THB #355: Barbie (spoilerific!)

Barbie is probably going to be the most difficult film for me to write about this year.

I went back a second time to clarify my feelings. And indeed, as so often happens, it both sharpened some of my perspective and softened my more reactive feelings.

Here is my problem… there are 2 movies inside of Barbie. One is a well-observed, funny, engaging social satire that is delivered very successfully and led to this weekend’s massive box office opening. The other is a fairly serious story of a hero’s journey… that gets caught up in a stereotypical, uninspired notion of power that it wants to both mock and embrace.

But… after a lot of typing, chewing on my positives and negatives about the film (that I am now throwing away), I came to a realization. The worst thing in Barbie is Ken and all the male characters (except maybe Alan). And for many in the audience, the best thing about about Barbie is Ken.

As I dug into my feeling that the Mattel segment of the film could be cut and no one would n…