Barbie (2023)
Few films in recent memory have arrived with quite the cultural weight that Barbie carried into cinemas in the summer of 2023. Mattel's most famous product has been a fixture of popular culture since Ruth Handler introduced the doll at the New York Toy Fair in 1959, and the idea of a feature film had been kicking around Hollywood for well over a decade before this version finally made it to screen. What changed everything was the decision to hand the project to Greta Gerwig and her writing partner Noah Baumbach, whose script took what could easily have been a feature-length toy advert and turned it into something considerably more pointed. The film landed in a peculiar cultural moment too, releasing on the same weekend as Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, a pairing so unlikely that "Barbenheimer" became its own minor cultural phenomenon and drove one of the most remarkable box office weekends in years. On a reported production budget of around $145 million, Barbie went on to gross over $1.4 billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film of 2023 and the most successful release in Warner Bros.' history. Whatever else you want to say about it, the numbers are difficult to argue with.
Gerwig came to the project on the back of Lady Bird (2017) and Little Women (2019), two films that established her as one of the more thoughtful directors working in mainstream American cinema, with a particular gift for blending warmth with genuine intelligence. Produced through a consortium that included Mattel's own production arm alongside LuckyChap Entertainment (Margot Robbie's company) and the British outfit Heyday Films, the film is visually extravagant in a way that feels considered rather than accidental. Production designer Sarah Greenwood built an almost entirely practical Barbie Land on sets at Leavesden Studios in Hertfordshire, and the result is a world that manages to be garish and visually coherent at the same time, polished but never quite photo-real, which is presumably the point. The film has no direct source material beyond the doll itself, meaning Gerwig and Baumbach were essentially constructing a mythology from scratch, which is either a liberating or a terrifying brief depending on your temperament.
The cast assembled around the central conceit is worth pausing on. Margot Robbie, who you may have seen in rather different circumstances over on our reviews of Suicide Squad (2016) and Birds of Prey (2020), brings a physical precision and comic timing to the title role that the part genuinely requires. Ryan Gosling, who built much of his early reputation on brooding, laconic performances (see our take on Drive (2011) and The Place Beyond the Pines (2012) for the full picture), leans hard into comic territory here as Ken, a role that requires a very particular kind of deadpan commitment. America Ferrera provides what might be described as the film's emotional anchor, playing a real-world Mattel employee whose relationship with the idea of Barbie is considerably more conflicted than the residents of Barbie Land would prefer. Issa Rae, Simu Liu, Kate McKinnon and a pleasingly large ensemble fill out the world, and Gerwig clearly had some fun casting against expectation throughout.
I can’t believe I’m going to say this as a 37-year-old man, but I genuinely like Barbie (2023). I even quite like Ken, which is a sentence I never thought I’d type. Directed by Greta Gerwig, the film is a vibrant, unapologetic spectacle. I’ll be completely honest, though: it started off a bit shaky for me. In those opening minutes, I was bracing myself for a direct, heavy-handed lecture rather than a cleverly told story. I feared it would be a relentless, unsubtle slap in the face, but as it progresses, it actually finds its footing and becomes surprisingly nuanced.
Margot Robbie is fantastic in the titular role, and the supporting cast is great across the board (it was absolutely brilliant to spot a few familiar faces from Sex Education popping up, which was a lovely, unexpected touch). But let’s be real: Ryan Reynolds is the absolute showstealer here. The Ken scenes are genuinely hilarious. While the film is clearly operating as a sharp social commentary on gender, equality, and the damages of the patriarchy, Reynolds nails a pitch-perfect caricature of the modern "manosphere" the moment his character becomes self-aware. It’s biting, intelligent satire wrapped in neon-pink plastic.
The film culminates in a surprisingly touching finale that I imagine hits a lot harder for female viewers than it does for men. Watching it, I got the distinct feeling that this particular emotional core wasn't strictly intended for my demographic, if that makes sense. But you know what? I’m absolutely all here for it.
Barbie is a smart, self-aware piece of blockbuster cinema. It stumbles out of the gate, but once it finds its rhythm, it delivers a genuinely entertaining and thought-provoking ride that’s well worth your time.
Barbie is the sort of film that arrives pre-loaded with opinions, which makes it genuinely refreshing when it manages to earn a reaction on its own terms rather than simply confirming what audiences already thought they felt about it. The reservations noted above are fair ones, and the film's opening act does test the patience of anyone wary of being lectured at rather than entertained. But the fact that it finds its footing, and then some, speaks to Gerwig's instinct for human texture beneath the high-concept surfaces. Whether it stands the test of time as a piece of cinema or remains primarily a cultural artefact of a very specific moment is probably a question for a few years hence. For now, it is a film that clearly means something to a great many people, and it earned that response. Not bad for a film about a plastic doll in a pink convertible.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 2023 | Watched: 2026-06-15
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Barbie (2023) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Netflix · Netflix Standard with Ads
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: HBO Max Amazon Channel · YouTube TV · HBO Max
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
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