#MovieReview: Barbie is the movie event of the year [Watch]

It’s our Women’s Day edition this week, so what better movie could there be to review than Barbie, the highest grossing female-directed film in history.

The international smash hit has passed more than $800-million in worldwide earnings and is the cultural event of the year.

Thousands of hours of content have been created around people dressing up and holding Barbie-themed events, aside from the year-long marketing campaign which has proved hugely successful.

It has spawned parodies and copycats aplenty which have fed into the momentum to make this a likely billion dollar movie.

Which is all to say, how refreshing and exciting it is to have an original film at the heart of culture again, encouraging dialogue and putting bums in seats.

But is it any good?

Forced to walk an incredibly narrow line between honouring its IP star and commenting on the impossible standard for women it helped to create, Barbie has more high points than low.

Lest we forget, although this is an original story, Barbie is cashing in on the success of a toy that has been a staple in the world since 1959.

It may not feel as cynical as the last few years of superhero movies, but it is definitely within the same realm of corporately minded creativity.

And there’s certainly a conversation to be had about how the stereotypical Barbie that become synonymous with the brand and emblematic of an ‘ideal woman’ was tall, skinny and white.

Barbie the movie has to reckon with the delayed diversity and inclusivity of the brand, while being unable to escape the fact that it is ultimately a 90-minute advertisement for it.

The steady hands of writer-director Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird, Little Women) and co-writer Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story, White Noise) ensure that it largely both has its cake and eats it.

Led by two stellar performances, Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken, the movie has a lot of heart and a good message, even if some of the bigger laugh lines fall flat.

Gosling has the easier comic relief role and delivers, but this movie would feel patched together without Robbie carrying the emotional through line effortlessly.

Of course she looks like Barbie, but Robbie deserves all the praise she gets for centering women in the industry through her production company and being one of the last true movie stars around.

There’s enough in this movie to be enjoyable for adults, although a lot of the message is on the nose, but it is perfect for a teenage audience for whom the jokes might work better.

Even without the marketing spend behind it, Barbie would stand fine on its own, but it just about lives up to the fanfare.

Rated PG-13 for some Language and Violence.
4/5.

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