Barbie: 2023 Hollywood Fantasy Comedy, Trailer, Review, Rating

Barbie: Movie Name
Directed by: Greta Gerwig
Starring: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman, Will Ferrell
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Adventure
Release Date: 21 July, 2023
Running Time: 114 Minutes
Rating:
Budget: $100 million

To live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken.

Barbie: Movie Overview

Barbie is an upcoming fantasy comedy film directed by Greta Gerwig from a screenplay she wrote with Noah Baumbach. Based on the Barbie fashion dolls by Mattel, the film is the first live-action Barbie film after many computer-animated direct-to-video and streaming television films. The film stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, respectively, alongside an ensemble supporting cast that includes America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman and Will Ferrell.

The film was announced in September 2009 by Universal Pictures with Laurence Mark producing, but development began in April 2014, when Sony Pictures acquired its film rights. Following multiple writer and director changes and the casting of Amy Schumer and later Anne Hathaway in the titular role, Sony lost the rights, which were transferred to Warner Bros. Pictures in October 2018, with Robbie in talks to star. Robbie was cast in 2019. Gerwig was announced as director and co-writer with Baumbach in 2021. Gosling and the rest of the cast were announced in early 2022. Principal photography took place primarily at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden in England from March to July 2022.

Barbie will premiere in Los Angeles on July 9, 2023, and is scheduled to be released in the United States on July 21 by Warner Bros. Pictures.

After being expelled from the utopian Barbie Land for being less-than-perfect dolls, Barbie and Ken go on a journey of self-discovery to the real world.

Barbie will have its world premiere in Los Angeles on July 9, 2023. It will also have a European premiere in London on July 12, 2023.

Movie Trailer:

Barbie Movie Review:

Greta Gerwig attempts to make ‘Barbie’ a symbol of feminist anarchy through ennobling thematic content and patriarchy-mocking humour. The film may not have achieved all it may have set out to do, but it still sits pretty in gorgeous pink and makes for a fairly enchanting picture.

Ruth Handler’s iconic toy created in the 1950s has come a long way since. There’s much more to her than just a glassy-looking, feature-perfect, slimline doll. Over the years, Mattel has added several more creations to Barbie’s world and they all mirror the real world by carrying labels of functions they represent minus the complications of sexual organs and human emotion.

Screenwriting couple Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach envision a real-world mash-up with Barbieland for their ambitious Warner Bros-Mattel tie-up. Gerwig envisions Barbie suffering an existential crisis that leads the latter to question her world and her existence. It’s a far-fetched idea but Gerwig has the audience captivated by that very overarching thought.

The Barbie girls in this Barbie world include Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie), Doctor Barbie (Hari Nef), President Barbie (Issa Rae), Mermaid Barbie (Dua Lipa), Writer Barbie (Alexandra Shipp), Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), etc. Barbieland also has an endless supply of devoted Kens (led by Gosling) and a solitary Allan (Michael Cera).

Mattel’s Barbie exists in an idyllic dream world with labels for every woman’s aspirations. Gerwig’s Barbie is aspirational and suffers human weaknesses once it cracks through the portal separating the real from Barbieland. One day, when Barbie finds that her shoes no longer fit her flat feet, sees extra cellulose on her thighs, and has visions of death, she realises she must venture out of her comfort zone and into the real world to find out why she’s malfunctioning. And Ken is right there tagging along. Ken and Barbie take the voyage to reality where Will Ferrell is the CEO of Mattel and America Ferrera a designer of a potential new line of depressed, anxious Barbies.

The set, wardrobe designs, production values, and cinematography are all pink and brilliant — superbly matching the collective concept of a Barbie world. All the actors do well to keep us believing in this doll-world fantasy. While America Ferrera becomes the everywoman tool that Gerwig uses to deliver her feminist spiel, Helen Mirren makes an audio commentary to score a hit on casting choices. But the second half does tend to be a little heavy-handed in achieving thematic resonance. Even so, Gerwig’s creative risks pay off quite resoundingly.

Gerwig’s film goes where Mattel may never have ventured. The jokes, themes, and commentary give the Barbie brand new meaning. There’re witty dialogues to savour, broad humour on gender disparity, hard-hitting swipes at patriarchy, bold takeaways from conformity, and a fairly deep analysis of what Barbie has represented over time.

It’s clear from this film that the Barbie brand continues to evolve in ways that Ruth may never have imagined. The takeaway is definitely far more profound than what a plasticine doll can accord you.

Synopsis:

To live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken.

From Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig (“Little Women,” “Lady Bird”) comes “Barbie,” starring Oscar-nominees Margot Robbie (“Bombshell,” “I, Tonya”) and Ryan Gosling (“La La Land,” “Half Nelson”) as Barbie and Ken, alongside America Ferrera (“End of Watch,” the “How to Train Your Dragon” films), Kate McKinnon (“Bombshell,” “Yesterday”), Michael Cera (“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” “Juno”), Ariana Greenblatt (“Avengers: Infinity War,” “65”), Issa Rae (“The Photograph,” “Insecure”), Rhea Perlman (“I’ll See You in My Dreams,” “Matilda”), and Will Ferrell (the “Anchorman” films, “Talladega Nights”). The film also stars Ana Cruz Kayne (“Little Women”), Emma Mackey (“Emily,” “Sex Education”), Hari Nef (“Assassination Nation,” “Transparent”), Alexandra Shipp (the “X-Men” films), Kingsley Ben-Adir (“One Night in Miami,” “Peaky Blinders”), Simu Liu (“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”), Ncuti Gatwa (“Sex Education”), Scott Evans (“Grace and Frankie”), Jamie Demetriou (“Cruella”), Connor Swindells (“Sex Education,” “Emma.”), Sharon Rooney (“Dumbo,” “Jerk”), Nicola Coughlan (“Bridgerton,” “Derry Girls”), Ritu Arya (“The Umbrella Academy”), Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Dua Lipa and Oscar-winner Helen Mirren (“The Queen”).

Gerwig directed “Barbie” from a screenplay by Gerwig & Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach (“Marriage Story,” “The Squid and the Whale”), based on Barbie by Mattel. The film’s producers are Oscar nominee David Heyman (“Marriage Story,” “Gravity”), Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Robbie Brenner, with Michael Sharp, Josey McNamara, Ynon Kreiz, Courtenay Valenti, Toby Emmerich and Cate Adams serving as executive producers.

Gerwig’s creative team behind the camera included Oscar-nominated director of photography Rodrigo Prieto (“The Irishman,” “Silence,” “Brokeback Mountain”), six-time Oscar-nominated production designer Sarah Greenwood (“Beauty and the Beast,” “Anna Karenina”), editor Nick Houy (“Little Women,” “Lady Bird”), Oscar-winning costume designer Jacqueline Durran (“Little Women,” “Anna Karenina”), visual effects supervisor Glen Pratt (“Paddington 2,” “Beauty and the Beast”), music supervisor George Drakoulias (“White Noise,” “Marriage Story”) and Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat (“The Shape of Water,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel”).

Warner Bros. Pictures Presents a Heyday Films Production, a LuckyChap Entertainment Production, a Mattel Production, “Barbie.” The film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures and released in theaters only nationwide on July 21, 2023 and beginning internationally on July 19, 2023.