A Barbillion Bucks

Barbie, like The Lego Movie, is a product film based on a product so successful it doesn't need to sell said product and instead uses the guaranteed exposure to tell its own fairly unique story.

Barbies of various type live in "Barbie Land" where every day is pink and perfect (for the Barbies at least) . When generic Barbie begins having thoughts about death and experiencing flat feet she has journey to the real world, accompanied by tag along, wannabe boyfriend Ken.

Revealing much more of the story would be a bit of a spoiler given how well the marketing has kept the nitty gritty of precedings hidden but it's safe to say the ensuing story is possibly the most meta film ever made. It comments on Barbie's place in the world, some "interesting" missteps Matel has made with the doll, and the irony of the company having an all male board before you even get to the feminist and class culture stuff. Even the movie's casting is meta. Having Margot Robbie, the embodiment of blonde perfection , as Barbie adds an extra layer to the notion of unobtainable beauty and Ryan Gosling is genius casting as Ken, the "sigma male" persona certain corners of the Internet have bestowed upon him being completely flipped on its head. It obviously helps that they are both outstanding actors. The rest of the cast are also great, the denizens of Barbie Land perfectly playing out the ridiculousness of the situation without ever winking at camera and Will Ferrell in one of his best roles in years as the oddball Mattel CEO.

Director Greta Gerwig performs a miraculous juggling act, balancing some fairly weighty themes with real belly laughs and somehow managing to keep a consistent tone across the most surreal two hours ever to gross over a billion dollars. It does pack a surprising emotional punch in some parts as well. There is one sequence, when they first reach the real world and Ken becomes aware of all the opportunies and positive stereotypes that men see every day, that as the father of a teenage girl was a real gut punch and one of the most subtlety effective depictions of modern day sexism you will see. The only real missteps Barbie makes are when it attempts to be too sentimental, a couple of more schmaltzy scenes feel overdone and the movie makes it's points more than adequately without them.

Mainly though, the film is just very, very funny, a blast of refreshing pink air into the blockbuster scene and a fun time for everyone.

8 horse out of 10 mojo dojo casa houses.

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