7.5
Yes, I completed the “Barbemheimer” opening night double feature. It was a truly wild ride.
Like “Oppenheimer,” this film also surprised me. The pendulum swings both ways, and actually finds much more common ground than I anticipated during the first five minutes of the runtime. The opening act essentially spells out that women working together and living in peace, empowering each other is… a fantasy land? The message of this movie depends on how deeply you dive into the narrative.
First and foremost, it’s a brilliant marketing move by Mattel. For a movie that lectures in multiple points about the evils of capitalism… it’s a cog in the machine, man.
The story does a great job of showing how both sides can overcorrect in the face of adversity, leading to an unnecessary breakdown in society, when things become disingenuous and performative… and actually lands on a high note of everyone growing as characters and a fairly positive outlook towards the future that I did not see coming.
Stylistically, it’s absolutely gorgeous. The set design is amazing, as expected, and everything is over the top. As with “Oppenheimer,” “Barbie” is also perfectly cast, and that cast is firing on all cylinders.
Brett Garten, Movie Extraordinare 