a pink manifesto that makes fun of (almost) everything

With permission Oppenheimer and his father Christopher Nolan, Barbie Greta Gerwig is the most anticipated movie of 2023. It comes out in the middle of summer as a refreshing note, but the frivolity that sometimes accompanies naive entertainment, which puts all the cards on a pleasant aesthetic, is not one of the hallmarks. Barbie. Its trailer has already clarified some things. First: that the film was made both those who love the Mattel doll and those who hate it. Also to those who, like Sasha, the youngest character, over the years have developed a kind of love-hate for her figure and what she represents.

Contrary to what it seemed when the project was announced and various achievements were published, Barbie does not resort to nostalgia macguffin. At least not excessively. On the other hand, pulls from ideology and metanarrative winks work like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Forrest Gump And Justice League Zack Snyder in different scenes. The nearly two hours of the feature film are a parade of feminist postulates that are sometimes laughable because the ridicule hits the mark and touches on different feelings in their career.

The satire attacks everything and everyone, from patriarchy to capitalism, from male vases to Mattel executives, among whom (oh, unexpectedly) there are no women because of the glass ceiling that its own argument insists on destroying. This slap on the wrist is practiced with the dexterity, wit, and affability Gerwig used to display in his famous Lady Bird And small woman.

Between choreography and great songs that give energy from Mama mia!Saturday Night Fever or the latest AVERAGE Ryan Murphy, the director brings to the screen a story that is more than a veiled critique of stereotypes. a loud manifesto for gender equality. Treat both with respect and empathy, not at equal distance. sidespersonalized (or dressed upif we want to be strict with dramatic duality) for a flawless Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.

IN Barbieland, women dominate everything, and men are relegated to a secondary level. For Ken’s army, patriarchy is not an option, but their journey into the real world shows them that there is a place where they have absolute control over society, where they drink plenty of beer, drive expensive cars, boast about having an MBA and pretend to be more capable than their peers in order to undermine their desire for promotion. IN Barbieland no ironic or clumsy compliments, women have appropriate professions and are not considered exclusively the object of male desires; rather the opposite. For all these reasons, Barbie firmly believes that by their very existence they have endowed the women of the world with strength. They have no doubt about it.

The film is a clash between the perfect and the ordinary, between fiction and reality, between it should be And be, dry. Analyze gender roles and models of masculinity and femininity almost effortlessly, with a naturalness that masks all the writing that his script involved in combating clichés. Barbie no longer wants to be a stereotypical Barbie when she could be a Barbie lawyer, writer, physicist or surgeon. Ken strives to be more than just a tanned, platinum blonde beach pimp. He wants to be Ken with and without Barbie. And Barbie, of course, wants that to be the case, because it means getting some freedom.

Feminist treatise that Barbie reaches a boiling point during Gloria’s (America Ferrera) monologue on the imposition of the sexes, already in the middle of the film, reminiscent in tone and form of Saoirse Ronan’s monologue in small woman. Confronted with the impeccable pace of the first hour and a half, the film accuses of a somewhat sentimental ending, a sort of homage to Ruth Handler, creator of Barbie and Mattel’s first female president to be so outspoken and drawn out that it becomes tiresome for the viewer.

In the background and on the surface Barbie This is a test of conscience, a self-reflective comedy that, because it is camouflaged between pastel colors and fluorescent light, is no less raw and impressive than joker Todd Phillips. Tells the truth, choosing humor over violence. The plastic toy’s view of our society, however, is more human and more real because it is not infected with prejudice. The fact is that the Barbie doll is both a timeless geopolitical affiliation and a reminder of beauty standards that a real woman can never aspire to. Gerwig and Robbie have become so intimate with each other that their deconstruction of a cultural icon has turned into a great movie.