Greta Gerwig's Barbie is, to nobody's surprise except perhaps Mattel's, a critique of late-capitalist American gender ideology wearing a pink jumpsuit. What Gerwig and her co-writer Noah Baumbach do with the Barbie IP is nearly impossible: they make a mainstream comedy that is genuinely funny, genuinely moving, and formally weirder than any corporate product has a right to be.
Margot Robbie plays Stereotypical Barbie with precisely the right balance of sincerity and satire. She is playing a doll who becomes a human, which requires her to play a person who isn't sure whether she is a person. She nails it. Ryan Gosling as Ken is the film's other secret weapon — a performance of such commitment that the Academy, astonishingly, gave him a supporting nomination.
America Ferrera's Monologue
America Ferrera delivers what will be remembered as the film's set-piece — a direct-to-camera monologue about the impossible contradictions of being a woman in modern America. In a film this playful, it risks feeling like a thesis statement. Gerwig's rhythm makes it work. The monologue is sincere. The film around it is not sentimental. That balance is the film's secret.
Visually Extraordinary
Production designer Sarah Greenwood built Barbie Land as an enormous practical pink set — not CGI, real paint and plaster and plastic. It is one of the most visually accomplished American comedies of the last twenty years. Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto shoots it with the loving clarity he usually reserves for Scorsese.
Barbie is still getting repertory screenings at the Bloor Hot Docs and Imagine Carlton during their "recent cinema" programmes. If you missed it in first run, seek it out.