Barbie (#449)


I went for the triple-header this weekend and saw BARBIE with my daughters.  While most of the movies these days are dark, BARBIE was a distinct contrast — a panorama of pastels and bright colors and silliness.  How to describe it?  It was a farcical story of the doll entering the real world and have it tuned around by a mindless Ken, played delightfully and to full comic effect by Ryan Gosling.  Barbie, played to the hilt by Margot Robbie, was everything you expect -- in control of Ken and everyone else around her.  It was definitely a feminist film but not so much that it should have offended anyone.  It was played for laughs, and I thought it was fun and funny and my daughters didn’t have to drag me there.  Despite the huge box office success of these films, the theater in Fairfax, Virginia was not jammed for any of the movies I saw.  In addition to the doll leads, the cast was enhanced by enjoyable performances by Will Ferrell as the head of Mattel snd Rhea Perlman as the creator of the Barbie doll.  I’m a sucker for silly movies.  And hats off to director Greta Gerwig, for the innovative film she made.  It was 90 and 90 percent for critics and audiences alike.  With the strike, I seriously wonder if the movie industry will survive.

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