By Seth Lukas Hynes
It’s finally here – Barbenheimer.
Directed by Greta Gerwig, Barbie is a fun, endearing film with surprising depth for what is essentially a feature-length commercial.
Barbie (Margot Robbie) lives a perfect existence in the realm of Barbieland with all the other Barbies and Kens, but when small imperfections enter her life, she must venture into the real world to find out who or what she really is.
Barbie’s brightly-coloured first act is hilarious and cleverly renders the plastic pink playsets and make-believe physics of kids playing with their dolls into a real place. As Barbie explores Los Angeles to find her human playmate, the film offers commentary on her brand’s legacy, confronting the patriarchy and how respect and opportunities for women still fall short of Barbie’s empowered image without being preachy.
Robbie looks the part as the quintessential Barbie – blonde, chipper, model-pretty – but delivers a moving performance that literally humanises her doll character, as Barbie comes to accept her imperfections and learn the value of sad emotions.
Robbie is the definitive live-action Barbie, but Ryan Gosling steals the show as Ken. Gosling plays a cheerful, gormless hunk who later becomes an unlikely dudebro villain, leading a ludicrous macho revolution in a funny inversion of Barbieland’s girl-power status quo. Will Ferrell, on the other hand, is wasted in a redundant subplot as the eccentric CEO of Mattel.
While more feminist and satirical, to me Barbie occupies a similar headspace as the Super Mario Bros Movie: bright, silly, breezy and the dramatic conflict is lightweight. Barbie carries an important moral about girls sticking together and helping each other realise their worth, but most viewers will enjoy Barbie’s vibrant production, humour, solid cast and the emotional maturity under the quirkiness.
Oppenheimer, which follows the turbulent life and career of “father of the atomic bomb” J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), is an outstanding work of cinema.
Murphy is enthralling as Oppenheimer, portraying both a driven scientist with a world-changing responsibility and a flawed ordinary man enduring life’s challenges. The cast is a prestigious who’s-who, both of talented actors and the real historical figures they play. The cinematography, score and period atmosphere are impeccable.
The plot is consistently absorbing despite the three-hour run-time, and the time-jumping narrative makes frequent use of parallels. The film juxtaposes Oppenheimer’s friction with the US government during the Manhattan Project with his McCarthy-era trial after the war, and Oppenheimer’s race to complete the atomic bomb with his post-war efforts to limit its use.
Writer-director Christopher Nolan is often considered a dry, impersonal filmmaker (Tenet is a prime example), but Oppenheimer is Nolan’s most humane, intimate film yet. The dialogue is portentous without going overboard (unlike Interstellar), and motifs such as marbles, flowers and certain phrases run through Oppenheimer’s poignant, complicated relationships.
The intrigue in Oppenheimer’s trial, which forms the film’s framing device, can get a little murky, and the black-and-white segments, intended to show an objective perspective outside of Oppenheimer’s, are sparse and slightly distracting.
Barbie is a fun feminist popcorn flick, and Oppenheimer is a masterful character study.
Why has the Internet had such a blast connecting these dramatically different films?
They share the same July 20 release date, but there are some other parallels.
Both are by Oscar-nominated directors. Both have gendered vibes: Barbie has feminist themes and pink aesthetics, and Oppenheimer’s cast and mid-twentieth-century setting are dominated by men.
Barbie asks “Have you guys ever thought about dying?”, and in a 1965 interview, Oppenheimer cites the Sanskrit quote: “Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds.”
– Seth Lukas Hynes
