In Greta Gerwig’s hands, Barbie is a weapon. The director wields the iconic doll like a broadsword in “Barbie,” cleaving through culture with gleeful spirit and savage humor. In this existential exegesis on what it means to be a woman, and a human, Gerwig reflects our world back to us through the lens of Barbie, and in doing so, delivers a barbed statement wrapped in a visually sumptuous and sublimely silly cinematic confection.
Written by Gerwig and her husband, filmmaker Noah Baumbach, “Barbie” works in broad story strokes, which allows Gerwig to experiment with style and humor, creating the safe space for their pointed commentary on patriarchy, misogyny and perfectionism. These concepts don’t exist in Barbieland, a girly utopia and true Barbiarchy, where only Barbies sit on the Supreme Court, win Nobel Prizes and get to be president. In this pleasantly plasticky and womb-pink dreamscape, anyone can be Barbie, Barbie can do anything, and he’s just Ken.
Barbie (Margot Robbie) has to leave the comfort of Barbieland in an attempt to stem the tide of irrepressible thoughts of death that start to creep through her cotton-candy consciousness, disastrously invading her disco dance parties. Our heroine is molded in the style of Neo of “The Matrix,” or Pee-Wee, from “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure,” an innocent embarking on a journey outside of their cozy Baudrillardian simulacrum.
