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Barbie.
I'm a woman and a feminist. I'm a fan of Greta, and of everyone they cast in that movie.
I was bored for most of it. The parts that were meant to be poignant, I thought completely missed the mark. It was a waste of an opportunity.
I don't understand the hype. Margot is a gem, one of our exports I'm actually impressed by, and I think her unfailing charm won a lot of people over to this. I think most of us would happily watch Margot read the phone book.
But I found the movie to be dull and shallow in its attempts for depth.
I feel bad because most of my female friends really hold it up as something I don't think it is. I keep my mouth shut.
I'm not sure if was meant to be "deep", I think it was meant to be a bit satirical and a lot of tongue in cheek. I don't think they were setting out to make a masterpiece, but a sharp take on mid life crisis and societys demands of women, including the monotinization of their escapism driven by corporate (men) stooges.
I'm not sure what opportunity was missed in a movie about capitalism utopia as portrayed by glamour dolls.
I’m not sure what opportunity was missed in a movie about capitalism utopia as portrayed by glamour dolls.
Set ups for the punchlines that seemed to come out of nowhere, even a hint as to why having Barbieland go back to a matriarchy was better than something balanced to follow up on the whole Kens being second class citizens. Not that I wanted to spend more time on the Kens, just like a line or two that addresses the weird situation that they explicitly set up.
I was in the same page as you, but I think I understood it at the very end, literally at the last scene. I understood that the message is something along the lines of "women should be allowed to be just women, without anything remarkable about them". It kinda just tries to make that point, right? Women are just people. They are not objects, nor super heroes. They don't need to be special.
The main goal of feminism is equality right? Well, women today are asked to be a lot of things that men are not asked to, to be exceptional, to break their chains, and fight. To be better than they are now, to change and fight back. And all that is exhausting, sometimes you just need to go to your ginecologist, not change the world. And that brings you happiness and fulfillment. Leave women to be whatever they want to be, don't put on them YOUR expectations, let them be free. Stop telling women how they should live their lives, let them pick whatever they want. They are just humans. Men are allowed to be regular humans with flaws and virtue, women are not.
I think that's the message, or I completely missed the point there lol. I don't think it's not deep. You could argue that maybe it's a message a little dangerous, sure. A very individualistic message, even alienating, but what would you expect from something financed by capitalists. The revolution will not be televised. Personally, I found it a little refreshing, sometimes it feels like we are changing one social mandate for another, but in the end we cannot choose freely anyways, just obey. I gave me one or two thing to think about.
Those messages came through to a degree (good write up by the way) but to my mind they didn't go far enough. Then the comedy was so light touch too.
It all just felt like a first draft of something that might have been hilarious, entertaining and thought provoking. But didn't land any of those things well. So I thought, couldn't it have picked one of the 3 and done then well?
When the credits rolled I just said 'k'. Because I didn't really take anything away from it. Even without the hype for months, my expectation was built more by the cast and director. So I was just disappointed. I wasn't even entertained.
Oh, I'm totally with you there, there were about 2 or 3 jokes that I enjoyed, and every thing else was kinda bland. I think I was overhyped.
I'm a man but have the same take, excited about everyone involved and the themes and the style, but it just kind of limped its way through the stereotypical story with a lot of preaching at the audience. My wife actively hated it and didn't even finish it, bailing out when the mom went on her rant about how unfair everything is which was true but executed really badly.
I did really enjoy Kate's Crazy Barbie or whatever. If the rest of the film had that kind of nuance and comedic timing it would have been fantastic.
The movie became a culture war wedge issue, you just couldn't have an intelligent discourse about it in movie critic terms.
It had some good parts, but the ending kinda felt like everyone just boxing up their genders again as the status quo instead of being a society that valued people for more than just their genitals. I kept waiting for the part where they realized equality was what they should strive for to help lead the human world in the best direction.
The queer-coded Allen felt a bit on the nose for 2023, too. I liked parts of it, but it felt very...20th-century feminist and straight to appeal to larger audiences.
I think the part with Margot and the grandmotherly lady at the bus stop was my favorite part. Peaceful, sweet, and exactly where the movie felt like it was heading in a good direction (in addition to the heaven and tearoom scenes). The musical parts were a great reminder of the movies from long ago, and also a great step in the right direction.
I liked Allen so much. Only cool character that isnt overacting