Barbie (2023)

a not quite capsule review

Barbie (Greta Gerwig, 2023)

I cannot even begin to describe the slow-motion-bullet-dodging I’ve been doing to avoid Barbie takes for the past month and a half or however long it’s been since the movie dropped.¹ I couldn’t absolutely avoid them, but I did my level best. I knew I had friends who liked Barbie, I knew I had friends who hated Barbie. I got the impression that there was initial effusion, then backlash, then backlash to the backlash. Maybe we’re on a fourth cycle at this point. I don’t know.

Anyway. Here’s my short thumbs up / thumbs down review of Barbie: I liked it. It was charming, it was funny, it was made with a lot of love and attention to detail, and it kept things light. It was a cream puff of a movie and that was exactly what it should be.

Don’t get me wrong… Barbie has plenty of emotional resonance. I like way Gerwig approaches Barbie as, e…