Barbie - A More Successful Movie than You'd Think

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Merton J. Dingle said:
If Ken unintentionally ends up being a likeable, sympathetic character, and the movie fails at being the stock woke film that we're used to hearing of, does that mean that it has some merit and is worth seeing, especially if one streams it later on? This thread has definitely led me to being more interested in what it ended up being, regardless of the retard director's intentions.
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I mean, the movie does want you to sympathize with him! Just not while he's Doing Patriarchy, even though it's a child's conception of it. However, those moments are the most fun.

I've been enjoying the takes reframing this as a based men's rights movie or a "feminism is a failure" movie more than I enjoyed the movie itself. I'm actually shocked lib fems like it, due to the whole "women manipulate men on purpose to get what they want" admission. It doesn't matter, I guess. The metaphors are so mixed and the allegory so broad that it can be tongue-in-cheek ironic trollbaiting or it can be sincere, whichever you prefer.

I was looking forward to an actual celebration of the lore of Barbie, but fuck me, I guess. The biggest issue, I think, is that they made the movie for millennial women and, aside from the beginning, there are no children in the film, so the engagement with the dolls and their meaning is all done by adult women who want to vent about their problems instead of being carried away with imagination and possibility, the things that actually drive story structure. But I've heard they were trying to rebrand it for moms and future moms so they would buy dolls for their kids and stop shrieking about body esteem every time they see pink, so mission accomplished.

I really, really prefer Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse. I thought they would go in that direction because it was really charming and accessible to kids and adults with good writing, while still making fun of itself.

 
AnOminous said:
Okay, but you're still gay for even caring about this homosexual gay movie.
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Don't care didn't ask and you're still a fat sperg.

Trianon said:
I really, really prefer Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse. I thought they would go in that direction because it was really charming and accessible to kids and adults with good writing, while still making fun of itself.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=7wjOCN2s754
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This skit was funny

But only if you played with Barbie and similar
 
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I haven't seen the movie. I am just surprised Ken doesn't have a soybeard, a balding head, a gunt, and a maga hat.
 
I saw the movie and liked it overall. Here are some notable points I enjoyed:
  • I liked that they weren’t afraid to make the main characters actually attractive. It was refreshing to see
  • The movie actually displayed gender differences quite well even if both were exaggerated
    • In the third act, the women openly admit to using feminine charm to get what they want from men
    • Ruth Handler is depicted as getting her biggest ideas at the kitchen table and mentions creating things like Barbie because of her kids
    • A big part of the story is a mother and daughter bonding over Barbie
    • In the sequence before Barbie decides to become human, she sees montages of mothers and daughters playing with and enjoying Barbie
    • Barbie admits she was wrong in treating Ken essentially as her accessory and Barbieland has to give some concessions to the Kens (it’s explicitly even said the Kens will obtain the same amounts of power as the Barbies)
    • Ken is pretty multidimensional when everything is all said and done. His understanding of the real world is as surface level as one would expect for a literal doll, but him feeling more respected in the real world is a catalyst for creating the Kendom (he takes it to meme level proportions, but I think it just makes it funnier)
    • I viewed the daughter at the beginning of the movie as a satire of more current day feminists, and given she was in public school, it just sort of fit given the way they are these days. She later has to learn to lighten up and not be so cynical
    • In the end, the women also all still embrace being feminine, which was also a nice change. I feel like it’s been too much of a trend in some movies to get women to reject aspects of femininity to be taken seriously
  • Of all the more minor characters, I liked Ruth Handler the best. I liked how they had her say that she never felt the need to look like Barbie and just enjoyed it because it was different from the real world. I think for a long time, some people have taken the actual Barbie look too seriously as though it’s the ideal. Growing up, I mainly liked Barbie for the clothes and the doll’s shape just made it easy to dress. Doll proportions would look ridiculous in real life and even Margot Robbie lacks them lol.
  • I really liked the Kenmaid and wish he got a tad more screen time
  • The Ken battle reminded me of a really corny anime fight and it was awesome
  • I hope they make an actual Depression Barbie because the ad for it in the movie was probably one of my favorite parts
  • I viewed the patriarchy stuff as more of a meme than anything in the context of the movie. Ken, being a literal doll getting transported to the real world, interprets it primarily as horses and LARPing as Sylvester Stallone
I kind of knew the plot would be kind of dumb given the medium, but I actually laughed quite a bit. It thankfully wasn’t as preachy as I thought it was going in. I viewed it as a satire. Everything seemed too exaggerated to not be satire (even though it did manage to have some touching moments). Overall, I was just glad they didn’t try to make a grimdark reimagining of Barbie like they’ve done to so many super heroes because that would’ve been so much more boring.
 
Oilspill Battery said:
You mean they literally made a "literally me" character by sheer literal accident on a character that was already memed as a literally me on the most "literally me" actor?

God DOES have a sense of humour.
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/tv/ meme magic strikes again

AnOminous said:
You are literally mad about a movie for little girls about a doll for little girls.
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Where do you think we are.jpg

"why do you even care lol" - come on man, you're smarter than this. and by now you should understand that it's certainly not a movie for little girls.
 
ZMOT said:
/tv/ meme magic strikes again


View attachment 5234679
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I've seen all of scrubs but I don't remember what this is supposed to be referencing.
ZMOT said:
"why do you even care lol" - come on man, you're smarter than this. and by now you should understand that it's certainly not a movie for little girls.
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This is such a bizzare notion. "Lol its a movie for kids, so you should let them get away with as much propaganda as they physically cram into it because its for kids lol"
 
Why is it that every single piece of popular media these days inevitably turns into yet another battleground in the endless culture war? It is all so very tiresome and exhausting. Just watch the silly doll movie if you want to, it literally does not matter in any way. Also Greta Gerwig is the most feminist name ever invented and it makes me chuckle.
 
Peep Plops said:
It is all so very tiresome and exhausting. Just watch the silly doll movie if you want to, it literally does not matter in any way.
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"Let them get away with their propaganda you silly, it doesn't matter in any way."
 
Peep Plops said:
Why is it that every single piece of popular media these days inevitably turns into yet another battleground in the endless culture war? It is all so very tiresome and exhausting. Just watch the silly doll movie if you want to, it literally does not matter in any way. Also Greta Gerwig is the most feminist name ever invented and it makes me chuckle.
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The movie is part of pop culture, so it might just be due to that, in addition to it being one of the most popular movies this year. Since it’s a hot topic at the moment, it’s an opportune time to cash in on the delight/outrage. Wouldn’t be the first time people have done this to movies, and wouldn’t be the last. I remember seeing articles when the Joker movie came out on apparently why it will “inspire incels.”
 
@JambledUpWords Nice review. I’m a little less high on it than you, but the things you mentioned I agree with and are worthy of consideration.

On my end, I think Gerwig was trying to juggle too many themes and ideas. The tonal swings between the absurd and earnestness didn’t really work for me and at times I felt she had her thumb on the scale, particularly during America Ferrera’s speech which just sort of stopped the movie for me.

As pointed out up thread, we’ve already heard that speech in another Gerwig movie (Little Women, and there it was much, much more moving), so I was left scratching my head at who exactly the Barbie monologue is for— the character? The writer? The audience?
 
i have not seen this movie. it probably is not as bad as the rightwing is saying and it is not as good as the left is saying.

but i am more entertained by the in-fighting from the FNT/G+G grift crowd than movie itself.

The midnight's edge livestream saw script doctor vs tom. i think there is a twitter fight between the chrissy mayr team vs the FNT crowd. the one grift can not be denied.

One grift to rule them all,
one grift to find them,
One grift to bring them all
and in the darkness bind them
 
newuser131 said:
The midnight's edge livestream saw script doctor vs tom. i think there is a twitter fight between the chrissy mayr team vs the FNT crowd. the one grift can not be denied.
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Chrissy and her crew all loved the movie, they even did a live review from the Alamo Drafthouse:
Same with Brett Cooper, despite Matt Walsh and Ben Shapiro hating it. Lauren Chen and the chick from Prager U, Amala hated the flick. It's way more entertaining to see some women liking the film. Even Bounding into Comics gave it a 7, but the writer is a wild card that gives movies a mostly decent score and isn't obsessed with politics. I just find it amusing that the grifters are split on this, especially since women that grew up with the dolls seem to have a fondness for it and are excited that it isn't another remake/reboot of an IP.
 
AnOminous said:
NO U.

You are literally mad about a movie for little girls about a doll for little girls.

If you are seriously claiming this isn't more autistic and gay than flipping out about My Little Pony, then guess what? You're gay. And probably autistic on top of that.
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dude, calm down.
 
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