an unexpected comedy or a bloated movie?

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In favor: to chew like pink gum

Juliana Rodriguez

There are as many layers to Barbie as there are Mattel doll models. As in that classic children’s game of the “package”, in which a small object was discovered after removing a succession of wrappers. The enormous promotional apparatus that surrounds the film, that shiny box crowned with a pink bow, works as a perfect vehicle to reach mass audiences with an unexpected comedy, which takes charge of being mainstream and, with it, understands its limitations. and potentialities.

Perhaps one of the greatest virtues of Greta Gerwig’s film is that, like all great comedy, it is slippery, in the best of ways. Wherever you look for a feminist manifesto, there is a pile of biting humor. Where an objection is sought, there is an ingenious answer that comes first. Where a light story is sought, there are complex ideas. Where complexity is sought, there are nice choreographies. And whoever expects to meet the superficiality of that plastic world will find it (next to a mirror that reflects his own prejudices).

There is something else that stands out in Barbie: the loving look of its director on what that toy meant to those who played it. A human and endearing look (which does not spare criticism or contradictions) of the childhoods experienced by and with that doll: to talk about the origin of Barbie and her rude awakening in the “real” plane is to talk about how the world passed through girls during generations. What happened when we left Barbieland. The operation that Gerwig makes, by taking our relationship with a toy as the axis, is as universal as that of Toy Story.

And, it must be said: no one was ever so inclusive of Ken. Ryan Gosling gives himself to his best facet as a comedian to flesh out this Ken who, for the first time, can cry, dance, dress without frills in pastel colors and talk about an identity crisis that is not just his.

Against: in the end they only wanted to sell dolls

Julia Candellero

I coordinated the day and time with my friends, I bought the tickets in advance, and I wore a pink garment as the protocol dictates. My expectations in front of Barbie were total.

The director, the actors and the critics promised me a disruptive, feminist film, a production that would be the best thing I would see in the cinema in recent times. But instead I saw an excellent marketing strategy to positively resignify the image of a doll that was questioned for years for reproducing harmful beauty stereotypes, and boosting its sale.

Mattel (company dedicated to the manufacture and distribution of toys) and Mattel Films were producers of Barbie, and this is not a minor fact. Mercado Libre registered a growth of 85 percent in daily sales alluding to the doll in the last 6 months. With each advance that was shared, and with its subsequent release in theaters, the film triggered the commercialization of Barbie products.

I saw Barbie and couldn’t be moved (or entertained) by the feminist story they promised me. I saw Barbie and my admiration for the marketing team was directly proportional to my disappointment with Greta Gerwig. I just hope, as a friend told me, that this is a mainstream way to raise funds so she can finance her next movie and redeem herself.

Barbie has a lot of display and little support. She’s pretty to look at, but the “depth” she attributes to her is just as fake as the world her dolls live in. Feminist ideas are in the form of a lesson studied by heart that is forgotten the second of taking the exam and there is no coherent development of the argument lines that are presented. Without giving too many examples to avoid spoilers, the Mattel board of directors’ trip to Barbieland might not happen, and it wouldn’t change a thing. It does not provide tension, it does not provide content, it is not fun. I went to see Barbie and what I liked the most was Ryan Gosling as Ken. All wrong.