In the Pink— Review of Barbie

Barbie. Directed and written by Greta Gerwig. Starring Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Kate McKinnon, Simu Liu, America Ferrera, Ariana Greenblatt, Will Ferrell. Rated PG-13 for suggestive references, brief language. Runtime 1 hr. 54 min.

Never before have I seen a movie with so much pink in it.

Barbie is a mostly successful comedy combined with surprisingly deep introspection. First, to get some stupidity out of the way: There is no map showing China’s nine-dash claim to the South China Sea. It is simply a child’s version of the world, with multiple dashed lines showing the path to the Real World. The movie does not have constant lectures bemoaning the patriarchy, nor does it do a triumphant smackdown of the supposed American patriarchy. There is no grooming of children. In fact, middle school girls tell her they haven’t played with Barbies since they “were like five years old.” There is no trashing of the U.S. Supreme Court. Barbie simply sees a billboard of an all-female band and mistakes them for the Supreme Court in Barbie Land. All these accusations were from people who had not seen the movie or saw it through some weird political lens, thus beclowning themselves. It’s a doll’s view of reality, okay?

Our story follows Barbie (Margot Robbie) as she goes through an epic journey of self-awareness. Barbie Land is filled with every Barbie you have ever seen in real life, and more. Barbie can be a physicist, a doctor, a writer, an astronaut, the president, etc. All the Barbies smile and wave in this cartoonish land. They dance every day. Every day is perfect—for the Barbies. Kens are simply sidekicks. Our Barbie’s Ken (Ryan Gosling) can only have a good day so long as Barbie looks at him. She is easily distracted.

Barbie’s crisis begins when she has thoughts of death. Then her feet go from stereotypical high heel position to flat. Horrified, the other Barbies scream “FLAT FEET!” She seeks out Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), whose hair was cut off and face was drawn on by her human girl. Weird Barbie tells Barbie she must go to the Real World and find the human girl whose troubles are affecting Barbie.

So she goes on her pink journey, with Ken tagging along. In Barbie Land, Ken had wanted to stay the night, but was too innocent to know why. In the Real World, construction workers make salty remarks at her. In Barbie Land, they never had to buy anything. In the Real World, they end up stealing clothing. Most importantly, Barbie sees sadness around her.

More importantly for Ken, a woman asks, “Sir, do you have the time?” No one has shown him respect before. He then leaps into a belief in an exaggerated patriarchy, where men hold all important positions. Enlightened, he rushes back to Barbie Land.

Meanwhile, Barbie has made the appropriate connection to a female in the Real World, and returns with mother and daughter to Barbie Land. There, they find it has been changed into Kendom, with the Kens acting out extremely exaggerated machismo—lots of beer and Ken wearing a fur coat?

Barbie is mostly a successful movie, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling looking every inch like a Barbie and Ken. It would have been so easy for Margot Robbie to overact the part, but she never does. She gives a surprisingly deep performance when Barbie is shocked by the Real World, and then by having everything taken from her. Unfortunately, the movie fails in what is traditionally called the third act, with a mess of a conflict between the Barbies and Kens.

This movie is a labor of love, years in the making by director and screenwriter Greta Gerwig. I have to rely on collectors to vouch that every accoutrement in the movie is authentic, but life-sized. They even briefly showed Midge, Barbie’s pregnant girlfriend. They even more briefly showed Sugar Daddy Ken (that was a thing?). On the flip side, a middle school girl goes on a tirade, saying Barbie ruined women’s lives, and calling Barbie a fascist.

Barbie also has outstanding dance scenes. The one towards the start of the movie is a showstopper, with imaginative choreography and highly skilled dance moves, and lots and lot of pastels. The one towards the end, which features the Kens all dressed in black, is just as imaginative and skillful, but too artistic for this movie. Also, I was shocked at what a great singer Ryan Gosling is.

So overall, Barbie is a fun movie. It does have some amusing cultural comments. But just enjoy it as a Barbie movie.

Bonus feature: The characters are clearly based on archetypes, most famously found in Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. The characters can slide around from one archetype to another.

Barbie is certainly Alice. Weird Barbie, who gives Barbie two choices, is the caterpillar, who offered two sides of his mushroom. The mother and daughter are mostly the white rabbit that Alice chases. They are sometimes Tweedledee and Twedledum when they argue. The insane CEO and his board (which I did not mention in the above review) are the mad hatter and his tea party. Allan, Ken’s friend (again, not mentioned), who mischievously fights for Barbie, is the Knave of Hearts. Ken starts out as the Cheshire cat, someone who is in and out of Barbie’s life. He becomes the Queen of Hearts, dominating Barbie Land.

Ex-Patriate Dream

Last night I dreamt of a school of bright orange fish in the deep blue sea. A solitary fish joined the school.

A cutaway view of a submarine showed a school of orange fish swimming inside it, though the sub seemed to be functional. The same solitary fish joined them.

The scene changed to what looked like a Middle Eastern countryside. It was the kind of place where ex-patriates from Europe might luxuriate in indolence. It felt like a previous generation.

A young woman with dark hair ventured out in a lacy white dress. She rode a donkey with a man escorting her. She reached out to a tree branch on a short slope. She leaned against it for the sheer joy of it, not caring who saw her.

The scene changed to a large plain hotel room. A couple of men and the young woman lounged there. A number of ex-pats could come and go as they pleased.

A man in a fez hat told at length to an ex-pat the names of all the corrupt people in the city. The ex-pat listened with interest. The man in the fez hat obviously hoped the ex-pat would act on the information.

After the man in the fez hat left, the ex-pat considered for a while. Then he decided, “Why not?” He gave a list of all the names to the authorities.

More time of indolence passed. Then a thirtyish ex-pat n a casual but neat suit came in from the ornate lobby, angry. He said to me, “Brown, you fool! The authorities arrested about a quarter of the men on your list. But didn’t you realize that the authorities enjoy doing business with the rest?”

He pointed at the young woman, concerned for her safety. “Get her out of here!”

It turned out I was Brown. I was the one that the man in the fez hat spoke to. I was the one who had accompanied the young woman. I was the fish who had joined the other fish in the sea.

I grabbed the young woman by the arm and got her out to the hot countryside, hoping to find some transportation.

public domain

Dream of Short Stories

I dreamt that I was at a convention with a workshop on writing, similar to Norwescon or Worldcon. The woman leading the workshop emphasized everything that needs to go into a novel. I had with me a manuscript for a long novel (for a beginner). It was written in four parts. As the woman continued to speak, I realized that what I had was actually four short stories, not a novel.

I had a meeting set for Wednesday, when a number of us could present our manuscripts for a professional to look at it. This would be a prime opportunity. But since what I had was not really a novel, I knew it would not work out. I cancelled my part in the meeting.

When I woke up, I knew the manuscript I had with me in the dream was for a science fiction novel I had written, with main character Ensign Tica Manus. What I had dreamt was true: This was not a novel, but four short stories. (They are actually more like novellas or novelettes.) I will polish them up and submit them to magazines.

In the nineteenth century, the German organic chemist Friedrich August Kekule tried to puzzle out the structure of the benzene molecule. He came up with a circular model of self-linking carbon atoms. His work revolutionized organic chemistry. In a famous speech, Kekule said he came up with the idea after having a daydream of a snake seizing its tale.

image by Français

Paul McCartney composed the song “Yesterday” in a dream. I have heard more than one version of this story. In one version, he rushed to write it down. In the other, he had the song going through his head for much of the day, not recognizing it. He finally realized he had composed it in a dream, then wrote it down.

photo by Mono Macca

It’s a pity such dreams cannot happen on demand. Have you had any such dreams, whether on solving a problem or creating new art?