![]() (You don’t go down the stairs, you just float). Every morning she takes a shower (there’s no water), introduces her breakfast of a heart-shaped waffle with a dollop of whipped cream (she doesn’t eat), and then hits the road in her pink convertible (she doesn’t eat). Barbie’s friends all have important jobs: President (Issa Rae), Author (Alexandra Shipp), Physicist (Emma Mackey), Doctor (Hari Nef) and Lawyer (Sharon Rooney). She is forever adored by Ken (Ryan Gosling), whose job is Beach. Then we will be introduced our Barbie – meaning “the stereotypical Barbie” – who is perky, confident, blonde and, most importantly, looks like Margot Robbie. ![]() “Thanks to Barbie,” she concludes, “all the problems of feminism and equality are solved.” Gerwig’s film begins by playing a brilliant trick on the audience: Helen Mirren’s opening commentary is self-congratulatory, a sort of ready-made PR about Barbie’s “girl power” legacy that becomes increasingly tongue-in-cheek. Caught between girl boss feminism and outright misogyny, women must now be rich, thin, freed and eternally grateful without ever breaking a sweat - because when Barbie promised little girls that “women can be anything,” those words became in brought a twisted meaning “women should be everything”. And that’s a complexity that’s particularly palpable for a director in which Jo March played her part little woman, explain, “I’m so sick of people saying that love is just about all a woman is cut out for.” I’m so sick of it! But – I’m so lonely.”īarbie contains another Gerwig-style speech, beautifully delivered by an ordinary (human) mother, played by America Ferrera, about the hellish trap into which women have been forced. Capitalism does not always swallow art whole occasionally it still thrives. The fact that this all ties into one of the most well-known products out there – and that any success it enjoys will no doubt boost Mattel’s stock price – underscores the fact that it’s largely impossible to dedicate yourself to art, without indulging in hypocrisy. But while the absurdity of his humor falls somewhere in between It’s a crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy world And Pee-wee’s Big Adventurehis serious and vulnerable view of femininity is pure Gerwig and serves as a direct continuation of her Lady Bird And little woman. The results are suitably revealing: there are nods to Jacques Demy The umbrellas of Cherbourg and Jacques Tatis game timeEmploying sets and dance choreography à la Hollywood’s Golden Age musical, and a mischievous vein of corporate satire reminiscent of the 2001 cult classic Josie and the Pussycats. It’s a project that writer-director Greta Gerwig, co-writer (as well as his real-life partner and frequent collaborator) Noah Baumbach, and producer-star Margot Robbie have been able to work on in relative privacy, away from the intrusive impulses of the pandemic, during the pandemic Warner Bros. ![]() ), Barbie gets away with a lot more than meets the eye. While it’s impossible for a studio film to be truly subversive, especially when consumer culture has grasped the idea that self-awareness is good for business (there’s nothing businesses love more these days than feeling caught up in the joke be). It is a pink manifesto of the power of irreplaceable creative work and imagination. It’s timely too, as a week after the creative forces behind these stories began working for their right to a living wage and the ability to strike without the risk of being replaced by an AI. Receive our free weekly email with the latest cinema news from our film critic, Clarisse Loughrey Receive our The Life Cinematic email for freeīarbie is one of the most imaginative, flawless and surprising mainstream films of recent times – a testament to what can be achieved even in the deepest depths of capitalism.
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