Some Barbie thoughts
It’s fun, obviously. Not everything works - a sub-plot with evil Mattel CEO Will Ferrell and his boardroom of male cronies goes nowhere, Helen Mirren’s narration gets mislaid for long periods. But considering the sheer weirdness of the marriage of IP and director, it’s an achievement for this movie to exist at all. Many have bemoaned the likes of Marvel hiring indie directors and subsuming them into their meat grinder formula. If only they were given (mostly) carte blanche! (Edgar Wright’s Ant Man is the Great Lost Movie in this regard). Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is the actual answer. But is it really as radical as you might think? Yes, Gerwig and partner Noah Baumbach are to be congratulated for making a subversive feminist parable about a plastic doll into a billion dollar movie. But the megalithic toy corporation who gave them full backing will be even more ecstatic. Rather than being damaged by this spotlighting of their flaws, Mattel and Barbie’s stocks have rarely been higher. The Ba