All the women in my life are extremely excited about the “Barbie” movie. It looks totally campy to me, I don’t get it. Every fashion designer is leaning into pink this season. There are a zillion tie ins to the movie like it’s going to be the next Frozen. What am I missing?
They gave her a white actress, so thankfully that shouldn’t cause a right wing melt down. Though, they probably should have made her Chinese because I’m pretty sure that’s where Barbie comes from.
Just rented out a theatre for my daughters birthday to see this. Only saving grace is she will be 17 and I don’t need to supervise; just pay.
The trailer made it look like it might have an interesting premise. And it’s made by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, so I’ll at least keep an open mind.
Nothing!! They’re females and happy. Go with it while it lasts. Buy your wife some Barbie lingerie!! Have some fun Ken!!
Best case I think this one will be polarizing right down the gender line. worst case is this is waterworld part 2. Colossal flop.
And just for the record, Margot Robbie was insanely hot in Wolf of Wall Street but seems considerably less hot (comparatively) in everything since. Granted a lot of the roles she’s taken on have not been about sex appeal and Barbie most likely will be.
I'm glad someone started this thread. We already have our tickets. It has really been dominating the zeitgeist, especially in the LA movie community, especially because it's opening with Oppenheimer. My daughter has already been invited to quite a few Barbieheimer parties. A lot of theaters in LA are consciously timing them to be shown back to back. My anticipation really was piqued by a long form in the New Yorker two weeks ago that I cannot seem to find right now. They are trying to thread a very fine needle here but at least from what I'm reading it appears they are. I agree that Greta Gerwig being attached makes it automatically of interest, but one thing the article made clear is that it was actually Margot Robbie who got the IP rights from Mattel and brought in Greta. It's her project as much as Greta's. Here’s the piece Gerwig, too, had a clear vision for what a toy movie could be. The story is initially set in a world called Barbie Land, which she infused with “authentic artificiality.” Shots lack interiority, actors’ movements are exaggerated, and visual effects are achieved with painted backdrops and other lo-fi technology, calling attention to the fake environment. (The fact that milk never leaves Barbie’s glass when she lifts it to drink also helps.) When Robbie’s character ventures beyond Barbie Land, Gerwig explained, the film’s visual language also changes: “The way the camera moves and the way it feels is different once we’re in the real world.” Mattel was sometimes uneasy with Gerwig’s interest in the brand’s missteps. In 1964, the company released a doll named Allan, whose packaging marketed him as “Ken’s buddy,” with the tagline “All of Ken’s clothes fit him!” Allan was soon pulled from shelves. When Gerwig learned about him, she found the ad copy both sad and amusing. In “Barbie,” Allan is played by Michael Cera, and much is made of the fact that his relationship to Ken is his main identifying feature. The company, Gerwig remembered, required some convincing: “There was just an e-mail that went around where they said, ‘Do you have to remind people that this was on the box?’ ” The film is studded with such false starts from Mattel history. Barbie’s sidekick Midge—who, two decades ago, was briefly sold as a doll with a baby bump—is introduced in voice-over, before the narrator changes her mind: “Let’s not show Midge, actually. She was discontinued by Mattel because a pregnant doll is just too weird.” Kate McKinnon’s character, a doll disfigured by her overly enthusiastic human playmate, lives on the fringes of Barbie Land with other castoffs, including Tanner, a toy dog whose 2006 play set was recalled when the accompanying Barbie’s pooper-scooper proved to be a choking hazard. Gerwig told me, “Barbie seems so monolithic, and there’s a quality where it just seems as if she was inevitable, and she’s always existed. I think all the dead ends are a reminder that they were just trying stuff out.” Although she understood why Mattel wanted “to protect Barbie,” she felt that “dealing with all the strangeness of it is a way of honoring it.” Toy Story After “Barbie,” Mattel Is Raiding Its Entire Toybox
I should really see wolf of Wall Street some day, but Margot was amazing in I, Tonya. Not hot, but amazing.
Margot Robbie? That changes everything.... ...might even "take one for the team" there, and invite fiercely independent daughter (who has no use for anything Barbie), and wife (who has zero interest).
