Red Mosquito

Just got home from seeing this again. Still the best movie I've seen this year. It just so incredibly well crafted and fun and emotional. What a joy.

I liked this Barbie movie

What did you like about it?

The more I sit with it the more some script choices bug me

Argo vs. Jorge is up next on Boxing Office PPV.

I was a little uncomfortable when the Barbies instigated a civil war in order to disenfranchise the Kens, but otherwise I enjoyed it.

The humor didn't stand out to me as especially bad. The beach off joke really annoyed me in the trailer but within the flow of the movie it just kind of washed over me. It's still not funny and I think I would've been sad had the theatre around me started cracking up, but it's the sort of thing that is easy enough to look past in the bigger picture.

I'm not sure, it's not so good that I really have a lot of thoughts about it. It was just kind of pleasant. There was some fun stuff, the emotion of it all worked. Barbie, Ken, Issa Rae, America Ferrera all did great. I'm not going to see it again and I'm not even sure it is even saying anything especially new, but it's pleasant.

I stopped rating movies a few years ago because I found myself deciding 45 minutes into a movie what its number would be and then having trouble engaging with it in any other way. But this would be like a six. I liked it fine.

I'm sure if I watched some of Burt's videos about why this movie is evil, or if I had a conversation with Joe about why this movie is great, I would end up convinced that it's terrible and hate it

I thought the beach off joke was funny, but I'm also a child and didn't see it in the trailer.

The Argonaut wrote:I'm sure if I watched some of Burt's videos about why this movie is evil, or if I had a conversation with Joe about why this movie is great, I would end up convinced that it's terrible and hate it

Jorge wrote:What did you like about it?

The more I sit with it the more some script choices bug me

There are a couple of awkward scenes that I'm still not sure about; that didn't totally land for me. The arrests, some of the stuff at Mattel, and the weird "gun shot" toward the end all come to mind.

For me it's more about the mechanics of Barbieworld and the characters we are presented with. How does it work? Is Margot Robbie Barbie one of many other Stereotypical Barbies? Does this particular "neighborhood" of Barbies stand as the "original versions" of the millions of Barbie dolls that have been manufactured over the years? As she wakes and starts her day it seems she is being "handled" by an outside entity, later confirmed when we learn about how the "users'" feelings can affect Barbie. So is this just one small cluster of Barbies, one of many others?

- Weird Barbie has never seen anything like what is happening to Stereotypical Barbie, but she quickly and accurately figures out what the problem is and is ready to represent it with the Matrix reference high heel vs. birkenstocks. How? Why?

- Barbie and Ken travel from Barbieland to the real world, which sets us up for a fun Enchanted kind of adventure with lots of opportunities for humor and fun contrast. But then the movie's version of the real world is almost as cartoony as Barbieland, with this heightened comedic tone, so all the fish-out-of-water potential is squandered.

- The extent to which Barbie is aware of real world concepts seems to change dramatically depending on what the script needs at any given moment. Barbie sits at a bus stop and marvels at an old woman's wrinkled visage, finding it beautiful because she has never been taught to fear aging. Wow, okay, nice moment. But Barbie also knows enough about real-word anatomy to let a group of catcalling construction workers know she lacks a vagina. Why does Barbie know what a vagina is if she doesn't understand flat feet?

- Several ideas are brought up or hinted at and then abandoned, especially some of the more intriguing ones. They hint at a conflict between America Ferrera's character and her daughter, which seems promising but in the end is completely abandoned. Instead it seems the whole purpose of it is to play switcheroo with the audience and have them believe that it was the daughter who was playing with Barbie, and not America Ferrera. Very lame

- What's the point of the Allan character? At first I thought he was meant to illustrate that patriarchy can hurt men as well as women, but he seemed just as miserable during the Barbieland status quo, so what's his whole deal? Is he just a sad loser meant to be a sad loser forever?

- I appreciate how the film found a way to express its themes as explicitly as possible -- by turning it into the cure for patriarchal brainwashing. But these Barbies, who have been under the spell of patriarchy for all of 20 minutes, are meant to snap out of it due to a speech about (among other things) societal expectations around body image and motherhood that they have never themselves experienced? What? The message itself, conveyed in a series of speeches by America Ferrera, is bog-standard corporate-sponsored liberalism that's been mainstream for 20 years at this point, so it feels especially odd to see people praising this as radical in any way.

- That scene I mentioned earlier, Barbie and Ken's heart-to-heart and the "I am Kenough" stuff... so long and so dragged out, I thought that scene would never end.

- The emotional climax felt completely hollow to me because the way it comes about is nonsensical. The ghost of Barbie's creator suddenly shows up... to explain to Barbie that she can be whatever she wants to be... and what Barbie wants to be, suddenly and for no reason that is clearly conveyed to the audience, is a human? Even though this was never her motivation, even though all she's seen is the absolute strife of it? They make a big show of the transition, with the Vanilla Sky montage (serious flashbacks to Tom Cruise falling off the building, but it's Billie Eilish instead of Sigur Ros). But to me it doesn't land because we have no idea why this is supposed to be meaningful to Barbie. It seems sudden and capricious, like a last minute attempt to inject some emotion into the story.

I know it is silly to try to untangle the inner logic of what is not only a comedy, but also essentially a toy advertisement, but it all adds to the overall feeling of sloppiness I got from this. I know they worked on the script for a long time and it had to go through multiple versions so I'm really confused why it feels so much like they shot a first draft that needed a lot more work

For the record, one of the vids I posted was criticizing critics calling it subversive, and the other said, "eh, it's alright."

You'd know this if you watched the dang videos!

Jorge wrote:For me it's more about the mechanics of Barbieworld and the characters we are presented with. How does it work? Is Margot Robbie Barbie one of many other Stereotypical Barbies? Does this particular "neighborhood" of Barbies stand as the "original versions" of the millions of Barbie dolls that have been manufactured over the years? As she wakes and starts her day it seems she is being "handled" by an outside entity, later confirmed when we learn about how the "users'" feelings can affect Barbie. So is this just one small cluster of Barbies, one of many others?

- Weird Barbie has never seen anything like what is happening to Stereotypical Barbie, but she quickly and accurately figures out what the problem is and is ready to represent it with the Matrix reference high heel vs. birkenstocks. How? Why?

- Barbie and Ken travel from Barbieland to the real world, which sets us up for a fun Enchanted kind of adventure with lots of opportunities for humor and fun contrast. But then the movie's version of the real world is almost as cartoony as Barbieland, with this heightened comedic tone, so all the fish-out-of-water potential is squandered.

- The extent to which Barbie is aware of real world concepts seems to change dramatically depending on what the script needs at any given moment. Barbie sits at a bus stop and marvels at an old woman's wrinkled visage, finding it beautiful because she has never been taught to fear aging. Wow, okay, nice moment. But Barbie also knows enough about real-word anatomy to let a group of catcalling construction workers know she lacks a vagina. Why does Barbie know what a vagina is if she doesn't understand flat feet?

- Several ideas are brought up or hinted at and then abandoned, especially some of the more intriguing ones. They hint at a conflict between America Ferrera's character and her daughter, which seems promising but in the end is completely abandoned. Instead it seems the whole purpose of it is to play switcheroo with the audience and have them believe that it was the daughter who was playing with Barbie, and not America Ferrera. Very lame

- What's the point of the Allan character? At first I thought he was meant to illustrate that patriarchy can hurt men as well as women, but he seemed just as miserable during the Barbieland status quo, so what's his whole deal? Is he just a sad loser meant to be a sad loser forever?

- I appreciate how the film found a way to express its themes as explicitly as possible -- by turning it into the cure for patriarchal brainwashing. But these Barbies, who have been under the spell of patriarchy for all of 20 minutes, are meant to snap out of it due to a speech about (among other things) societal expectations around body image and motherhood that they have never themselves experienced? What? The message itself, conveyed in a series of speeches by America Ferrera, is bog-standard corporate-sponsored liberalism that's been mainstream for 20 years at this point, so it feels especially odd to see people praising this as radical in any way.

- That scene I mentioned earlier, Barbie and Ken's heart-to-heart and the "I am Kenough" stuff... so long and so dragged out, I thought that scene would never end.

- The emotional climax felt completely hollow to me because the way it comes about is nonsensical. The ghost of Barbie's creator suddenly shows up... to explain to Barbie that she can be whatever she wants to be... and what Barbie wants to be, suddenly and for no reason that is clearly conveyed to the audience, is a human? Even though this was never her motivation, even though all she's seen is the absolute strife of it? They make a big show of the transition, with the Vanilla Sky montage (serious flashbacks to Tom Cruise falling off the building, but it's Billie Eilish instead of Sigur Ros). But to me it doesn't land because we have no idea why this is supposed to be meaningful to Barbie. It seems sudden and capricious, like a last minute attempt to inject some emotion into the story.

I know it is silly to try to untangle the inner logic of what is not only a comedy, but also essentially a toy advertisement, but it all adds to the overall feeling of sloppiness I got from this. I know they worked on the script for a long time and it had to go through multiple versions so I'm really confused why it feels so much like they shot a first draft that needed a lot more work

I have some thoughts/reactions/responses to this but I'm at work right now and don't have time to put it down. I'll get to it soon though. I'm sure you're all VERY excited.

I agree with most of what Jorge wrote but besides that my main surprise was how unfunny this was, specially after so many insiders told us over time that this script was the best one out there.

Then I was also shocked on how corporate their view on feminism was. But also I remembered this movie was mainly made for selling toys so at the end of the day, its just a very flawed comedy for me.

I wouldn't quibble with any of Jorge's issues, but I'm not sure it's totally fair to debate the mechanics of Barbieworld. Gerwig isn't constructing a complete sci-fi universe. It's a purposefully simplistic place, following the logic of how a kid plays with toys. And the whole thing is kind of an allegory. So questions of are there other Barbieworld, how much can the child affect the doll, this sort of thing isn't clear in the movie because it's not important

I was a little letdown with Gerwig direction. There was not a single cool visual idea coming from her setting. Even the kens musical felt tired.

I'm excited for this, obviously

Joe and Jorge should start a movie podcast.

That would be cool.

Been at the beach all day with a friend who hasn't seen Barbie yet and we decided last minute to grab tickets to see it at the Alamo in Staten Island...

So here we go!

epilogue wrote:Been at the beach all day with a friend who hasn't seen Barbie yet and we decided last minute to grab tickets to see it at the Alamo in Staten Island...

So here we go!

wow, you really love the cinema.

beach you!