Barbie Review: Greta Gerwig is Our Most Exciting Living Filmmaker

"It's not what you're expecting" has been repeated since before the cast and crew of Barbie had even stepped onto the soundstage in Leavesden for their first day of filming. Many of the stars said it was the best script they'd ever read, awards buzz was bouncing off the walls, and when pictures of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in neon rollerblades hit the internet, the world was deep in Barbiemania.

So often, we are used to being let down by the buzz. Hyperbole is a dime a dozen in a world driven by clickbait, but Barbie is the real deal, and it's every bit as excellent as we hoped.

Directed by Academy Award-nominee (and should-be winner) Greta Gerwig, Barbie strikes the perfect balance of philosophy and comedy in the promised unexpected rollercoaster.

Through the inner lives of women, Gerwig has journeyed through stories of interesting characters who are discovering themselves beyond what the world expects of them. In Gerwig's Little Women, Jo stands before a man critiquing the stories she writes for a living as he dismisses them as "not good". In his hands, he holds her ticket to taking care of her family in a world that doesn't care much for the tales of women beyond those who wind up married or dead. She looks Friedrich Bhaer in the eye and says, "I can't afford to starve on praise".

From the moment Barbie was announced, the naysayers were ready with the sell-out comments. Gerwig began her career in what is now dubbed the mumblecore movement, where naturalistic stories made on low budgets with largely improvised dialogue and a homemade aesthetic reigned supreme on the indie festival circuit. She was the lead in Hannah Takes the Stairs and Baghead before slowly making her way into studio movies as the often quirky supporting role in films like Arthur and No Strings Attached before branching out into co-writing and starring in Frances Ha and Mistress America with her now partner and co-writer of Barbie, Noah Baumbach.

Her trajectory has only been up, and now she gets to play with $145 million in a Warner Brothers Picture, Barbie, starring some of the world's most beloved movie stars.

It seems impossible to try and unpack its excellence. The real triumph is that a studio summer blockbuster is bursting with philosophical debates, existential crises, and so much pink it drained a company of one specific type of paint.

If you're a fan of Gerwig's work, you'd have been preparing yourself for a Barbie movie that was subversive, but nothing can quite ready you for just how unhinged it is in all the right ways.

To steal a quote from Frances Ha, "It's funny and sad, but only because this life will end". So rarely does a film come along that talks about big things in accessible ways, but Barbie addresses death, identity, gender roles, existentialism, motherhood, faith, self-worth, and so much more in a way that mirrors the relief you feel after taking a deep breath and exhaling. It is the movie women have been starving for after decades of being underserved by studios that seem wrapped up in sequels and superheroes.

Many moments throughout make you wonder, "How did this get made?" It is bold and unique in all the ways films have felt devoid of for so long, not even mentioning the tactile techniques Gerwig borrowed from old studio movies like handpainted backdrops and puppetry and practical effects that are breathtaking.

So often, audiences are cheated of the magic of moviemaking by VFX that are barely finished because artists are overworked and underpaid, and those budgets are even higher than Barbie's. Audiences feel like they can touch everything in the frame; it puts life, fun, and joy back at the heart of moviemaking.

The script is as brilliant as expected from a Gerwig/Baumbach collaboration, hitting the tonal balance of comedy and sincerity. When a script is that good - and the director is as brilliant as Gerwig is - the performances flourish, and that could not be more true for Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, who lead as Barbie and Ken. Both take every inch of their character that could be deemed a parody and make it so immaculate that it's impossible to turn your eyes away.

It takes multiple viewings to appreciate every facial expression, line delivery, movement that every actor exhibits. Kate McKinnon as Weird Barbie and Michael Cera as Allan are standouts among the supporting cast, but every person deserves their own cut to show just how complete each character is in Barbieland. With an ensemble as big as this one, it is rare that every person in the frame has an inner life so interesting you want to know more about them, but Gerwig accomplishes it.

All movies are miracles, but Barbie, in particular, is miraculous. Gerwig continues to confirm herself as the most exciting living filmmaker we have, and the box office appears to agree. Give her all the money, let her make whatever she wants. With a mind as sharp as hers, she will be changing the game for years to come, giving women film after film that makes them feel seen in ways they never have on screen.