So ... I watched the Barbie movie

and I absolutely loved it.
[spoiler warning]

Well - I guess the ending gets a little wonky; As they're trying to wrap things up and the shallow capitalistic undertone creeps into the scene. And other than that, I was a bit concerned by the opening scene - and yea, if you take the conservative criticism of the Film it basically fits into that opening scene and then maybe you could extrapolate that onto the rest of the movie - but at that point you're not really watching it.

In context of the film, as I'd see it, that opening scene takes on a different meaning; As opposed to when taken on its own. In that sense, it's a movie about growing up. Think: The hero's journey - but for girls. So, you have a bunch of girls playing with Baby dolls - "and then there was Barbie". So we enter this perfect world where everything is simple and magical and pubertary nonsense doesn't exist and so all the boys are just ... something. "Ken". But they don't matter.
Conservatives might want to interject here - arguing that this is the downfall of civilization nonetheless, but ... it's really just the stage of kids going to school and learning of the world where all the possible career Barbies become stand ins for the different interests that girls might pursue - regardless of what anyone would claim their purpose ought to be. Similar to Astronauts and Superheroes and such.
Then - by some plot point - spoilers - Barbie needs to go to the real world and fix something. So, to find the sad girl that's the reason for the bad stuff that has happened to her and make her happy again. And so Barbie and Ken enter the real world - and it's ... the opposite to Barbie Land. Ken is getting really flabbergasted by how men actually rule the world - and Barbie is shocked that ... it isn't Women and everything is kinda creepy and or scary. And so, while Barbie is on her Quest, and Ken figured that just being a man isn't enough to become a CEO or Doctor, he returns to Barbie Land to implement the Patriarchy there.
So, Barbie eventually finds the girl - and then somehow they decide to return to Barbie Land - and there things have been turned upside down. All the Barbies have been Brainwashed by the Patriarchy - making them subservient Dolls that are glad to exist by the Ken's whims - which is so where we're in or the aftermath of Puberty. Obviously. The point in Life where girls dream about boys and may or may not want to fulfill their every wish while all the Kens do certainly act out like Pubescent/Teen boys.

Barbie is really unhappy and doesn't understand how President Barbie all of a sudden likes to be some Ken's Servant and stuff like that - until by accident the girl, actually a grown up woman, let's off a speech about how it feels to be a woman in the real world and thus de-brainwashes one of the Barbies. So they make a plan to de-brainwash all the other Barbies - and to hijack the vote on the constitution that would have turned Barbie Land into Kendom Land - and ... they succeed and Happy Ending. Sortof.
As - at the end the story then revolves around the obvious next step. The growing up. Part of it is to make sense of the world. Another part of it is independence. Which, yea, is a core value in Gnosticism.

And on top of that, they have to figure out how to manage their interests. And I think it is therefore, that they made the conscious choice that Barbie doesn't love Ken. And yea, Barbie by virtue of Barbie has - I'd say - always been about what the woman could be like on her own - and that in turn has implications on Ken who up until then defined his entire reality by ... being a Barbie asset. And I think it's refreshing to see this part of relationships highlighted - as the ordinary: And then they kissed - thing, to use feminist speak: May tend to re-enforce negative stereotypes. I mean, it is a very male perspective where the good guy wins the girl - though ever so often the reality of what the girl/woman wants ... is forgotten.


And - it manages to cut really deep into these matters without being or even trying to be complicated. It's really just simple - and - so, as a movie it's really just overall beautiful.

And I'd say that pubescent and post-pubescent boys should also be able to enjoy the movie. I mean, who enters a Barbie movie and expects a movie that isn't catered to girls ... is just out of their dang mind!


It also doesn't really lecture much, until that bit in the end maybe where they wrap things up, but I also don't really count that to the core of the movie. It's ... impressionistic in that sense. It's something to look at and let sink in, with some narrative to solidify what is sought to be conveyed. Which I think works out really well.

And yea, if you so will - you could also look at it through the lens of: What's the difference between intelligence and naivety? I mean, I enjoyed myself, it was funny - and apparently the people in the theatre thought so too.


And that's that!