Movie Review

Out-of-the-box Barbie party gets existential in movie adventure that's fun if fleeting

The new movie Barbie presents a rare instance in which audience members will be approaching it from multiple different angles. Adults who grew up playing with the doll will be hoping for a bit of nostalgia (or, perhaps, revenge on the impossibly-proportioned female figure). Barbie aficionados will be looking to see if their favorite doll made the cut. Kids and parents might be thinking it will be a fun and frivolous time at the movies. And cinephiles will be curious how Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig and Oscar-nominated co-writer Noah Baumbach will imprint their style on an iconic piece of pop culture.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie in Barbie.

Turns out, the movie has a little bit of something for each of those factions and more. Barbie (Margot Robbie) – or, as she refers to herself more than once, Stereotypical Barbie – lives in the utopia of Barbie Land with innumerable other Barbies, including President Barbie (Issa Rae), Nobel Prize Winner Barbie (Emma Mackey), Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), and more. But suddenly Barbie turns into Existential Crisis Barbie when she starts having thoughts about death (wow, it really does have something in common with Oppenheimer!).

Weird Barbie sends Barbie off to the Real World to figure things out, joined by Ken (Ryan Gosling), who has no sense of self outside of his “relationship” with Barbie. The journey is illuminating in many ways, with visions of the patriarchal society sending Barbie into a deeper funk and Ken on a misguided journey. Real World mother and daughter Gloria (American Ferrera) and Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt) join Barbie to try to help her regain her confidence.

As with Barbie herself, Barbie is several things at once. It’s a self-referential ode to the many types of Barbies, Kens, and other dolls that have been put out over the years, complete with shots at parent company Mattel. It’s a fun romp with double entendre jokes, song-and-dance sequences, and enough pink to cover the entire world. And it’s an examination of outdated gender politics and perhaps an over-correction by the people who decided that Barbie could be anything and anyone she wanted to be.

While the joke is that Ken has no meaning outside of Barbie, the film gives Ken – and other Kens played by Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, and more – a big part of the story. Even though involving the Kens to a large degree pays off in the final act, their one-note nature keeps them from having a big impact overall. Ironically, the most important male character in the film ends up being Allan (Michael Cera), a milquetoast doll who has an empathetic soul.

Where the film ultimately lands on the place Barbie holds in the world will be up for interpretation, but it's far from just a two-hour toy commercial. Gerwig and Baumbach, while definitely straying far from early collaborations like Frances Ha, still make the story their own, delivering commentary that wouldn’t come from many other filmmakers. And if you laugh a lot along the way, then all the better.

Robbie is, of course, perfect casting as Barbie, a fact that is referenced on several different occasions in the film itself. But it’s more than just her looks, as she understands the mission and delivers the performance necessary for this particular role. Gosling is not quite as successful, but still makes for a fun Ken. There are times that the actors playing other Barbies are so funny that you’ll wish Gerwig had made it all about them instead.

Barbie is very entertaining in the moment, but like the dolls themselves, it feels like a movie that will be forgotten once the novelty wears off. Its overall message is obvious but one worth repeating, and Gerwig makes sure the audience pays attention to the very last frame.

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Barbie is now playing in theaters.

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Movie Review

Ryan Gosling tries to save the universe in Project Hail Mary

Photo by Jonathan Olley

Ryan Gosling in Project Hail Mary

The reasons behind the success of 2015’s The Martian, which earned over $630 million worldwide and got nominated for seven Oscars, had as much to do with the novel written by Andy Weir as it did with star Matt Damon and director Ridley Scott. Weir’s commitment to making an entertaining story that was also scientifically accurate proved to be easy to translate into a blockbuster movie.

The same is true for Weir’s 2021 novel, Project Hail Mary, now a film starring Ryan Gosling. Gosling plays Dr. Ryland Grace, who opens the film waking up from an induced coma, alone on an interstellar spaceship named the Hail Mary. As his foggy mind clears, he - and the audience - learn that he was recruited to help an initiative to save the world after it’s discovered that a mysterious phenomenon is causing the sun to cool down, threatening all life on Earth.

The film toggles back and forth between Grace’s time on the ship and his whirlwind journey of scientific discovery on Earth, with revelations coming on both sides. On Earth, he mostly deals with Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller), the unflappable and unstoppable leader of the international coalition dedicated to solving the problem. And in space, orbiting the far-off star known as Tau Ceti, he encounters another being he names Rocky, a five-limbed creature that looks like a boulder which teams up with him to try to save both of their worlds.

Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, and written by Drew Goddard (who also wrote The Martian), the film melds multiple genres into an astonishingly great whole. It starts off as a mystery, morphs into science fiction, transitions into actual science, becomes a thriller, adds in plenty of drama, and - for good measure - features plenty of comedy along the way. Shifting tones like this film does is tricky for many filmmakers, but Lord and Miller prove to be masterful at knowing just how much of each to include before it becomes too much.

One of the biggest keys to the story is the fact that Grace is not a hero in the movie sense of the word. He’s very smart, but he’s also an everyman, teaching middle school science after being shunned from academia. The circumstances of how he ended up on the Hail Mary are doled out in pieces over the course of the film, but it’s clear from the start that Grace’s talents are not the ones found in your typical astronaut. Ironically, it’s him being forced to do heroic stuff that imbues him with an atypical type of bravery.

The relationship between Grace and Rocky is unique, and Rocky ends up being as endearing an alien that’s been featured in movies despite the fact that he has no face and speaks only in musical tones. The film does a very effective job of putting the audience in Grace’s shoes, having to figure out ways to communicate with Rocky at the same time as he’s trying to figure out how to complete a mission he wasn’t trained to do.

Gosling is the ideal actor to portray a man like Grace. Essentially alone for much of the film, his innate charm and humorous delivery keep the film from feeling like an extended monologue. The flashback scenes to his time on Earth feature solid performances from people like Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall), Lionel Boyce (The Bear), and more, who fill in the pieces of the story without feeling out of place.

Project Hail Mary is a crowd-pleaser in all the right ways, delivering plenty of thrilling action and funny moments while also digging deep into science nerd elements. With a movie star like Gosling in the lead and successful filmmakers like Lord, Miller, and Goddard behind the scenes, the film makes an early case for being one of best of the year.

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Project Hail Mary opens in theaters on March 20.

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