[M]y main objection is that Barbie is not really a film about Barbie at all. It's one hour and 54 minutes of extended misandry, dressed up with a few fun dance routines and one or two (granted fairly decent) jokes.
It's a deeply anti-man movie, an extension of all that TikTok feminism that paints any form of masculinity -- other than the most anodyne -- as toxic and predatory, and frames women's liberation not as a movement based on achieving equality between the sexes but as a cultural revenge vehicle designed to write men out of the story altogether.
Every male character is either an idiot, a bigot or a sad, rather pathetic loser. If the roles were reversed, and a male director made a film about how all women were hysterical, neurotic, gold-digging witches, it would be denounced -- quite rightly -- as deeply offensive and sexist.
In a nutshell, Barbie and Ken set off on an adventure to the real world to discover the source of Barbie's sudden and uncharacteristic anxiety. Barbie gets a nasty shock -- she's not as universally popular as she imagined. Ken, on the other hand, has a tremendous time, plugging into the macho culture of LA and discovering that there is such a thing called the 'patriarchy'.
He then turns into a 'real man' (again, sketched in the most one‑dimensional of cliches), goes back to Barbie Land, organises the equivalent of an incel uprising (quite literally, given Ken's lack of tackle) -- and brainwashes all the Barbies into becoming his willing slaves. Strong Andrew Tate vibes, put it that way.
Queen Barbie, aka Margot Robbie, must then mobilise a counter-revolution, which she does with the help of her human friends -- mother and daughter duo Gloria and Sasha. Using their Barbie wiles, they put the Kens back in their boxes. The film ends with her checking into a gynaecology clinic, presumably so she can become a 'real' woman.
Don't let "Barbie's" dreamy, Day-Glo visuals fool you.
The film runs on hate, not affection.
"Barbie," inspired by the Mattel toy dating back to 1959, loathes men to a degree that would make a Women's Studies major blush. It hates the Barbie toy itself, dubbing it "fascist" and worse throughout the film.
"Barbie" also hates women with sweet memories of the doll. Just know you supported the "Patriarchy" all those years ago. And maybe even now.
Kyle Smith:
As bubbly as the film appears, its script is like a grumpier-than-average women's studies seminar. At one point, nearing the climax, "Barbie" stops cold so a Mattel doll designer (America Ferrera) with depressive inclinations can deliver a long monologue on how miserable it is to be female. For instance, she feels pressured to have lots of money but also pressured to not appear to seek it. Hearing characters issue denunciations such as "You fascist!" while Barbie muses that the fate of women is "Either you're brainwashed or you're weird and ugly--there is no in-between" is like going to the cotton-candy factory to find it producing lead pipes. Don't we go to a movie like "Barbie" to escape the harrumphing tone of the most aggrieved Twitter users?
Those who have no particular reason to think women are powerless in American society will be put off by the script's many broadsides. "Women hate women and men hate women. It's the one thing we can all agree on," we are told by an adolescent (Ariana Greenblatt) presented as attuned to the damage Barbie dolls supposedly do to girls' psyches. Is misogyny actually universally shared, though? Ms. Gerwig and Mr. Baumbach try to sell the audience on a tired "Mad Men" conception of reality where men in suits beckon and timid women simply do whatever they're told.
Rolling Stone says it's a feminist screed -- and loves it!
'Barbie' May Be the Most Subversive Blockbuster of the 21st Century
Its a long commercial for a legacy corporate brand and a pretty-in-pink "f-ck you" to the patriarchy. It is Barbie -- hear it roar
The film made $155 million in its opening weekend, a huge take. But the corporation pushing this hateful misandry on us hid the movie from audiences, and sold it as a feel-good silly movie "for everyone."
Now that people are seeing it and the word is out that this is one of the most hateful movies made since The Birth of a Nation, its box office might fall.
Then again, it might not. Bitter cat ladies gotta do something on a weekend night.
Three videos below. First, Ryan Long just says, "Of course it sucks. What did you think it would do?"
Then Critical Drinker and Andre from Midnight's Edge weigh in. Andre says it is a movie made to break couples up, filling women with anger at men (and frankly, filling men with anger too, because we are Officially Sick of This Shit.)
Critical Drinker calls it an actual "evil" piece of propaganda, designed to sow hatred.