MovieChat Forums > Barbie (2023) Discussion > I'm Already Getting Annoyed With This Mo...

I'm Already Getting Annoyed With This Movie


There is a lot of internet buzz going on around this movie. It's being described as a progressive and unexpectedly subversive take on the "material" (to the extent that there is material for a toy line)

That may turn out to be true, and I guess I'm being grumpy and cynical, but I think this is shaping up to be another Joker (2019)

I don't think Joker is a BAD movie, but I think it got a lot of credit for ostensibly belonging to a genre known for being thematically shallow. In other words, it got a lot of free good will simply because we EXPECT commercial movies to be dumb as fk

Joker was not a super insightful exploration of mental illness. Kudos to it for dealing with those subjects at all, but upon re-watching it the movie is by no means a classic

And I feel like something similar will happen with Barbie. It'll get a huge amount of fanfare, a lot of awards buzz, and make a ton of money despite just being a serviceable comedy-drama

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It's being described as a progressive and unexpectedly subversive


According to Wikipedia, filming wrapped less than a week ago. If that's the case, there won't even be a rough cut of it yet. So I can only assume any descriptions of the movie have come from the people involved in making or promoting the movie. And, well, they would say that, wouldn't they?

The idea of Mattel allowing anyone to do anything genuinely subversive with their toy line seems a bit fanciful to me. But, hey, you never know.

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For some reason, I think they want this to be a mixture of ELF and The Lego Movie. Maybe it's because Will Ferrell is in the cast, but that's about it.

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I bet Hollywood will give barbie a dick and actually call herself Ken.

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