Barbenheimer

2023 has been an all-time year for movies yet I have not heard quite a buzz from the film community like the kind that was caused by Barbenheimer. For those of you who have been somehow off all social media and disconnected from the planet in general, Barbenheimer refers to the same-day release of the live-action Barbie movie and the long-awaited Christopher Nolan biopic Oppenheimer. The internet, through its trademarked methods of generating memes and hype for the impending July 21, caused many projections that this could potentially be the biggest box-office premiere of all time. Now, while in reality, it didn't boast those high numbers, Barbenheimer did still cause a surplus in the box office that rivals that of Avengers: Endgame. With all this in mind, you can imagine how excited I was to see how this would turn out. On one hand, you have the movie that caused an international shortage of the color pink and boasted one of the most star-studded casts I had ever seen just to make a movie about the most famous doll on the planet; on the other hand, you have my favorite director of all time making a three-hour, no CGI, supposed masterpiece about the father of the atomic bomb. As soon as the tickets were released I joined the 20,000+ moviegoers who bought Barbie and Oppenheimer same-day tickets and counted down the days before I joined thousands around the country in the culmination of this cultural phenomenon.

Barbie- 6:30 pm, July 21

I have an extremely bad habit of spoiling movies for myself and establishing expectations for any movie I see by checking the infamous Rotten Tomatoes and Letterboxd to see what others' opinions are before I form my own. Luckily, I had done a great job of successfully avoiding most reviews and reactions for Barbenheimer before seeing the movies myself. Because of this, I had no idea where to keep any of my expectations. Going into Barbie, I was semi-familiar with Greta Gerwig's work having seen her breakout directorial debut Lady Bird and liking it quite a bit as well as hearing glowing reviews of her Little Women adaptation. Not only that but as I mentioned previously, the cast was one of the best not only of the year but one of the best I had ever seen. Margot Robbie being announced as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken is potentially one of the only times I had ever seen the internet cohesively agree on anything just because of how perfectly these two just seem to embody their characters. These expectations translated well onto the screen as the internet was correct.

Margot Robbie is Barbie. She perfectly embodies what I think of, and I would argue what most people think about when anyone says the word "Barbie". The same pink, joyful, seemingly living a perfect life while focusing on trivial things that are resolved in simple 15-minute episodes is the Barbie you get in the first 30 minutes of the movie. Margot Robbie in tandem with Greta Gorwig, perfectly portrays the whimsical child-like Barbieland as a believable location that is the product of little girls all around the world who have been playing with Barbie dolls for decades. This encapsulation of Barbie continues flawlessly throughout the movie as Margot Robbie delivers one of the best performances of her career and she really is the movie. With that being said, as most of the discourse surrounding this movie post-July 21 as aptly stated, Ryan Gosling steals the show. I've always liked Ryan Gosling as an actor so perhaps this is some of my bias showing, but I was the most excited to see his portrayal of Ken, and my god does he deliver. Every time he was on screen I, as well as the rest of the theater, was dying laughing. The man has comedic timing that rivals most modern-day comics. While a lot of this is contributed to the writing for his character, a good portion of this can also be attributed to the line delivery and physical comedy that Gosling executes so perfectly to where you really can't imagine any other person being able to pull this off. Like I said, the cast is stacked but in a sea of recognizable actors and actresses, many of them unfortunately seem to just be there for familiarity and just fade into the background. This particularly becomes apparent with Will Ferrell and the rest of the executives of Mattel, who should have been present for just a short 10-minute scene to further the plot but instead was pointlessly injected in the rest of the movie serving no real purpose except more comedic bits in a movie already filled with comedic bits. Those that stand out include Michael Cera, Simu Liu, Issa Rae, and America Ferrera (who also delivers one of the best monologues of the year).

It's not just the acting that delivers. Greta Gerwig proves that she is one of the best rising directors of our generation with some of the best directing I've seen in the 2020s. The numerous dance sequences and musical numbers there are appear on screen in an artistic chaos that stands out to viewers. Particularly the third act beach war and the iconic "I'm Just Ken" song that I added to my Spotify playlist as soon as I left the theater. The cinematography and use of vibrant colors in Barbie Land as well as the real world, made this at first quite jarring to look at but as the movie went on, it really pulled the viewer into the world of Barbie. Finally, the screenplay is hilarious and had me pretty consistently laughing while also delivering some effective emotional beats as well.

Now with all that being said, this movie is far from perfect. When I left the theater, I thought this would score a good 8.5 or 9 out of 10 but the more I thought about it, the less I seemed to like it. To address the elephant in the room, yes, this movie's primary theme is feminism and women empowerment but this wasn't exactly a shock to me. It's a movie with a primarily female case about one of the most iconic female characters arguably of all time and the theme for this movie is set very clearly in the opening shot. Barbie is not trying to hide its message and this is probably going to cause it to be one of the most divisive movies of the year. I've seen some say it's the best film of the year and tackles its themes perfectly and I've heard others say this is just another example of the "left taking over Hollywood and pushing its propaganda while indoctrinating the minds of impressionable children". Personally, keep in mind that I'm not the best to speak about this subject matter due to not having a full understanding of it as well as not being the party that these issues are meant to be directed towards, but I felt as though the problem was not in the themes itself but the tackling of these themes. I have nothing against the women empowerment and feminism that are dominant throughout the film, in fact, I think it's necessary to address them as they're not only an important message that should be broadcasted to a modern audience, but are also an important part of the very foundation that Barbie was built on. Unfortunately, just tackling this theme by itself is a monumental task for a movie that is marketed for kids in under 2 hours. Combine this with the fact that Gerwig also tries addressing a mother-daughter relationship, commenting on the patriarchy, what it means to be human, and capitalism, and you get seeds of good ideas planted throughout a movie yet none of them are properly fleshed out. When you try juggling this many themes, which by themselves are dense and layered, and try boiling it down to an audience in a consumable way in under 2 hours, it will naturally cause an unbalance in tone and all the themes to clash with one another without effectively communicating one or the other. I felt as though this was most prominent in the mother-daughter relationship which was probably the most emotionally compelling aspect of the movie. When it was allowed to be the forefront of the film, it provided some of the best scenes in the movie yet more often than not, it seemed to be placed on the back burner for a jab at the patriarchy or Ken obsessing over horses (which is still hilarious).

Besides the thematic elements falling short, the character themselves didn't feel fully fleshed out at times. Once again, from a writing perspective and character perspective I found Ken to be the most emotionally compelling character in the movie. A common argument that I've seen most people bring up when someone else says this is that this movie and Barbie is just "not for everyone" and while there's definitely some truth to that, I still think that this feeling that Barbie experiences of striving to constantly be perfect and struggling with what it means to be human is something that most people can relate to and yet once again we just don't see this explored enough. Alternatively, Ken wanting to be seen and respected while having an identity crisis and having been literally made as an accessory to someone else is a character that (to me at least) seems like a more interesting character study yet, by the end of the movie, I felt as though he still didn't have a satisfying character arc.

Ultimately, Barbie is fun, paced well, directed well, and is one of the funniest, best-acted, and best-directed movies of the year. Unfortunately under greater scrutiny, its struggle to balance multiple themes creates a tonal clash and a chaotic blend of ideas that doesn't always produce satisfying results.

Star Rating: 7 mojo dojo casa houses/10

Oppenheimer- 10:30pm, July 21

Yes, you read that right. Due to having school, in order to successfully have the full Barbenheimer experience I was forced to buy the only IMAX showing of Oppenheimer at AMC which turned out to be at 10:30 at night. I can barely watch an hour-and-a-half-long action movie this late much less a 3 hour long, dialogue-driven biopic after already seeing a movie in the theaters just a couple of hours ago. Needless to say, I was nervous, not only for staying awake but also for the movie itself. Christopher Nolan is my favorite director of all time. Bold take I know but Inception is my favorite movie of all time and was the first movie I watched multiple times due to my own volition as opposed to that blasted Ramayana movie that was in constant rotation in the backseat of whatever SUV we had 10 years ago. The Dark Knight started my obsession with Batman (which is why most of my close friends hate Christopher Nolan), and Interstellar was one of the first movies I've ever cried while watching. I have always been a Nolan "fanboy". Hell, I was even one of the few insane people who actually enjoyed Tenet, watching it 4 times and forcing my family to watch it too. While some may view this as a clear indicator of my bias towards this film, I'm outlining this to show that Nolan's films mean a lot to me and I had high hopes for Oppenheimer that any other movie would not have met. Combine my impossible expectations with the late-night showing and I was dreading that me and my PRIME energy drink would have our Barbenheimer experience ruined at the finish line. Any other movie would have ruined this experience. Luckily, Oppenheimer is not any other movie. *Disclaimer* If you're allergic to intense fanboying and incessant praise, I would click off this review right now. Don't worry, I won't blame you.

Oppenheimer is a masterpiece on every level. Christopher Nolan successfully crafted a character study reflecting on one of the most complicated historical figures of all time as well as subject manner that is very prevalent in our modern day. Let's get the main questions out of the way. Long-time Nolan collaborator Cillian Murphy plays the titular character of J. Robert Oppenheimer and delivers a performance that is almost a guaranteed lock for Best Actor as well as a top 10 portrayal of a historical figure ever. Murphy had always been pushed to the background of Nolan's films and had always stood out but until Peaky Blinders (an incredible show that everyone should watch ASAP on Netflix) no one really knew whether or not he was leading actor material. Cillian Murphy saw these doubts and used his piercing blue eyes to make every single doubter ashamed that they had these thoughts, to begin with. The deep complexities of one of history's most impactful physicists is perfectly showcased by Murphy's performance. This was a man who was tasked with creating a weapon unlike anyone had ever seen before, one that could have potentially world-ending consequences in order to stop a war that no one had ever seen before. While juggling the deaths of hundreds of thousands on his conscience, the very government who tasked him with ending the war, then went around and questioned his loyalty to his country even after everything he did for it. Oppenheimer was by no means a perfect embodiment of morality and virtue. He did things that he thought were right, stood up for the things he believed in, but also made many many mistakes that affected both himself and those around him negatively. Ultimately, the man was a human charged with an impossible task and every facet of his complexity is perfectly portrayed by Cillian Murphy with the direction of Christopher Nolan. Emily Blunt brings a powerful portrayal of Oppenheimer's wife Kitty, and demands the full attention of every single member of the audience. Once again, in a sea of stacked actors and actresses, not every single one could come to the forefront but there was never a character that I felt was out of place or not fully fleshed out. Especially, Robert Downey Jr who easily delivers the best performance of his already accomplished career and is also another confident lock for Best Supporting Actor. Also really quick special shout-out to Jason Clarke who I've seen no one talk about but whose character I absolutely hated throughout the entire movie which is a testament to how well he portrayed him.

Of course, none of this would be possible without Christopher Nolan. While most directors would start slowing down at this point in their career, Nolan delivers his magnum opus with the best cinematography, sound design, and editing of not only his career as director but my "career" as a lover of movies. Nolan has said multiple times that he used no CGI in the entire production of the film and while at first I thought this was a marketing ploy, I should have known by now not to doubt this man's obsession with the preservation of film. His commitment to ensuring the audience can feel the danger and the weight of the things happening on screen is perfectly shown by the framing of every shot. The fiery imagery combined with the best-looking scenes I have ever seen filmed on IMAX 70mm film and delivered to the audience topped with Ludwig Göransson's hauntingly dreadful score. The sound design and cinematography make this film. Whether it's the jarring imagery of Oppenheimer's PTSD, the replicated first detonation of the atom bomb in the US, or a simple shot of Cillian Murphy's face constipatedly looking at a lake, the audience feels the weight of the action of every decision made by the characters in this movie.

Many members of the set say that Oppenheimer is a horror movie and I agree. After the credits rolled at 1:45 in the morning, my fully packed theater was truly left in shock, mouth fully open as we contemplated what we just saw. The creation of a weapon that could potentially end humanity as we knew it, and the man who had to brunt the weight of this knowledge and create this very device was shown to us in painstaking detail over 3 hours at a relentless pace. It was a movie that not only reflected on society but the very core of humanity. And then, my theater burst into a 5-minute-long standing ovation. Regardless of the growing pet of despair and terror forming in our collective stomachs, we knew what we all saw on this fateful day was a masterpiece. I thank God that I was forced to watch this movie second because I don't know what I would have done with myself had I just finished watching thousands die to atomic weapons and then Simu Liu and Ryan Gosling have a dance-off. The more I think about Oppenheimer, the more I love it and I think 5 years down the line we will look to this movie as a benchmark for film-making, proof of how far movie-making has come, and an important reflection on one of the most over-looked figures in history.

Star Rating: 10 fedoras/10