I’ll start off by saying that it is absolutely ridiculous that someone would get angry at this movie for the message it gives. I particularly thought the idea they explored of how Barbie was made to help women but some thought she set women back was interesting and i love how they handled it.
That being said, this was a bad movie. The scenes seemed like they would do a cut and then say “no let’s make it even more cheesy on purpose”. And it’s like they think making it over the top cheesy while getting the message across was some kind of meta concept. As soon as they mentioned “weird Barbie” i knew who was going to be playing her. Having Gosling and Cera be the two funniest things about this movie seems to defeat the idea of it? Idk. And that “catch Barbie!” scene at the Mattel HQ was the worst scene in any movie ever.
I’m glad we watched it, I’m glad it’s having such a positive effect for a lot of people, but i was not feeling it.
*disclaimer - my wife and I had an edible, but they didn’t kick in until halfway through the movie
I agree yeah. I think the edible part may have improved your view. I should have taken one.
Jorge wrote:That's like taking an edible and going to K-Mart. I'd be so upset to waste one on this
K-Mart?! I'm dying dude, I haven't heard or thought about K-Mart in ages. Also, we were having a chill night, it was nice. We decided to eat it prior to deciding to watch the movie.
Jorge wrote:That's like taking an edible and going to K-Mart. I'd be so upset to waste one on this
K-Mart?! I'm dying dude, I haven't heard or thought about K-Mart in ages. Also, we were having a chill night, it was nice. We decided to eat it prior to deciding to watch the movie.
I'm choosing to believe this is a case of a foreigner being behind the times on american society. I do miss those blue light specials, though
Steve Albini wrote:Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Sat January 10, 2026 12:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
tragabigzanda wrote:Holy shit the first half of this was awful. We quit during the car chase.
Similar to Ruddo, I think anyone upset about this movie needs to have their head checked. But this was deeply unfunny, never once did i laugh. Maybe the back half is amazing?
The end is where the movie goes for the heartstrings, and it's also where "Barbie the movie with something to say" finally loses out to "Barbie the ad with something to sell," with the ghost of Barbie's creator showing up to do brand identity PR in a scene that is thematically and narratively incoherent, and where you can really see Gerwig reaching pretty egregiously. I think the back half is what finally swings the pendulum to "bad movie" for me because it is so disingenuous. Otherwise it's just a campy comedy that pays superficial lip service to gender issues in a way that sounds like old Jezebel headlines chiseled into a script
Anders wrote:I do not have a «neoliberal assessment of geopolitics», so please stop writing that I do.
Steve Albini wrote:Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Sat January 10, 2026 12:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
