What Critics Are Saying About Barbie

For Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie), every day in Barbie Land is perfect, with the many Barbie versions living in matriarchal harmony. Then her continually arched feet go flat and she starts having thoughts about death. That sets her on a path to the Real World, where she learns that, unlike in Barbie Land, men have the advantage. But that doesn't begin to touch on all that's packed into Greta Gerwig's Barbie, a 113-minute love letter with an impressive 89% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. More:

• Gerwig succeeds at "creating sparklingly original summer entertainment," serving up "an earnest feminist manifesto inside a barbed social satire inside an effervescent musical comedy," writes Dana Stevens at Slate. Interestingly, Mattel is a producer of the film that paints a Mattel CEO (Will Ferrell) as a villain. It's a paradox never resolved, Stevens notes. But then "it's tough to voice a critique of capitalism from the point of view of a piece of merchandise, a fact that, to its credit, the Barbie screenplay ... wryly and repeatedly acknowledges."
• "Is it a celebratory homage to Barbie and her history? Yes. Also a cutting critique, and biting satire? Yes, too," writes Jocelyn Noveck at the AP. Though Gerwig perhaps tries to pack in too many ideas, the result is a "brash, clever ... and most of all, eye-poppingly lovely" film that "can simultaneously and smoothly both mock and admire its source material." On top of that, Robbie is "pitch-perfect" and Gosling "never better."

• There's an "overt feminist message and desire to put Barbie in a broader sociological context." But that "doesn't always quite mesh" with "the sheer giddiness elsewhere," writes Brian Lowry at CNN. Still, he gives credit to Gerwig "for taking something that could easily have been two-dimensional and endeavoring to make it mean something." Ultimately it's "an enjoyable movie ... especially for those receptive to unwrapping the neatly packaged real-world themes."
• "It's a hoot, a feast for the eyes and ears," writes Aisha Harris at NPR. Not only is the production design "sensorially astounding," but "the jokes are plentiful, and the cast ... looks as if they're having a blast," Harris writes. "This is most true of [Ryan] Gosling," who stars opposite Robbie as Ken. He proves to be "the movie's secret weapon and an unsubtle, pitch-perfect rumination on American masculinity."

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