Rent Barbie (2023)

Enjoyable and often funny, if ultimately too light on its feminist philosophy - Barbie review by PD

This enjoyable film is largely carried by its feminist philosophy, and features a very good, impassioned monologue delivered by America Ferrara (who plays a Mattel employee with a surly, anti-Barbie tween daughter) that lays out the many ways in which women are forever in conflict with themselves and within their societies. However, ultimately director Greta Gerwig rather shies away from dealing with this core theme in any great depth, instead urging her audience toward accepting that the best way to be in a broken world is by simply being yourself, whoever that may be - a fair enough sentiment, sure, but hardly a hard-hitting one. The film thus pushes its hero, and (less successfully) Ken, into that exploration and then leaves them to it, dropping all the clashes over patriarchy and corporate feminism in favour of a more palatable message about individualism.

Gerwig seems to take the view that her film can really only tickle and mildly provoke, and that it’s mostly there to be amusing - which it is, albeit more gently than I think was intended. There are a few laugh-out-loud gags in the film, but just as many jokes, if not more, clunk around like cheap plastic, whilst the script is so strenuously wacky that it runs the movie ragged pretty quickly. The film is willing to tease its commercial mission and its overlords, but really only if it is followed by a “hey, we’re just having fun here” pat of reassurance. And whilst Margot Robbie gamely commits to whatever bit is put in front of her in any given scene, she has as much trouble following Barbie’s emotional throughline as we in the audience do, whilst as the film heads into its third act it becomes just as much Ryan Gosling’s show, which is much less funny, and even less entertaining.

There is plenty here to enjoy, and it's not surprising that the film was a massive hit, cheered for turning a cynical I.P. project into a loopy treatise on being. But for me it could have been much stickier, more probing and indelible, if it had reined in some of its erratic energy and really figured out what it wanted to say about its key feminist theme.

Well, maybe - Barbie review by SB

Difficult to know where to start with this one, it's so....pink. It starts out well, with the basic idea of juxtaposing Barbie world and the 'real world' and examing relations between men and women in each, but the second half gets rather bogged down and improbable. Some trimming might have helped.

The most effective scenes are probably those satirising corporate life at Mattel (which of course has done very well from this film). No doubt it is a triumph of technical achievement in film technique also. But I found myself dozing somewhat towards the end. Margot Robbie looks wonderul in her pink cat suit.............

What I thought - Barbie review by Lisa hain-dryden

I thought this film was borning. I could not get on with tye storyline. I would not watch this film again.

Mixed bag - Barbie review by DJB

Nice concept, but it felt like a disjointed execution. And too long.

There were some good performances and gags, but for me it lacked the quantity/quality of gags to be a decent comedy. And it lacked story/heft/subtlety to be something more.

Possibly the inevitable result of a director wanting to make a movie of substance, mixed with a meddling toy company wanting to use it to shift more products.

sublime - Barbie review by ste

“Barbie” is lovingly crafted with a lot on its mind, the kind of film that will benefit from repeat viewings and is still purely entertaining even in a single watch.

Begins entertainingly, but runs out of ideas and humour pretty quickly - Barbie review by JR

Hats off to the production designers - Barbieland is a pink plastic technicolour nauseatingly amusing wonderland. But after Barbie and Ken arrive in the real world, the visual gags tail off and so does the humour. The whole section with Will Ferrell and the board of Mattel is unfunny; the stereotypical plotline of the hard working Latino mother with the parent-hating teenage daughter is schmaltzy and sentimental. There is a long tedious musical number that is unnecessary, and you'll almost want to support Ken by the 20th time you've been force-fed the 'smash the patriarchy' lines.

‘Do you ever think about dying?’ - Barbie review by HW

I found this film more interesting and funny than I thought it would be. The line above made me cackle; it was so beautifully timed. This film isn’t simply a fluffy promotion of a legendary toy, as I initially suspected. It works as a satirical sci-fi comedy that uses the Barbie doll as a springboard for comments on gender expectations, imbalances of power in society and just generally succeeding and existing. Although the film is a fist-pump for feminism, it does at least suggest that Barbie’s world isn’t any better than ours, as it’s the Ken’s who end up as the neglected, patronised citizens in their feminine world. Perhaps the film suffers from trying to do too many things, so that not each topic is fully explored. But you can’t deny this is dazzling and unique. I may even have preferred this viewing experience to ‘Oppenheimer’. At least ‘Barbie’ was more original and imaginative. And funnier.