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I have Barbenheimered. Spoilers for both within.
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Oppenheimer was very loud but artistically stunning
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Barbie was. I. i don't know
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I think I need to make a spoiler plurk to figure out my Barbie thoughts once I get home
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okay edited top level to reflect spoilers
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SPOILERS BE HERE
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anyway. I just. I felt like the Barbie movie was really trying to tell a very nuanced message in a really blunt overt way and just failed at it
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like on the one hand, it feels like there's a message of feminism as not just female superiority but equality between men and women, but the movie doesn't do a good job of delivering it
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and on the other hand, the message that it beats us over the head with is "hey the world forces its numerous contradictory expectations on women and it's impossible to measure up to all of them" and even though it says that's important the rest of the movie doesn't really. support it?
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also the lack of intersectionality sucks
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also also I deeply dislike the fact that all of Barbieworld getting brainwashed by Ken's patriarchy is just completely handwaved offscreen?
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like on the one hand you're trying to portray these Barbies as smart, confident, competent women, but on the other hand you had them turn straight into bimbos with the snap of a finger
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and just. how did that happen? it doesn't even tell us!
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we're just supposed to accept it
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which really doesn't help considering the entire plot of the tail end of the movie is dependent upon us buying into the assumption that the Barbies were brainwashed and need to be snapped back
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I feel like the only indication that I get of why they were so susceptible is like. a throwaway line from President Barbie about how nice it is not having to think and make decisions all the time, but none of the other Barbies had given us any indication that they were struggling with their roles the same way Stereotypical Barbie was
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in fact the movie basically tells us the opposite, given that when Stereotypical Barbie starts having doubts no one sympathizes with her, they all basically tell her she's broken and needs to be fixed
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so just. why do all these other Barbies just give into Ken?
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and why does the message from the mother snap them out of it??
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I feel like the message loses further weight given that, following the Ken fight, Barbie society largely returns to normal
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they make small concessions to the Kens, but not really
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every Barbie who had been brainwashed except for Stereotypical Barbie goes right back to their jobs and doesn't seem to indicate that they've changed how they approach the roles they've been given
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I also feel like the role of the Mattel leadership team was deeply superfluous
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especially given how they were all basically infantalized
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there's just no point to them. in fact I think the themes of the movie would have been stronger without them
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because their existence means that the "real world" in the movie isn't a true representation of our world
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it's a "real world" where C-suite male executives are all comically bumbling manchildren, which isn't the case
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and a "real world" where Mattel as a company operates as weird sort of parody of an actual corporation
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like if Gloria just had a corporate exec job working for some no-name company, I think the conceit of the movie still would have worked and honestly would have worked better because they would have had more time to devote to her relationship with her daughter
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and that also would have given them more time to address the weird Ken B plot
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which I honestly wasn't too fond of? because it made me deeply nervous that they were going to end it on a note of "whups, Ken accidentally a dictatorship, but it's okay because he just wanted attention"
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which they honestly didn't steer too far away from in the end
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and that just felt. idk. I guess it is a parody of men's rights nonsense, but it was too neatly resolved
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like "haha, see? the women have the power because we can turn the men against each other due to the fact that they see us as objects they have ownership over"
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anyway. i do wonder if i'd have a different take on it if I hadn't just watched Oppenheimer hours before
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I will say it did have some great jokes, and i loved the opening
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the music tie ins were delightfully on the nose
espresso witch
Yeah, there were a lot of pieces that I think missed that mark, or just straight conflated the message
espresso witch
For me, I was just so taken with JUST Barbies growth storyline, that I kept crying lol
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yeah. it was just so confused in its themes
espresso witch
Margot Robbie kept making me cry
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I guess I just felt like her character growth got really muddled in the midst of everything else that was the movie
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also the ghost of Ruth Handler showing up was just so. ???
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very deus ex machina
espresso witch
Haha yeah, the surreal-real world stuff was very convoluted
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like she didn't need Ruth to become human, since apparently a bunch of Allans did it without Ruth's help
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I do think her story does have a good message of "it's okay to fail, it's okay to not be perfect at all things all the time" but it's so muddied in everything else
espresso witch
Yeah, it was messy for sure, and I would have shifted a lot of the story to America Ferrera, but I can't deny that I enjoyed watching it
espresso witch
And I appreciate the message they were going for even if the delivery was flawed
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I enjoyed it. but I think my confusion immediately coming out of it kind of dampened that enjoyment a lot
espresso witch
So like, yeah, mixed feelings
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yeah
espresso witch
And also, I'm seeing Oppenheimer tomorrow, so we can discuss that one once I've seen it
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yess
espresso witch
I'm excited that apparently RDJ kills it
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oh, RDJ does amazing
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and the way Nolan executes on it is just. visually amazing
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tho I'd recommend ear plugs
espresso witch
Good to know
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part of that might have been that we saw it in IMAX, but it is loud in nmany parts
espresso witch
I'm also seeing it in IMAX
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ah yes, earplugs
❄️⌒[>。<] BIZ
Barbie was hamfisted in its messaging and a bit all over the place, but the acting, set design, costumes, music, etc excused the lack of nuance for me.
Valentisn't
^ that's how I feel yeah.
Valentisn't
Could have been a much better movie but everyone and thing on screen was giving it their all including the aesthetic
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oh yes the aesthetic was very very good
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and everyone was clearly having a good time on set