicola Coughlan and Emma Mackey, among others, the group members all act similarly and are frustratingly interchangeable with few standout moments.

Every Ken (Ryan Gosling, Scott Evans, Simu Liu and more) is, predictably, a moron.

The narrator adds that Barbie Land citizens believe that, “thanks to Barbie, all problems of feminism and equal rights have been solved” out in the real world. 

Each Barbie, you see, has a plastic toy stand-in on Earth. For instance, Kate McKinnon’s Barbie (one of the few bright spots) has hacked-off hair and colored lines on her face because a little girl “played too hard” and tossed her in a box.

But when classic Barbie (Robbie) unexpectedly develops an infatuation with death, discovers cellulite on her belly and gets flat feet, she is forced to venture out into the real world via convertible, boat and rocket ship to set her child owner on the right path.

The real world here, in a bizarre choice, is Los Angeles. What a missed opportunity.

LA, needless to say, doesn’t look or behave all that differently than Barbie Land, and hardly any truly funny fish-out-of-water antics happen in this film.

Barbie meets Will Ferrell’s Mattel CEO, who, in one of many shrugged-away plot holes, is fully aware of Barbie Land and believes that knowledge of its existence poses some kind of threat to America that’s never fully explained.

The writing, across the board, is lazy. Gerwig and Baumbach’s script doesn’t need to be plausible. It’s about Barbies, for God’s sake. But every time it takes a bonkers narrative leap, somebody cracks a joke about what’s happened as if the viewer is a culture-less rube to ever question the film’s logic.

Two strange scenes involving Rhea Pearlman from “Cheers” are real head-scratchers. 

And a mother-daughter pair played by America Ferrera and Ariana Greenblatt are flatly conceived and textureless.

Drama, sort of, comes when Ken becomes obsessed with the real world’s patriarchy and masculinity and brings them back to upend Barbie Land. What fun.

Gosling’s dumb hunk shtick starts out silly but wears thin as we realize that’s all it’s gonna be.

The visuals are better than the storytelling. The art direction is attractive and clever, if loud and too small-scale. I wanted to explore more of Barbie Land and less of Century City and one LA office building.

Yet you always feel that “Barbie” pales in comparison to other exaggerated stranger-in-a-strange-land films, such as “Pleasantville” or “Elf.”

And in the realm of toys, “The Lego Movie” has far more heart, comedy and creativity than this film does.

What “Barbie” achieves is being an empty movie designed for the vacuous social media age, in which the most important part is snapping a photo of the poster.

Share this article:

Advertisement

Bill Maher’s ‘Barbie’ Movie Review Is a Total Embarrassment

By Marlow Stern

Marlow Stern

You may have heard that Bill Maher hated the Barbie movie — an all-too-predictable outcome for a 67-year-old crank who some HBO exec thinks is “edgy” because he spends so much of his airtime railing against “wokeness.” You’d think someone whose film acting CV includes winners like Pizza Man , Tomcats , and Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death would have a bit more self-awareness; then again, this is not one of Maher’s strong suits.

Editor’s picks

The 250 greatest guitarists of all time, the 500 greatest albums of all time, the 50 worst decisions in movie history, every awful thing trump has promised to do in a second term.

OK, "Barbie": I was hoping it wouldn't be preachy, man-hating, and a #ZombieLie – alas, it was all three. What is a Zombie Lie? Something that never was true, but certain people refuse to stop saying it (tax cuts for the rich increase revenues, e.g.); OR something that USED to be… — Bill Maher (@billmaher) August 7, 2023

Well, apparently Maher can’t “read data” very well. He appears to have misread (or deliberately misinterpreted) a recent report commissioned by Deloitte and the Alliance for Board Diversity concluding that 46.5 percent of board seats in Fortune 100 companies were made up of women and minorities (not just women). Of all Fortune 500 companies, the report concluded that only 22 percent of board seats were given to women and minorities, while 78 percent of board seats in the Fortune 500 were held by white men. Women also only make up about 12 percent of the world’s billionaires, their bodies are currently being legislated against across the U.S. (and world), and, according to a Pew Research Center analysis , the gender pay gap in the U.S. has remained relatively stable over the past two decades, with “women earning an average of 82.2 percent of what men earned.” Hell, in Maher’s own arena of late-night television, there are a grand total of zero female hosts after Amber Ruffin’s Peacock show was recently downgraded to a series of specials. And, unlike the fictional realm of the Barbie movie, there’s never been a female president in the U.S.

Lucy Boynton Says Proust Barbie Was Cut From Film Because Test Audiences Didn't Get the Joke

Ryan gosling is ready to ride off into the sunset while blasting chris stapleton in 'snl' promo, 'the sympathizer' turns a bestseller adaptation into a tv tour de force.

Maher concludes his review of sorts by saying that, despite everything he wrote, the Barbie movie “is fun, I enjoyed it — but it IS a #ZombieLie.” Look, let’s call this what it is: a 67-year-old man tweeting out an angry, hashtag-filled review of the Barbie movie to make headlines. And we haven’t even touched on the most embarrassing part of it: At one point, Maher brands the Barbie movie “so 2000-late” — a nod to a Fergie line from the Black Eyed Peas’ 2009 anthem “Boom Boom Pow” where she raps, “I’m so 3008/You so 2000 and late.” And he dropped this cringeworthy, decade-plus-old line in a screed about the Barbie movie being out of touch. I think it’s time to log off, sir.   

Perhaps the first reactionary troll to publicly lose their mind over the Barbie movie was Ben Shapiro , a Hollywood nepo baby (the son of a TV exec and a composer) who has apparently harbored a grudge against the industry ever since he was rejected from a writing gig on CBS’ The Good Wife . Shapiro made a YouTube video called “Ben Shapiro DESTROYS The Barbie Movie for 43 Minutes” (caps are his) that saw him burn Barbie dolls over a barbecue and decry its “wokeness” — an embarrassing display even for him.

JoJo Siwa Is Trying Too Hard to Shock Us

O.j. simpson, football hall of famer accused of double murder, dead at 76, fred goldman on o.j. simpson's death: 'the only thing that is important today are the victims', ice spice will make acting debut alongside denzel washington in spike lee's 'high and low'.

Theres no blacks at the oscars but Felicity Jones at least sounds kind of black — Bill Maher (@billmaher) February 23, 2015

Then again, Maher couldn’t be a worse messenger when it comes to misogyny. He’s a sexagenarian who, when he isn’t dropping the N-word , has gleefully called women “bimbos” on his show. And, as one of Maher’s exes, Karine Steffans, who is Black, once said of him , “Bill wants someone he can put down in an argument, tell you how ghetto you are, how big your butt is and that you’re an idiot. That’s why you never see him with a white girl or an intellectual.”

No wonder he found the Barbie movie so triggering.

Sebastian Stan Looks Ready to Violate the Fair Housing Act as Donald Trump in 'The Apprentice'

• By Larisha Paul

More 'Jinx': See Trailer for HBO's 'Part Two' Docuseries About Robert Durst

• 'killed them all'
• By Daniel Kreps

'Bridgerton' Season 3 Trailer: Penelope and Colin Begin a Classic Friends-to-Lovers Storyline

• Dear Reader
• By Jodi Guglielmi

Flying iPhones, Break-Dancing Knights, and $10,000 Worth of Corn: How ‘Fallout’ Came To Life on TV

• Okie-Dokie!
• By Christopher Cruz

'Sasquatch Sunset': What's Hairy, Horny, and Puts Its Best Bigfoot Forward?

• MOVIE REVIEW
• By David Fear

Most Popular

Jodie foster pulled robert downey jr. aside on their 1995 film set and told him: 'i’m scared of what happens to you next' because of addiction, where to stream 'quiet on set: the dark side of kids tv' online, sources claim john travolta is ‘totally smitten’ with this co-star, angel reese signs multiyear agreement with panini america, you might also like, four paramount global board members to exit amid m&a talks, from beyoncé and rihanna to billie eilish, celebrities at coachella through the years, the best swim goggles for men, according to competitive swimmers, ‘x-men ’97’ amps up the retro 2d animation to combat a more dangerously divisive world, nycfc $780 million stadium project receives city council approval.

Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.

Verify it's you

Please log in.

It's official: Margot Robbie is making a Monopoly Movie

Move over Barbie, there's a new childhood favourite in town...

The news is officially out: Margot Robbie is making a Monopoly movie.

It's been just a handful of months since Barbie dominated headlines courtesy of Greta Gerwig's Oscars snub and Ryan Gosling's pitch-perfect portrayal of Ken.

Now, though, it's time for another childhood classic to step into the spotlight, as the Wolf of Wall Street and Birds of Prey star takes on the world of boardgames.

This future release looks to blend two of our favourite past times, with Robbie’s production company LuckyChap and her partners Tom Ackerley and Josie McNamara now setting the production wheels in motion.

Poised to transform the concept into a live-action feature film, Monopoly will be based on the property-inspired board game of the same name as reported by Deadline .

Conceived in 1934, Monopoly continues to capture generation upon generation of game players the world over, inspiring countless spin-off games, including card game Monopoly Deal and online Monopoly Go! mobile game.

Of course, Hasbro Entertainment has got in on the action, given they own the original idea after acquiring Parker Brothers - the original company which snapped up Monopoly .

The news landed during Lionsgate’s presentation at CinemaCon taking place in Las Vegas on Wednesday morning.

Lionsgate owns the rights to the game development - which it extended in December, given this is the world's most popular board game, with a huge 99% global awareness.

It was a handful of months ago that Robbie raised questions over whether Barbie would receive a follow-up.

Speaking to Variety in February, Robbie said: "We want to make more films that have the effect that Barbie has.

"I don't know if it has to be Barbie 2. Why can't it be another big, original, bold idea where we get an amazing filmmaker, a big budget to play with, and the trust of a huge conglomerate behind them to go and really play? I want to do that."

But now, it seems Robbie looks set to roll the dice on another childhood favourites.

We'll have to wait and see whether this latest live-action expansion of a classic will enthral audiences.

• Discover the best boardgames you should be playing

First look: is Speak No Evil this year's scariest thriller?

Netflix get a surprising new number one movie

20 straight to streaming movies that you need to see

Related reviews and shortlists.

The 27 best movies on Amazon Prime Video

The best movies on Netflix: this is what to watch

20 modern movie masterpieces - contemporary classics, revealed

First reviews for Ryan Gosling's The Fall Guy have landed

Liked Netflix's Damsel? 3 more movies you need to watch

Oscars 2024: Who should win best actress?

Margot Robbie to Produce the Monopoly Movie

A monopoly movie has been rumored since as far back at 2007, and this may be its best chance yet..

Lionsgate revealed a big update on its upcoming Monopoly movie during its CinemaCon 2024 presentation today, announcing that Barbie's Margot Robbie on board to produce.

Robbie will be producing the film as part of her production company, LuckyChap, which also produced Barbie and is led by her, Tom Ackerley, and Josey McNamara. Hasbro Entertainment will also be producing the movie.

“Monopoly is a top property – pun fully intended,” said LuckyChap in a statement. “Like all of the best IP, this game has resonated worldwide for generations, and we are so excited to bring this game to life alongside the wonderful teams involved at Lionsgate and Hasbro.”

While no details were revealed for the Monopoly movie, Lionsgate did remind us that the game has "99% global awareness" and has sold almost half a billion copies as of 1935.

The Monopoly movie saga has been a long one as there were reports back in 2007 that Ridley Scott would be leading the charge on a film based on the beloved game. More recently, it was reported in 2019 that actor Kevin Hart and director Tim Story would be teaming up for the movie.

What we do know for sure, however, is that Lionsgate is able to make this movie thanks to its acquisition of eOne from Hasbro for $500 million.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected] .

Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on TikTok.

In This Article

IGN Recommends

Shakira Says Her Sons Thought the ‘Barbie' Movie Was ‘Emasculating'

While Shakira is no stranger to championing female empowerment, she also promotes that the topic of feminism is nuanced.

The "Hips Don't Lie" superstar spoke to Allure for a recent cover story interview, where she revealed that her two sons - 11-year-old Milan and nine-year-old Sasha - were not fans of the 2023 Barbie movie, which received widespread celebration upon its release for its criticism of the patriarchy. "My sons absolutely hated it. They felt that it was emasculating," Shakira told the publicaton. "And I agree, to a certain extent. I'm raising two boys. I want them to feel powerful too [while] respecting women. I like pop culture when it attempts to empower women without robbing men of their possibility to be men, to also protect and provide. I believe in giving women all the tools and the trust that we can do it all without losing our essence, without losing our femininity. I think that men have a purpose in society and women have another purpose as well. We complement each other, and that complement should not be lost."

She continued, "Why not share the load with people who deserve to carry it, who have a duty to carry it as well?"

Shakira herself received praise for the female empowerment on her 2023 "Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53" with Argentine DJ Bizarrap, which went straight for the jugular amid her split from soccer player Gerard Piqué. "Women don't cry; we make money," she declared on the track, which hit No. 2 on the  Billboard Global 200 .

"When I did that session, people on my team were saying, ‘Please change this. Don't even think about coming out with those lyrics,'" she recalled to Billboard last year. "And I said, ‘Why not?' I'm not a diplomat in the United Nations. I'm an artist, and I have the right to work on my emotions through my music. It's my catharsis and my therapy, but it's also the therapy of many people. I know I'm the voice of many people, and I'm not being pretentious, just realistic. I lend my voice to many women who maybe also wanted to say the same things I said and perhaps haven't had the validation to do so. I think songs like the Bizarrap session or like the one I did with Karol have given many women strength, self-empowerment, self-confidence and also the backing to express and say what they need to say."

More from Billboard

• Future & Metro Boomin's 'We Don't Trust You' Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200

site categories

Great american media signs jillian murray to multi-picture deal, breaking news.

Kristen Wiig’s Aunt Linda Returns To ‘SNL’ For First Time In 14 Years

By Peter White

Peter White

Executive Editor, Television

More Stories By Peter

• Lionsgate Alternative Television Brings In Former Half Yard Execs Including Nicole Sorrenti
• Sci-Fi Novel ‘Sublimation’ Lands At Universal International Studios For TV Adaptation
• Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex, & Prince Harry Launching Two Non-Fiction Series At Netflix Featuring Cooking, Gardening & Professional Polo

Aunt Linda returned for some new movie reviews.

Kristen Wiig ’s angry, middle-aged film critic was back on SNL ’s Weekend Update to give her hot take on Barbie and Oppenheimer .

Wiig has appeared as Aunt Linda three times before tonight including twice in 2006 and once in 2010, while she was a cast member of the venerable NBC show.

Related Stories

Ryan Gosling Practices Lines To Meet Chris Stapleton In 'SNL' Promo

'SNL's Weekend Update Mocks NYC Earthquake & Likens Donald Trump To Airport As They're Both "A Chaotic Nightmare"

In regards to Best Picture winner Oppenheimer , she called it “Nopenheimer”, directed by “Christopher Nothanks”. “Why would anyone make a movie about the person who invented the microwave,” she added.

Aunt Linda has also started watching television, “like everyone else”. She said The Bear had a “very misleading title”. “I thought it was going to be about bears living in the woods or at the very least a sitcom a very hairy gay man looking after his sister’s kids,” she said.

Watch the video above.

Must Read Stories

Damian chazelle sets first pic under new paramount deal; untitled movie due in 2025.

‘TMNT’ Live-Action Pic; Glen Powell Is ‘Running Man’; ‘Gladiator II’

Meghan markle & prince harry launching two non-fiction series at netflix, four paramount directors exiting amid skydance talks; ceo made $31m+ in ’23.

Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.

Read More About:

Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

• Sign Up / Log In

Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive show news, updates, and more!

Kristen Wiig's Aunt Linda Returned to "Weekend Update," and She's Confused as Ever

Wiig's personal favorite character shared her mixed-up  Barbie  and  Oppenheimer reviews with Colin Jost on April 6. 

On April 6, 2024, Kristen Wiiig made her triumphant return to  Saturday Night Live  as Host, 12 after departing the show. And she brought a couple of characters from her seven-year run as a cast member  along for the evening—including Aunt Linda, the cranky and all-mixed-up " Weekend Update " movie critic.  

How to Watch

Watch Saturday Night Live  Saturdays at 11:30/10:30c on  NBC and next day on  Peacock .  

Reviving Target Lady, Dooneese, or Gilly would've been too obvious during Wiig's fifth stint as Host (besides, Target Lady is currently starring in a series of ads for the store ). Wiig reached a bit deeper into her bag of tricks during a night full of celebrity cameos, reviving eccentric party-toast character Gail alongside former coworkers Fred Armisen and Will Forte. Then, she busted out Aunt Linda's sensible ash-blonde wig and pink blazer to roll up next to Colin Jos t, pulling an array of faces to convey her disappointment in the past year's biggest movies. 

"Hello Seth," Wiig's Aunt Linda greeted Jost, evidently mistaking him for former "Update" anchor Seth Meyers . " Someone 's gotten some work done," she added, jerking her thumb toward Jost amid a symphony of suggestive eyebrow wiggles. 

RELATED: Paul Rudd, Ryan Gosling and Matt Damon Induct Kristen Wiig into SNL 's Five-Timers Club - Watch

Aunt Linda reviewed  Barbie  and  Oppenheimer  on "Weekend Update"—but did love one movie

Aunt Linda's last "Update" visit was way back in 2010, and she had a few updates to share. 

"I got divorced!" she announced. "My husband finally got hearing aids; 10 minutes later, he was on a bus!" 

Wiig's Aunt Linda quickly moved on to her pan of the "90-minute stinko called  Barbie." 

" And where are they? On the moon?!" she said, referring to Barbie's world. "And that Ken character! Ryan Gosling ? More like Ryan Gosling." 

"I...I think you just said his name the same twice," Jost pointed out.

"He's very hard to make fun of," Aunt Linda admitted. (Gosling, who's set to host  SNL  on April 13 , lint-rolled Wiig's new Five-Timers Club jacket during her opening monologue.) 

RELATED: Watch Kristen Wiig's April 6 SNL Sketches

Meanwhile,  Oppenheimer , "directed by Christopher No Thanks," didn't fare any better. "Why the heck would anyone make a movie about the person who invented the microwave?," she wondered. And don't get Aunt Linda started on the series  The Bear  (the way she pronounces "restaurant" is very special).

Paula Pell, who was an  SNL  writer from 1995-2020, shared a behind-the-scenes photo of Wiig back in her Aunt Linda costume on April 7. Her Instagram caption suggested she'd re-teamed with her former collaborator for the new "Update" bit. 

"I had such a great time writing down memory lane with Kristen Wiig this weekend at  SNL ," the Girls5Eva  star wrote. "We had both forgotten how much we love Aunt Linda. I give it ten 'whaaaaaaaats?'" 

Kristen Wiig based Aunt Linda on a "confused" woman on a flight

In a March 2024 interview on Conan O'Brien 's podcast, Wiig revealed that Aunt Linda was her favorite character from her time on the show—and that she was "based on someone that was on a plane."

RELATED: Kristen Wiig's Most Memorable SNL  Characters

Back when Wiig was a performer with L.A. sketch comedy group The Groundlings, she took a flight on which everyone watched the same movie on overhead screens.

"It was The Matrix . She was so confused," Wiig told O'Brien. "She was just like, 'What?' She's like, 'Why is he flying?' She was so loud, and I was listening to her and writing down things she was saying. She's like, 'Now we're flying.'"

When Wiig landed SNL, she slightly altered the character for "Weekend Update." 

"We tried it the way that I wrote it at the Groundings, but it didn't work in a scene," Wiig explained. "Lorne [Michaels] was like, 'I think people would be walking away from you constantly.'" Kind of like poor Aunt Linda's husband with his new hearing aid. 

Saturday Night Live

• Michael Che

Related Stories

And the Winner of the Spring 2024 Fallon Book Club Is...

Adam Levine's Kids Are "Historians" of Maroon 5's Music

Watch Adam Levine's New "Wheel of Musical Impressions"

Why Seth Meyers' Harry Potter-Obsessed Kids Said No to Meeting Daniel Radcliffe

Prince Gave Nicole Richie Her First Dog, "God"

Watch Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show Interview with Conan O'Brien

Watch the SNL Sketch That Inspired Greta Gerwig to Cast Ryan Gosling as Ken

Celebrities in SNL's Five-Timers Club

Down to Two! Vote in Jimmy's Fallon Book Club Final Round

Jimmy Fallon and Heart Sang "Total Eclipse of the Heart" During the Eclipse

The Lonely Island & Seth Meyers Podcast Is Out Now

SNL's "Pilates" Sketch Is a Chamber of Core-Strengthening Horrors

Recommended for You

2-Year-Old Mariska Hargitay Appears on the Merv Griffin Show

Ryan Gosling and Jimmy Fallon Deserve Oscars for Playing Identical-Looking Tough Cops

Scarlett Johansson Matches Katie Britt's SOTU Energy in SNL Parody: Watch