I am neither a Barbie truther nor a Barbie hater. Back when the movie came out, I saw it neither as a sinister woke manifesto nor as a masterwork of crypto-conservative subversion, for the simple reason that I just thought it was kind of a mess.
I enjoyed myself; I laughed; there were even some genuinely touching moments. The scene where Barbie is hurt to learn that her 1960s brand of empowerment has long passed its best-by date was poignant in a very telling way. But there’s really no philosophical or cultural outlook to speak of or critique in the movie. Writer/director Grega Gerwig isn’t disciplined enough to put one forward.
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