'Barbie' is more than a toy story. Day-Glo film dismantles tropes while celebrating them

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic

Updated September 13, 2023 at 12:54 AM·5 min read

-Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) mosey into the Real World in "Barbie."

It’s not what you think it is.

Of course, the secrecy surrounding what’s really going on with “Barbie,” director Greta Gerwig’s take on the famous, or infamous (depending on who’s talking), doll means that you may not know exactly what to expect when you see the film.

Good. Because no matter what you suspect from the trailers or the endless memes and louder-than-a-jackhammer buzz, even then, it’s not what you think, no matter what you may think you think.

“Barbie” is a fun movie, which seems essential, given that it’s a movie about Barbie. But it’s not just that. It’s over the top, Day-Glo in every way possible, silly and goofy. It’s also smart and thoughtful and depressing in a speak-truth-to-power, zeitgeisty kind of way — a critique of toxic masculinity and more.

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Greta Gerwig dismantles Barbie tropes while celebrating them

And know this: No matter how you feel about Barbie, no matter whether you think she is a cute rite-of-passage toy or her very existence is a slap in the face to women’s rights and equality, Gerwig, proving herself one of the great directors (“Lady Bird” is one of the best films of the century), has beaten you to the punch.

She covers all the bases, not shying away from Barbie tropes and criticisms so much as deconstructing them in front of you, a half-second before your brain can form the phrase, “Yeah, but …” It’s an impressive feat.

Margot Robbie is great as an increasingly multidimensional Barbie, just as good at playing plastic vapidity as burgeoning intelligence and self-awareness. Ryan Gosling is just as good at playing whatever-he-is Ken. (Ken is many things.)

But this is Gerwig’s vision. She co-wrote it with her partner Noah Baumbach, but it's Gerwig’s movie, Gerwig’s take on childhood and the patriarchy and feminism and love and death — boy, death — all wrapped in a package that continually surprises.

So yeah, it’s not what you think it is. It’s better.

What it’s about, on the other hand, is best left discussed in generalities.

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What is 'Barbie' about?

The film begins with a prologue about dolls and how until Barbie came along, they were always baby dolls preparing girls for motherhood. Helen Mirren’s narration, delightful throughout, introduces a Barbie Colossus. The scene is a clear nod to Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” which also serves notice that there’s a lot going on here.

There really is. Robbie’s Barbie is in fact one of many in Barbieland, where they wield all the power and influence. One Barbie is president, others make up the Supreme Court. They’re doctors and physicists and Nobel Prize winners. Robbie’s is Stereotypical Barbie, what you think of when you think of Barbie. Her job is to be perfect.

The Kens, meanwhile, are basically there to support the Barbies. Gosling’s Ken, in particular, revolves around Robbie’s Barbie.

“Barbie has a great day every day,” the narrator intones, “but Ken only has a great day if Barbie looks at him.”

Barbieland is quite the place. “Thanks to Barbie, all problems of feminism and equal rights have been solved,” the narrator says. At least that’s how the Barbies see things.

Then, during a musical number at a dance party at Barbie’s Dream House, Barbie blurts out, “You guys ever think about dying?”

It is fair to say that no, they have not.

Soon Barbie is having a full-on existential crisis. She seeks the help of Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon, hilarious) who tells her that her feelings are caused by whoever in the Real World is playing with her. She needs to travel there and work things out.

Off she goes, and Ken stows away. They show up in “the country of California” and stand out in Venice Beach. Ken is intoxicated by the power men have here; Barbie gets a rude awakening from Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt), a tween girl who unloads on Barbie with both barrels, decrying the objectification she has inspired in the Real World.

Sasha’s mom Gloria (America Ferrera) works for the CEO of Mattel (Will Ferrell); she has a warmer relationship with Barbie than her daughter does. As in most movies, when the real world and fantasy worlds collide, trouble ensues in both. Gloria will prove instrumental in trying to fix things; it’s a choice role for Ferrera.

Some of the social critiques are scathing. “I’m a man with no power,” one man says in the Real World. “Does that make me a woman?”

Yet for all its surprises, “Barbie” is also funny; even the dumb jokes are smart, which will make sense in context. At times Gerwig is a little heavy-handed — like the previous joke, actually — and she has a lot of ideas swirling around that she’s juggling.

Good. It’ll be interesting to see how audiences expecting nothing more than a goofy summer trifle will react to the film, which is that, in part, but also so much more.

Where to stream 'Barbie' at home?

"Barbie" is available for rent or purchase on Apple TV, Prime Video, Google Play and Vudu. Buy it digitally for $29.99 or rent for 48 hours for $24.99.