I survived my Barbenheimer experience. To be honest, the only reason I was interested in seeing Barbie was the novelty of seeing what at first blush seem to be two diametrically opposite films on the same day as a double-feature. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed both movies as works of cinematic art exploring the negative consequences of toxic pride. Two totally different approaches, but similar movies if you look closely under the surface.

Saw Barbie yesterday, thought it was a lot of fun, although I thought they could have punched a few more jokes in there.

8 out of 10.

One criticism I did have was that I thought the Mattel CEO role could have been much more funny. Instead they just had Will Farrell do very generic Will Farrell slapstick, and that's pretty tired by now

Jack Thauer said:

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Why not make a Barbie movie for the target demographic of the toys. Gosling has 2 girls (7&8) who you would think would be the target demographic for a Barbie movie. He won't even allow them to see it. Why is that?

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There are already a dozen movies and shows targeted at that demographic that are barbie themed. Besides dragging in the third act this movie did a great job of resonating with the women who grew up with barbie.

TCTTS said:

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All I know is that there were four women in our group today and each one of them teared up multiple times during this movie. In fact, you could hear sniffles throughout the theater during many of the more poignant moments. That incredible line about mothers standing still so their daughters can look back to see how far they've come especially resonated. Another one of those moments was during America Ferrera's big speech in the third act, which was literally met with applause in our sold-out showing. And not in some kind of vindictive, you-go-girl, down-with-men way, but because it spoke to women in a way you could absolutely feel, as if someone had finally articulated exactly how they feel at times. As cliched as it sounds, they felt seen, and anyone in that theater with a heart or empathy could feel it in response. We talked about this a ton at dinner afterwards, and then I got a text from my sisters who a had just seen it as well, and felt the same way. The loved it.

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What's funny is I liked the movie better than my wife did - and SHE's the one who wanted to go see it! I was able to ignore the over the top man bashing to get some enjoyment out of it (yes, it was meant to be funny in part...but to many people the funny didn't overcome the politics of it). I think if you are a liberal woman you will love this movie. If you are a conservative woman you'll likely hate the messaging that gets in the way from it being a fun movie.

Jack Thauer said:

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Why not make a Barbie movie for the target demographic of the toys. Gosling has 2 girls (7&8) who you would think would be the target demographic for a Barbie movie. He won't even allow them to see it. Why is that?

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Apparently he wanted to make a movie that had the target demographic of all the teens and adults in the world in this crazy money making scheme.

Do you guys ever think about dying?

Jack Thauer said:

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Yeah Disney never makes money off kids movies.

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According to texags they don't

powerbelly said:

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Jack Thauer said:

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Why not make a Barbie movie for the target demographic of the toys. Gosling has 2 girls (7&8) who you would think would be the target demographic for a Barbie movie. He won't even allow them to see it. Why is that?

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There are already a dozen movies and shows targeted at that demographic that are barbie themed. Besides dragging in the third act this movie did a great job of resonating with the women who grew up with barbie.

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Exactly this. Barbie media for children already exists. This film was basically Iron Man for adults who grew up playing with Barbie dolls.

Saw it last night and overall enjoyed it. I think the interpretation that it is using the term "patriarchy" to inflict blunt force trauma on men in America is really missing a lot of nuance. In other words I think people who think that just didn't get it. I was surprised by how much they satirized Barbie and Mattel, but I think that really made it a much more well rounded and funny movie. The way they resolved the Kendom with the Kens realizing their identity didn't need to solely be tied to what they own or do for work was a good scene that totally changed the message of the movie IMO. The ending felt a little forced to me. But the dance numbers and jokes more than made up for it.

Jack Thauer said:

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Why not make a Barbie movie for the target demographic of the toys. Gosling has 2 girls (7&8) who you would think would be the target demographic for a Barbie movie. He won't even allow them to see it. Why is that?

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Not a single person on earth is stopping you from writing this movie.

Great use of Helen Mirren as a narrator. Her comment about casting Margot Robbie might have gotten the biggest laugh of the movie.

Saw it last night. I thought it was silly, smart, and thoughtful.

I kind of get why its dividing audiences, satire isn't for everyone.

The ZS Justice League joke had me almost cry laughing, and I was the only one in my theater that laughed at that. Felt very seen by Noah and Greta in that moment.

Are you saying satire in general isn't for everyone? Because I like satire generally but didn't like this film. Felt like it was being preachy under the guise of satire. Not all satire is good satire. And not everyone will like every satirical film.

It's not that I don't understand the directors vision. I just thought it sucked lol.

Jack Thauer said:

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Are you saying satire in general isn't for everyone? Because I like satire generally but didn't like this film. Felt like it was being preachy under the guise of satire. Not all satire is good satire. And not everyone will like every satirical film.

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^ This. I see a show like Gemstones as satire done right. This wasn't quite that. This attempted satire but let its message get in the way. I think they were really close to pulling it off however. But I can easily see people who align with that worldview as seeing it as perfect satire. To each their own.

I will say this as someone who has worked at a couple of different Fortune 100s for the past 25 years: the hardest people on women in the workplace are usually other women. The lady's speech when she loses it was a bit much, but it does call out standards that can be kind of ridiculous - and often put/held there by other women. Again, i saw the theme of this as self-determination vs being held against a standard determined by others (which in the case of women, are oftentimes other women). But it's a message that is applicable to everyone and they tried to land that with Ken at the end.

Old Tom Morris said:

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I will say this as someone who has worked at a couple of different Fortune 100s for the past 25 years: the hardest people on women in the workplace are usually other women. The lady's speech when she loses it was a bit much, but it does call out standards that can be kind of ridiculous - and often put/held there by other women. Again, i saw the theme of this as self-determination vs being held against a standard determined by others (which in the case of women, are oftentimes other women). But it's a message that is applicable to everyone and they tried to land that with Ken at the end.

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I get that it's a Barbie movie produced by typical Hollywood people it's gotta be a strong women vs teh patriarchy thing, but in real life if you're a decent human being, it's you and other decent human beings vs *******s. Creating this tired lie of a male dominated society that holds women back is so played out. After they leave this GiRL PoWeR movie they'll quickly remember that their husband is the nicest person they know, their dad is still there to help them, their female manager is one of the worst people they've ever met, and the Karen down the block is their number one rival. Stop identity politics and division, worry about actual *******s.

Yeah, i am a senior director at a fortune 100 and have multiple women on my team that washed out with my senior director female peer. I basically run half of our organization while my peer runs the other half (we each have about 60 folks in our respective halves). They are usually not rock stars, but they do good work and are an asset to my team. But they were exports from my peer and she is not ever interested in having back. she has a standard that I'd say about 10-15% of our hires (which have great backgrounds) have a chance of meeting, and she is the type that once she makes a call on you, you're done. No chance at redemption will ever happen

veryfuller said:

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It just felt like, to me, that the movie didn't put a period or exclamation point on the conversation, so I'm not sure how its message got in the way. It felt like the message was -- "Look at the unreasonable expectations everyone (male and female) are trying to hold themselves and each other to. We can't do it! Let's talk about it!" It didn't present a solution at all. And it made the point by using satire that worked for me.

My point on it not being for everyone is that some complaints about the film seem to be missing the satirical aspects of it, IMO. As if the movie is really arguing for a feminist utopia where men are just accessories (which it is not).

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We didn't miss those satirical aspects. But when the movie's satire looks like real world non-satire it all sort of sounds the same to us and loses its humor (which is probably why some people didn't think the movie was funny enough). I just think they could have done a bit better delivering their message - such a huge opportunity that I think fell flat in my eyes.

Cliff.Booth said:

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Or they could have just made a movie based in reality, where people across the spectrum of masculine or feminine can either be great people or *******s. The men who physically built the elaborate sets Margot and Ryan danced through and made sure the electric components worked probably weren't toxic, just masculine. And the pre-teen who cheered for Barbie is probably going to be bullied on day 1 of school by a girl in her grade who looks like a young Margot. Toxic masculinity presented as the villainous force is just so dumb, which is why I've heard of so many women watching this movie and cringing throughout.

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Toxic masculinity is just *one* villain, and I'd even go so far as to say it's depicted as more negatively affecting the men than the women. Also, if you'd actually seen the movie, you'd know that another "villain" of sorts is, in fact, a b*tchy/bratty/popular high school girl - the daughter of America Ferrera's character - who treats both her mom and Barbie like sh*t, and is purposely depicted as spouting off all the lazy, cliched talking points from the left about how Barbie set unrealistic expectations for women's bodies, etc. The movie goes out of its way to spotlight her negative, ultra-feminist, Generation Z bullsh*t, and then gives her an arc as well, where she ultimately leaves all that behind, embracing the same world/mindset that Barbie, Ken, America Ferrera's character, and everyone else does in the end.

I just do not understand how some of you KEEP doing this, over and over and over again - running to message boards to not only b*tch endlessly about the content of movies you haven't seen, but going so far as to shun others for taking their kids to it, just like you did in this thread, when you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. I just can't imagine trusting people like Ben f/cking Shapiro, or any of the usual, ultra-bias suspects on this board, to paint an even remotely accurate portrayal of this movie, never mind trusting them to understand it in the first place.

TCTTS said:

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I just do not understand how some of you KEEP doing this, over and over and over again - running to message boards to not only b*tch endlessly about the content of movies you haven't seen, but going so far as to shun others for taking their kids to it, just like you did in this thread, when you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. I just can't imagine trusting people like Ben f/cking Shapiro, or any of the usual, ultra-bias suspects on this board, to paint an even remotely accurate portrayal of this movie, never mind trusting them to understand it in the first place.

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Why do you give a **** what parents shield their kids from? Strange take.

People probably trust Ben Shapiro because he is right about a lot of things and they like other takes he has on current culture.