@mrsqueezles >Through direct exposition, I think directly to camera, we receive a monologue about society's unrealistic expectations for women's appearances. Meanwhile, it continues the Hollywood tradition of having an absolutely jacked and ripped and never-not-flexing Ryan Gosling walking around shirtless almost all the time.
It's almost as if you didn't get the point of the movie. Should they have cast a fat guy?
Couldn't read the rest after that.
@the_argentinian The movie is partly about how men and the patriarchy create unfair expectations for women. Not people. Women. Like too many films, it parades around a version of the male body that is ridiculous. To be equal, Barbie should be walking around with huge boobs just out all the time. Or how about not either one please put clothes on and if we're making a movie about how "fair" society is about appearance, maybe consider it's not only men setting expectations and it's not only unfair to women and a wonderful example is right there on screen. But yeah. Clearly, this movie went way over my head.
Review by Connor GarveyVIP 12BlockedParent2023-08-01T11:57:16Z
This movie has a complete lack of any kind of self-awareness or introspection.
Through direct exposition, I think directly to camera, we receive a monologue about society's unrealistic expectations for women's appearances. Meanwhile, it continues the Hollywood tradition of having an absolutely jacked and ripped and never-not-flexing Ryan Gosling walking around shirtless almost all the time.
We're treated to another long exposition in which one of the protagonists lists society's unfair expectations of how women should behave (be nice, but not too nice). I found this crazy. Most of these grievances are about things we all have to grapple with as human beings. Others... Who is society? Where are these expectations made? How do we change them? How do they compare to expectations placed on men to get jobs, go to work, learn plumbing, listen and provide feedback to women, but never explain anything? We never even consider. This movie literally lists "anxiety" as a women's issue. It's lack of ability to understand or interpret its own message is telling.
There's a segment in which men trick women to quit their jobs and take on the roles of supporting men (what!?) and women have to break each other out. At the same time, the men want nothing and do nothing except to drink beer and play guitar and ruin society and have wars because stereotyping is great as long as it's men.
There is some commentary (again, through direct exposition) about Ken's role in Barbieland, how he doesn't have a job or a purpose except to be a guy. We discover pretty quickly that we're supposed to interpret that as, "See? This is what it's like to be a woman [in the 1820s]." And what's the solution? No. No. Ken should continue to have no agency or purpose in Barbieland and that's a hilarious joke.
Every actor, though, is fully committed and doing great work.
This movie is bad. It never heard of, "show, don't tell", and instead has writers repeatedly monologuing directly to the audience. It's a ham-fisted delivery of a message that the movie doesn't itself understand, let alone interpret. The most memorable part, based on comments from women who walked out of the theater, was also the most joyous, a song and dance number starring only (ironically) men. Everyone seemed to like that part and wanted to talk about it, which is an indication of how poorly this movie communicates and entertains.