Barbie and My Cousin Angie

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Handler

I was pleasantly surprised at seeing the film Barbie; it’s lightweight, comical, and serious at the same time.

I’m only going to give you part of the storyline. In my opinion, it’s one of the most subversive films I’ve seen in a very long time and is philosophically rich beneath that shiny plastic pink veneer.

We open in Barbie Land, where everything is perfect and every day is the best day ever. For the Barbie’s, that is. The female part of the population represents all shapes, sizes, and ethnicities, and holds all positions of power, having their own money, houses, and careers. The Kens, similarly, diverse, only have good days when their Barbie’s favor them with their gaze. This is a place where the Kens engage in petty bickering, and the Barbie’s do great things. And when they are recognized for their greatness with awards, the Kens acknowledge that they deserve them.

All is bright, sunny, and perfectly choreographed until Barbie, during girl’s night suddenly wonders aloud about death, stunning the party into silence. It gets worse the next day, as she awakens with foul breath, her waffles burn, her milk sours, and the morning leap into her convertible results in a fall. When her feet suddenly flatten from their high-heel-ready pose, she’s advised by the other Barbie’s to seek out Weird Barbie.

Weird Barbie lives on a hill in a Cubist version of the Barbie Dream House, shunned by the other Barbie’s for being less than perfect. The visit reveals that one of Barbie’s owners has been playing with her too hard and that she must cross into the real world, to seek out the little girl with dark thoughts and rough playing skills, and bring the sunshine back to her. If she fails, she’s doomed to a life of existential crisis and cellulite.

And so Barbie leaves her candy comforts of Barbie Land along with Ken who insists on coming with her.

Illusions die hard, and when Barbie finds Sasha, the moody tween who is behind the darkness, she is called a fascist of sexualized capitalism, and that brings tears to her eyes. Meanwhile, Ken gets a whiff of the patriarchy. And he likes what he smells.

Mattel is notified that Barbie is in the real world, and on a hunt they find her. A humorous story ensues that includes their all-male executive team, led by Will Ferrell, trying to literally put Barbie back in her box. There is no interest in finding Ken since he is seen as superfluous. Barbie escapes from the box and makes a mad dash out the door where she finds Sasha and her mother, America Ferrara, in their SUV who take Barbie with them back to Barbie Land, where Ken has returned with his new outlook on life.

On her return, Barbie Land has become transformed into Kendom. And there begins the battle of the sexes as we witness the fragility of the male ego. I won’t give you any more spoilers. The satire is both hokey and refined, but the film was executed in a very smart way.

Many sharp points are made about the male-female dynamic and the gradual journey into self-discovery is really poignant.

It prompted me to think about differences between men and women, and the battle of the sexes, stay tuned, that will be coming in the next post.

I left the theater revisiting my childhood and how I have missed my cousin Angie all these years. I turned over my Barbie and Midge dolls to her. She drowned as a young woman in her early 20’s.

The finale was enhanced by the Billie Eilish song which made me yearn for a simple world while thinking of the complexities of the real world in a more aspirational way.

Kudos to Mattel, this film was a smart move, probably one of the best since the introduction of Barbie in 1959.