Best critique so far. The comparison with a Rorschach test is spot on. This movie makes me think that being sane and balanced will be the new rebellion.
This is why I used to watch Wisecracked (and don't anymore) I think Jared does an excellent job keeping an even keel and willing entertain two opposing views without needing to believe or choose one of them to favor. it's never "I'm right and here's why" but "This is what I think and here's why I think it."
Might just be Michael. He does good work, but gets pretty passive aggressive about issues he doesn't agree with. At least when he's the host of the video.
This only works if all you have to choose is a side in culture wars. At best they are a waste of time, at worst they hurt the cause you are fighting for.
When I discovered Wisecrack I felt that Jared invites me to share ideas, At this moment when i watch the more recent videos of Wisecrack i feel like there are more absolutes, like there were only one answer and one view, i don’t felt comfortable with them.
The Lego movie did the meta thing in a more effective way by having the story of the kid in real life in the background, and having that effect the fantasy story.
The thing that's being forgotten too much is that not only is Barbieland a fantasy separate from the real world, but the "real world" is also a cartoonish mime of reality. The same logic that would apply to the real world, like in some movies that are supposed to be exactly realistic, doesn't apply here. The first 5 minutes of Barbie and Ken in the real world and the interactions with them getting arrested multiple times gives this away pretty obviously.
Jared your take definitely made me reconsider some things, so thank you. I think why I loved Barbie was all the silly absurd humor making fun of everything in both absurd worlds and not taking any of it too seriously. The archetypes and jokes and exposition and so on was absurd. And yet Barbie loved the experience of life in the "real" world, as absurd as it was, and literally said yes to life. But I've been reading Camus lately so I was primed to interpret it that way lol.
Though the movie has shortcomings, I think the movie has been an important cultural moment for women to grapple with the complex role Barbie has had in their lives either embracing the doll or rejecting it and why. I think this film also has been great for getting women to explore how their expected roles in society are unfair and contradictory. I also think this movie calls on men to assess themselves and try to be better and not frame their identity on hypermasculinity or their relationship status with women. The movie is not perfect, and it is an IP corporate cash grab, but the ideas and conversations it is sparking should not be ignored. Two things can be true at the same time
It just feels lazy, because these ideas were already explored in the song barbie girl by aqua in 1997 (26 years ago). I understand that the movie is supposed to be light, you can't expect too deep a dive into this concept. But they could try to be original, which would give it depth while still being simple.
It was written by a rich white girl millennial that wants to push a false narrative and the left in general is all about blaming your problems in life on another group. Smarter feminist movies have been getting made for over 50 years and they could empower women without bashing men. Hollywood and the left in general used to understand that.
I'm not a PHD or anything, but it seems (to me) as if relationship status is so existential for men that it can't be ignored so much as potentially suppressed only to unhealthily leak out or explode in perverse ways. There are very few male animals on this planet that aren't instinctually driven to reproduce. As much as we'd like to think we're enlightened, we were designed by millions of years of evolution just like every other life-form on the planet. Survival necessitates reproduction. While it's true that we're the most socially complex animal, that we know of, men need romantic partners at a fundamental level. That fact exists alongside the fact that not all men will achieve that goal. Many won't. If we use poverty as an analogy, several understood responses of an organism to resource deprivation are lying, cheating, stealing, and manipulation. They will do whatever works if they can find something that does. This isn't even critically attacked in the domain of poverty == crime. "They don't have money, so you have to expect poor behavior." We (some of us anyway) excuse their lack of self control as self-explanatory. Yet, when we discuss the poor behavior of solitary males, they're given a slur (incels) and sent on their way. Many men exist in a "ghetto/trailer park" of weak chins, short heights, poor socialization, and low paychecks. These men will misbehave or descend into pornography and video games in an effort to trick their brain into thinking its receiving the status cues it needs to stave off depression and suicide. "Be better," doesn't solve status poverty any more than it solves resource poverty and can't be considered as a solution in and of itself. Near as I can tell, the only historically successful method of protecting society at large from restless, sexless males is war. Send them off to colonize or raid and the ones that happen to make it back weren't as useless as they initially seemed and will (perhaps) now be able to afford to support a mate. I'm not suggesting we continue this practice, but at least it was a lottery of sorts - with some chance of success, even if it was small. "Be better," suggests a solitary war against oneself that seeks to bury or kill a pillar of his genetics... kind of like conversion therapy for incels to make them, I don't know, monks or something.
Absolutely man! Spot on! Who asked us anyways?! Right?? What fatigued me is that as a man I’m constantly being barraged with pseudo-intellectual “takes” on every damn thing that has absolutely nothing to do with me (or men).
I took the movie as story create by a little girl while playing with her toys. All the stereotypes and inconsistencies in the movie are caused by the girl’s imagination and her knowledge or lack of it.
Barbie really is a mixed bag. 1.) The dance numbers were goofy fun. 2.) But the real world was about as cartoonish as BarbieLand; As Jared points out, people aren't acting realistically to point out things like the patriarchy they benefit from, when most people lack the self-awareness or inclination to discuss such things with random people, let alone random people who look as odd as Ken does. 3.) The performances overall are great; I can't imagine anyone else besides Liu, Gosling, or Robbie in those roles. 4.) Perhaps most egregious to me, they establish that the status quo in BarbieLand isn't right, but instead of establishing an egalitarian place, the old status quo is basically restored at the end, with Kens returning to 2nd class citizenship. It's even used as a punchline: "Maybe they'll someday become as powerful as women in the real world, amirite?" What gets me is that they lack the imagination to come up with anything other than one group must oppress the other. All they can do is swap the roles and try to justify it that women are just better and more enlightened as oppressors. Which has been the thinking of so many dictators throughout time.
That seems to be really really common. But the patriarchy of course is not 'men', but SOME men. So Hollywood feeds on conflict and ensuring that 'the people' are never actually united, for obvious reasons.
I see and understand your reading of the movie. I have no malice in my words. Our world and BarbieLand are shown to be mirrors. I think the Kens still being 2nd class citizens is supposed to be a mirror to women having rights, but still be treated like 2nd class systems by the structures of power. For example, women weren’t always required to be included in clinical research until pretty recently and as a result, women’s health issues are seriously lacking. A lot of doctors still treat medicine as a boys’ club and are likely to be dismissive, ignorant, or unbelieving that a woman in pain has serious health issue. Things are better now, but it doesn’t mean the work is done. This applies to both our world and BarbieLand. I don’t think the movie was trying to show us what the better world is, just that we’re not there yet.
I thought Barbie was funny. Alot funnier than i expected if im being honest, which distracted me from the tell not show philosophy it followed, I suspect. I also rather enjoyed that it didn't simply paint men as the enemy, but showed how engaging in a hierarchical system in which one group is inferior to another ultimately hurts everyone no matter who is at the helm
Yes, there is this video Alteori made about this movie explaining how toxic it’s ideas are and she said that it glorifies everything that’s considered “feminine” but it antagonizes everything that is considered “masculine”
Movies like this make you realize just how large the industry around controversy is. Hundreds of articles, thousands of videos, millions of social media reactions all in service of throwing mud one way or the other over a movie. Animosity as advertising, gotta love it
Thank you for articulating this--I am so fatigued by condescending writers and directors drowning audiences in exposition and bad storytelling. It's like so many of them have assumed that they are in possession of 'T' truth, and it is their job to 'educate us' unwashed masses. I am all for a diversity of opinion or even polemical messaging in film, but show, don't tell--and unless its a children's movie, please stop treating me like I don't have any idea about the world, and that you do.
I’ve been wondering, at an ever increasing frequency, what percentage of people just love to troll. They find low hanging fruit like movies like this and then they just feed into the opposite sides hate towards it by trolling them. I used to see it back in 2016 and found it hilarious. Now I’ve realized how bad that makes things for us without being able to properly communicate to another and their viewpoint.
I think a lot about this as well. I really enjoy good trolling & shitposting, but it seems like so many people take that kind of thing seriously. It feels similar to how I enjoy a good satire, but then a significant amount of people take it completely seriously. Perhaps we should focus a little more on showing people how to identify & appreciate things like irony, satire & trolling?
@@internetuser8922 Good satire really shows us something pervasive in our society or culture at large, but that's sort of the issue I think. When we troll someone online or laugh at someone being trolled, we are actively dismissing them and in order for the joke to persist, there must be no genuine effort to engage with the person seriously or have a conversation with them. If that happens, then we are effectively looking at them as an individual that we can have a real back and forth with, and once we do that, then the joke is ruined. I'm no saint in all of this, but it's something I've been coming more and more to terms with myself. It's not that I don't appreciate irony or satire anymore, but in a world that has become so laden with it, I feel like the thing I want more in my life is people intent on taking themselves and the people around them seriously. The more I bought into the joke before, the more I got lost in it because when the laughter died down, I realized how empty I felt inside. I am much happier as a person after I learned how to deal with my own personal shit, and started forming genuine connections with people and then I realized just how much more nuanced everything was. I will say for me that unplugging from social media helped with this process. It's harder to view someone as a caricature when you're both staring each other in the face.
I have long been convinced that the entire right-wing media eco system is one massive troll farm. It was born from 4channers taking down Steve Bannon's WoW gold farming operation... he saw the power of trolling. Now every pundit and talking-head on the right is so deep in their trolling/lies that they have to keep doubling down in order to pay the bills. It's the viewers that aren't in on the joke, not the pundits.
@@vincentbatten4686I think you just summed up everything wrong with social media. And what the solution to it is. Loved your comments. Thank you for sharing that. And I'm glad that you're in a better place, now, with this. Its very easy to forget, even with all this "communication" over the internet, that its actual living, breathing, imperfect people that we are really talking with. Thanks, sincerely, for the reminder! 👍
I just realized I was starting to fall into the pathology trap of suspecting someone of misogyny for their statement that the movie was misandrist. I keep looking for enemies. I suppose that must indicate that I feel threatened. Thank you for thinking deep enough to help me learn something important about myself through the Barbie movie, of all things. I appreciate your work and voice, Jared.
The film was a Shakespearean tragedy, with Ken our tragic hero. A would be Nietzschean ubermensch who ultimately failed due to his fatal flaw: seeking the approval of women.
What a fantastic breakdown, very well explained. I wish I could cut paste you when I talk to others. I found that I enjoyed moments of the film, but when I left I thought it was just another film like “Don’t Look Up”. A not so subtle satire.
Much like the irony of a person stuck in traffic complaining about traffic not realizing that they themselves are the traffic, we don’t realize that by commenting on the culture war, even as “neutral,” or “unbiased” observers, we are still part of the culture war.
Well, we DO live in a society. You're kind of not really saying anything pointing that out unless your point is that we should ignore it all and talk about things nobody cares or even knows about.
But they're not the one's blasting their horns or swearing, thinking its making things better. A traffic jam could be an opportunity to get some rest or an excuse to raise your cortisol.
I kind of thought feminism and patriarchy were red herrings, and the crux of the movie was about identity. How we let our identity be made through the other.
I agree with your problem with Ken immediately discovering patriarchy - it doesn’t seem like the audience should understand that a toxic patriarchal worldview is what Ken witnesses (and is enraptured by). This is only my perspective, but I read that initial montage of businessmen shaking hands, friends going to the gym together, playing sports etc as Ken seeing for the first time self-actualised and independent men, rather than the airbrushed window dressing that the Kens act as in Barbieland. Ken sees for the first time that men can live their own lives and find fulfilment through hobbies, sports and careers independently in a way they never could in Barbieland. The montage is played for laughs because traditionally this kind of realisation would happen to a female character in a moment of feminist awakening. It’s not until Ken reads those books that he decides that this kind of masculine independence and autonomy is only possible through the adoption of hyper masculine gender norms, and the subjugation of the Barbies into the superficial accessories that the Kens had previously acted as. By the end of the film, he’s reverted to something resembling the more acceptable vision of positive masculinity he saw un that first montage in the real world, one that allows Kens to be themselves, develop interests and careers of their own, without needing to adhere to strict gender roles or by prioritising their goals at the expense of the Barbies’.
100%. This is even primed by the marketing: "She's everything. He's just Ken" From the very beginning Ken's journey to self-actualisation and independent existence is a critical component
Jared, in the middle of this demented culture war, your mostly neutral takes are always refreshing. I wasn't planning to, but I think I might give the movie a chance once it is released on VOD. I am, however, a little tired of movies and shows attacking men just for being men. I'll probably see it, but I don't know if I'll finish it. Thanks for the video.
So true. I was subscribed to Wise Crack for ages, but the current guy is incapable of being neutral. Jared's takes are always thought-out, interesting, and surprisingly free of ego.
@@maxfli95 Maybe attacking is too strong a word. I should have said hostile. She-Hulk comes to mind immediately; Masters of the Universe: Revelations, Velma and Eternals are other good examples. On many modern media, men (specially white men) are portrayed as misogynistic, evil, stupid or any combination of those. You can see it in the way Thor transformed from movie to movie from a complex character to comic relief. I'm no blind. Many men are bad, but not all of us.
I think in part you felt about Barbie the way I felt about The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. It was the most meta thing I’ve ever seen, and it was incredibly self aware. But I’m not sure that kept me hooked on the plot as the film became more and more a Michael Bay action flick.
It would be interesting to see how this movie ages. Since this movie was massively lucrative, It started a trend of not just more Barbie movies but "video Essay movies".
There have been video ‘essay movies’ before. this wasn’t new I don’t think, the bad sorkin ones are just “here my take on this spread out between characters”.
Jared! not only are you obviously the reason Wisecrack had its empathetic side for the more majority-centric topics, but the H-Town jersey makes me get it. love you (parasocially from a safe distance) man you actually presented some critiques here none of the more emotional folks had brought up, and as a big Barbie fan I appreciate that.
Being blissfully ignorant of the American culture war I really only came away from this movie thinking that Ken rocks hard and that I too want my own Mojo Dojo Casa House
the funniest takes are the people who, either ironically or genuinely, are saying Barbie is pro-patriarchy and mocking feminism because of how easily the Kenvolution takes over Barbieland and how Gosling-Ken is the only character with an arc. If you just sit back and watch the discourse with a bucket of popcorn then it's quite funny to watch people react to this film.
Great stuff 2 comments: 1) my issue with the film is the zero queer characters / representation. I find it really tedious when people see women as the only victims of patriarchy… I probably would have been on board with the silly plot and the video essay vibe otherwise. 2) what you said at the end took me immediately to the Israel Palestine conflict… so spot on. We are playing with dolls, calling each other nazis so we can feel that we are the good guys.. from both sides.. scared to face our own complexities and the horrors we inflict.. may the war end soon 😢
I as a right winger enjoyed the zero queer characters. It was actually refreshing, since so many leftist stuff is about queers these days. It's true that women are not the only victims of patriarchy, but they are at least the main victims, the most obvious victims. So, it is better to explain patriarchy through the relatively uncomplicated lens of just women, since so many right wingers don't even believe in patriarchy. You must not make it too difficult. But I get it that other people may come from a different point of view. Just wanted to share my perspective.
I have a lot of similar takes to Jared except I actually liked it. I saw it with my younger sister and it was the first movie (at least I think) to introduce these feminist concepts to her and seeing her smiling ear to ear talking about the movie was enough for me.
Politics of Barbie 🎥 1:33 Measured Critique 1:50 - The Writer uses characters as a caricature to write a video essay. 3:35 Deadpool’s 4th Wall Breaking. 3:59 - The Barbie movie does not take the plot seriously 4:49 Kens get Manipulated 5:09 - No Stakes 5:38 - Pre-ocupation with Patriarchy is done lazily 6:07 - The Barbie Movie tells way more than it shows - smug and lazy scriptwriting 6:58 _Promising Young Woman (2020)_ does patriarchy critique in a better way. 7:55 - Barbie is mean spirited towards men - EVERY Character is a stereotype. 8:53 Not everything has to cater to my proclivities. 9:24 “sometimes Art accidentally tells The Truth.” 10:17 Projecting onto Dolls, seeing what you want to see. 11:22 Paranoia of The Culture War , aka “Assuming the worst.” (Not good to assume the worst of others) 12:25 Playing with dolls is for kids. “Politics is division by definition. 13:02 Comments, Twitch, Discord, RUclips, Peace ✌🏼
Good review. I want to add something else. The movie doesn't just defend capitalism by being, in itself, a two-hour commercial for Mattel, but even in its discourse. The executives are not the villains; they're foolish and cynical, yes, but they respond to the direction of the consumers. If they're told that an ordinary Barbie could make money, they start selling it...they are, in themselves, almost neutral. If at any point they accumulated capital through stereotyped views of women, it's because that's how society was; once it changes, they change. Another element: the only character with subversive feminism, Sasha, has an arc that ends with her reconciliation with the company's pink culture through the connection with her mother. The movie, it seems clear to me, is neither empty nor foolish. And its meta-content has a couple of layers; it even has a reference to Lang's Metropolis (I hope this is confirmed someday). The problem is its politics: too liberal, too white, too pro-business.
This is one of the best honest takes I have heard about this movie. However, I am not willing to pay to watch it I will wait until it is available on a streaming service.
Honestly I think A lot of it box office because of parents actually not knowing that this movie is not a kids movie. So they bring their kids thinking it’s gonna be a kids movie and then find out it’s a terrible done social commentary.
@@1massboy I don’t know about that. The showings I experienced were pretty much all adults and older teens. Most of the parents I know (including myself) knew it wasn’t really for kids. Although, I did sit next to a mom and her younger daughters. She was laughing so much but the girls were miserable. They ended up leaving early once the mom actually looked at her daughters, slumped in their seats trying to just sink into the floor and get away.
To me the movie just sounds stupid and pointless. I thought it would be more like the Lego Movie. Think it’s just another case of writers trying to be clever but they themselves aren’t very clever.
I'm a men. I saw Barbie. I liked it.... But I'm INsecure as FUCK!!! Kidding aside, I found the movie to be a little preachy, but very funny! (A spoonful of comedy helps the preachyness go down.) Great production design! Awesome soundtrack!! (though I would've prefered Aqua's original song rather than a remix during the credits) and God Tier casting!!!
Jared is trying so hard to pretend he’s unbiased and neutral on all these ridiculous culture wars when some of them are just flat out dumb and it’s okay to admit that
I watch it as a kind of postmodern fairytale, and through this lense I loved it. Not surprised most people expecting poignant social critique left movie theater dissapointed. I never expected it and got pretty much what I wanted, fun plastic movie.
“Playing with dolls is for kids” I love the comparison of treating the people that disagree with us as dolls! Dolls that we project our worst assumptions onto! Such an amazing point. Maybe that’s the answer to all of this collective bad behavior. We are all just fucking acting like children. Well I guess it’s time to grow up.
I always appreciate your reasonable, measured response to these kinds of controversial issues. I tend to disagree with you on a fundamental level on many issues, but I appreciate your good faith in engaging those ideas head on. We can always use measured, and even-tempered discourse around culture, film, and politics. I love your content, and Wisecrack is a hollow shell without you.
Eh, I actually took the third act and Ken's arc as a jibe at toxic feminism and advocacy for men. Same with seeing "patriarchy" everywhere, even when the reference appears superficial and hollow. At one point Ken attempts to use his status as a man and fails to get a job even at a beach. Turns out that just being a man was not enough to succeed. I feel the movie's lampooning both sides. So to answer Jared's question, in this regard it didn't conform nicely to tribal lines for me I suppose?
Ken looking for a job by appealing to patriarchy was meant to show what a goofball he is. No feminist would ever say that patriarchy is about being able to find positions of power just because you come for that position and you are a man, it's a straw-man. On the other hand, the corporate guy who says they're hiding the patriarchy seems more like a mouthpiece of the writers' stance. Regarding the third act, it's implicit that in barbieland Kens are representative of the majority of men, just like the barbies are for women in the real world; they even allude to that at the end in the scene w president barbie, but the kens are shown as archetypical incels, whereas barbies are meant to be seen as smart and endearing. I know it's not the only interpretation you can pull, and I'm not saying it was intentional, I'm not sure, but i can see why people might see the movie as pandering to a more 'progressive' audience
@@billcipher3168 Are barbies meant to be seen as smart and endearing though? They manipulated kens to "put them back into their place" on a technicality (disenfranchising them during a vote). In the end barbies learned nothing about living with kens and seeing them as people, instead going for a token representation (learning to hide their matriarchy). Which to me ties into the theme of "Barbieland is a reflection of the real world", as in while the real world is not harmonious, neither is Barbieland. It didn't look like a "perfect order to strive towards" to me, more like a broken mirror that should make audiences rightly squirm. And then there's Ken's song, which in my opinion is very earnest and sincere.
@@FelixDaleth yeah, good point, but i feel like one can almost interpret it in opposite ways here. I agree it's arguably a critique of some sort of feminist views, but I'm not sure it's intentional on the writers' part; the movie didn't strike me as subtle in general. I'm inclined to believe it could be just pandering to a major feminist audience who sees it as justice to deprive the kens of positions of power simply because of historical oppression
@@billcipher3168 Sure, that's why Jared is spot on calling it a Rorschach test of a movie. Still, I think the movie's treating Ken with too much sympathy for it to be unintentional. :)
I think it was exactly the type of ending that would be in a Barbie world. However, Barbie agreed that the ending wasn't right. All the other Barbies were thrilled, but main Barbie was not. She wanted to become part of a more complex life. As always, I appreciate your critique. I really enjoyed Barbie, but it was also speaking to me, and I don't see you as an alpha bro for disliking it. You tend to need a layer under the layer, and in this, the messages, the absurd, the feels, the Barbie-ness, and the humor were all splashing together on the surface. This is part of why it was so refreshing for me.
I really loved Barbie's existential character arc and her final line with Ruth was really poignant; that she wants to imagine instead of being an idea. This was severely undercut when she ended up getting a job at Mattel and the status quo of both world remained predominantly the same. If we are tasked to imagine something better I really don't think anyone would imagine working at a corporation, nor would they imagine a world that's under a pernicious hierarchy. I enjoyed the movie but it really felt like it was fighting against itself there.
@@meximan282 that's the final beat of the movie where america ferrera's character drops her off at her new job at Mattel lol Edit: nvm I totally missed the whole doctors office
In the late 2000s when one called a hipster a hipster they would get so mad and say “I’m not a hipster!”. I never understood that back then. Now, with the Barbie movie fans, I think I get it
It was interesting to deconstruct the social hierarchies in each phase of the movie. It starts with the Barbies having a completely flat hierarchy among themselves (even the president chills with them and doesn't show any dominant characteristics, though maybe there's an argument that stereotypical Barbie is slightly elevated), with the Kens below them, and one outcast. Fast forward to Mattel, where there is one clear leader, followed (literally) by a bunch of yes-men, followed by a secretary, followed by some office workers, and finally the creator is on the 17th floor (which I guess isn't the bottom but I'm assuming she's below the office workers). The very noticeable thing about this is that there is very little portrayal of female hierarchy, and not one mention of the matriarchy despite being prevalent.
"Don't reduce complex humans down to simple dolls" would have been a much nicer takeaway from the film. I enjoyed Barbie, but only because it gave me so much to think about.
I felt like the Barbie world was more reflective of childhood play and imagination. Maybe it's more about superficiality rather than patriarchy. But thus is the subjectivity of art. No ones wrong when it comes to their personal experiences.
I often wonder what Carl Jung would have to say about our current culture and the prevalence of fandom as identity. So many people compromise the entirety of their personality based on the toys, comics, books, tv that they love. I can't help but feel the loss of religion in the lives of many people has been replaced wholesale by these consumer products. The sense of community, myth, and storytelling that we sought in spirituality; has been subsumed by cultural juggernauts like "Star Wars" and "Barbie".
This really sums up my thoughts on the film. It had a couple of interesting points, but largely from a narrative stand point it was weak and it's humour largely didn't land. Ironically, it's points on patriachy and misogyny also felt largely shallow and superficial. If you want to see a really GOOD film that analyses gender and patriachy, watch the French film "I am not an easy man" in which a typically masculine business man from our world ends up in a world exactly the same but with the genders flipped and he has to make sense of his new role in the classically feminine gender type. It has a ton of genuinely insightful and funny moments and the film works great as a comedy in it's own right, but it highlights a ton of issues simply by putting a man in that role and showing how dumb or unfair those cultural expectations are. Hugely recommend it, it's a great film.
Well said. Too easy reducing those we disagree with to cartoon caricatures of everything we project as our opposite, keeping our beautiful souls as simple and unsullied in the process.
First it was Deadpool that did the 4th wall breaks and sarcasm (because it's his MO). Then MCU suits stupidly assumed that's what makes people like Deadpool and started making literally every Marvel movie with a main character that does 4th wall breaks and toxic sarcasm. Then A24 came as an "alternative" to superhero movies and made EEAAO - an "indie" movie about the multiverse where everything is "le random XD" and much meta wow. And now I'm 31 years old and Francis Ford Coppola is giving interviews, telling me to go watch a movie about Barbie and Ken with opinions on social issues... Blockbusters nowadays make me think of older movies like "Jingle All the Way" and "Look Who's Talking" like they were some genre-redefining 10/10 kino masterpieces...
Imagine the sheer amount of brain rot it would take to watch a movie wherein sorority girls made jokes to show that they were in a matriarchy and then calling the movie "tonally appropriate" LMAO
I found Poor Things to be more empowering and deep than the Barbie movie. The things Madam Swiney tells Bella resonated more with me than Ferrera's monologue in Barbie. I think both movies were about a woman starting as an inanimate object and striving to become a fully actualized person. Both movies showed men as fools in the process, but Barbie movie was being more deliberate while claiming to want equality for the sexes. It bothered me that the grand resolution to the Ken revolt was to reset everything in Barbieland to the beginning, where Kens were once again second class citizens. Nothing was healed or solved.
IF indeed Barbie was created to be "open ended," then that to me is the best message in the film. It's not the "glorious purpose" society has deemed worthy of a gold medal, it's the endless possibility of being whatever 'you' want to be. The idea that (stereotypical) Barbie was nothing without her looks (especially because she was designed like that) can be applied to anything we place cultural value on. In the same way, Ken was explicitly designed in reference to Barbie and literally wouldn't exist without her. Hence why it makes sense he would bring back that sense of (albeit twisted) liberation when he finally experiences genuine acknowledgement.
I definitely think that it's cartoonish, but, and I don't mean this in the "It's just a movie bro don't look into it"--it does need to be reductionist to some degree, but it would need to do that to hit where it needs to for kids to understand it. My expectations of an accurate dissection of patriarchy, corpocracy, etc. were pretty limited.
Best critique so far. The comparison with a Rorschach test is spot on. This movie makes me think that being sane and balanced will be the new rebellion.
as if sanity was ever trendy
Perhaps a new enlightenment era.
Jared is my favorite Ken
I was listening to as much anti-woke Barbie propaganda as I could last night and I have not any dumber or smarter than it was at 4 in the morning
But I don't think I can read any more weight give me a moment just give it a moment
He’s the only ginger Ken
Jaren?
What do you call a ginger in a porno ? The camera man !
This is why I used to watch Wisecracked (and don't anymore) I think Jared does an excellent job keeping an even keel and willing entertain two opposing views without needing to believe or choose one of them to favor. it's never "I'm right and here's why" but "This is what I think and here's why I think it."
Might just be Michael. He does good work, but gets pretty passive aggressive about issues he doesn't agree with. At least when he's the host of the video.
100%
@@metaouroboros6324facts
This only works if all you have to choose is a side in culture wars. At best they are a waste of time, at worst they hurt the cause you are fighting for.
When I discovered Wisecrack I felt that Jared invites me to share ideas, At this moment when i watch the more recent videos of Wisecrack i feel like there are more absolutes, like there were only one answer and one view, i don’t felt comfortable with them.
The Lego movie did the meta thing in a more effective way by having the story of the kid in real life in the background, and having that effect the fantasy story.
The thing that's being forgotten too much is that not only is Barbieland a fantasy separate from the real world, but the "real world" is also a cartoonish mime of reality. The same logic that would apply to the real world, like in some movies that are supposed to be exactly realistic, doesn't apply here. The first 5 minutes of Barbie and Ken in the real world and the interactions with them getting arrested multiple times gives this away pretty obviously.
I see it as satire of superficial-ness.
Jared your take definitely made me reconsider some things, so thank you. I think why I loved Barbie was all the silly absurd humor making fun of everything in both absurd worlds and not taking any of it too seriously. The archetypes and jokes and exposition and so on was absurd. And yet Barbie loved the experience of life in the "real" world, as absurd as it was, and literally said yes to life. But I've been reading Camus lately so I was primed to interpret it that way lol.
Though the movie has shortcomings, I think the movie has been an important cultural moment for women to grapple with the complex role Barbie has had in their lives either embracing the doll or rejecting it and why. I think this film also has been great for getting women to explore how their expected roles in society are unfair and contradictory. I also think this movie calls on men to assess themselves and try to be better and not frame their identity on hypermasculinity or their relationship status with women. The movie is not perfect, and it is an IP corporate cash grab, but the ideas and conversations it is sparking should not be ignored. Two things can be true at the same time
agree with everything you said. Sums up what I felt watching it
It just feels lazy, because these ideas were already explored in the song barbie girl by aqua in 1997 (26 years ago). I understand that the movie is supposed to be light, you can't expect too deep a dive into this concept. But they could try to be original, which would give it depth while still being simple.
It was written by a rich white girl millennial that wants to push a false narrative and the left in general is all about blaming your problems in life on another group. Smarter feminist movies have been getting made for over 50 years and they could empower women without bashing men. Hollywood and the left in general used to understand that.
I'm not a PHD or anything, but it seems (to me) as if relationship status is so existential for men that it can't be ignored so much as potentially suppressed only to unhealthily leak out or explode in perverse ways. There are very few male animals on this planet that aren't instinctually driven to reproduce. As much as we'd like to think we're enlightened, we were designed by millions of years of evolution just like every other life-form on the planet. Survival necessitates reproduction.
While it's true that we're the most socially complex animal, that we know of, men need romantic partners at a fundamental level. That fact exists alongside the fact that not all men will achieve that goal. Many won't. If we use poverty as an analogy, several understood responses of an organism to resource deprivation are lying, cheating, stealing, and manipulation. They will do whatever works if they can find something that does. This isn't even critically attacked in the domain of poverty == crime. "They don't have money, so you have to expect poor behavior." We (some of us anyway) excuse their lack of self control as self-explanatory. Yet, when we discuss the poor behavior of solitary males, they're given a slur (incels) and sent on their way.
Many men exist in a "ghetto/trailer park" of weak chins, short heights, poor socialization, and low paychecks. These men will misbehave or descend into pornography and video games in an effort to trick their brain into thinking its receiving the status cues it needs to stave off depression and suicide. "Be better," doesn't solve status poverty any more than it solves resource poverty and can't be considered as a solution in and of itself.
Near as I can tell, the only historically successful method of protecting society at large from restless, sexless males is war. Send them off to colonize or raid and the ones that happen to make it back weren't as useless as they initially seemed and will (perhaps) now be able to afford to support a mate. I'm not suggesting we continue this practice, but at least it was a lottery of sorts - with some chance of success, even if it was small. "Be better," suggests a solitary war against oneself that seeks to bury or kill a pillar of his genetics... kind of like conversion therapy for incels to make them, I don't know, monks or something.
Absolutely man! Spot on! Who asked us anyways?! Right?? What fatigued me is that as a man I’m constantly being barraged with pseudo-intellectual “takes” on every damn thing that has absolutely nothing to do with me (or men).
I took the movie as story create by a little girl while playing with her toys. All the stereotypes and inconsistencies in the movie are caused by the girl’s imagination and her knowledge or lack of it.
Interesting read
I had the same takeaway up until the America delivers the monologue about what it means to be a woman, what little girl would have that experience?
@@ridhvikg I guess people need to see it as a child's play in order to stomach the movie. Happened to me, too.
Barbie really is a mixed bag.
1.) The dance numbers were goofy fun.
2.) But the real world was about as cartoonish as BarbieLand; As Jared points out, people aren't acting realistically to point out things like the patriarchy they benefit from, when most people lack the self-awareness or inclination to discuss such things with random people, let alone random people who look as odd as Ken does.
3.) The performances overall are great; I can't imagine anyone else besides Liu, Gosling, or Robbie in those roles.
4.) Perhaps most egregious to me, they establish that the status quo in BarbieLand isn't right, but instead of establishing an egalitarian place, the old status quo is basically restored at the end, with Kens returning to 2nd class citizenship. It's even used as a punchline: "Maybe they'll someday become as powerful as women in the real world, amirite?"
What gets me is that they lack the imagination to come up with anything other than one group must oppress the other. All they can do is swap the roles and try to justify it that women are just better and more enlightened as oppressors. Which has been the thinking of so many dictators throughout time.
That seems to be really really common. But the patriarchy of course is not 'men', but SOME men. So Hollywood feeds on conflict and ensuring that 'the people' are never actually united, for obvious reasons.
I see and understand your reading of the movie. I have no malice in my words.
Our world and BarbieLand are shown to be mirrors. I think the Kens still being 2nd class citizens is supposed to be a mirror to women having rights, but still be treated like 2nd class systems by the structures of power. For example, women weren’t always required to be included in clinical research until pretty recently and as a result, women’s health issues are seriously lacking. A lot of doctors still treat medicine as a boys’ club and are likely to be dismissive, ignorant, or unbelieving that a woman in pain has serious health issue.
Things are better now, but it doesn’t mean the work is done. This applies to both our world and BarbieLand. I don’t think the movie was trying to show us what the better world is, just that we’re not there yet.
@@maximillianhallett3055 Thank you for pointing out what I took as an obvious takeaway...but I am a black woman
I thought Barbie was funny. Alot funnier than i expected if im being honest, which distracted me from the tell not show philosophy it followed, I suspect. I also rather enjoyed that it didn't simply paint men as the enemy, but showed how engaging in a hierarchical system in which one group is inferior to another ultimately hurts everyone no matter who is at the helm
Yes, there is this video Alteori made about this movie explaining how toxic it’s ideas are and she said that it glorifies everything that’s considered “feminine” but it antagonizes everything that is considered “masculine”
I'm a sample dude. I went to the cinema to see her toes
Get help
Sample dude indeed
Ahh, a true man of culture
Hey. Everybody’s got their kink. You do you and Rock on.
People mostly watching this because hot people in cute outfits.
And still a lot of guys over analyzing it. "Didn't" see it coming.
I liked it a lot, but appreciated hearing your take!
@3:31 "...or movies like Airplane, all that stuff jives with me..." nice pun
Movies like this make you realize just how large the industry around controversy is. Hundreds of articles, thousands of videos, millions of social media reactions all in service of throwing mud one way or the other over a movie. Animosity as advertising, gotta love it
Could not agree more.
Thank you for articulating this--I am so fatigued by condescending writers and directors drowning audiences in exposition and bad storytelling. It's like so many of them have assumed that they are in possession of 'T' truth, and it is their job to 'educate us' unwashed masses. I am all for a diversity of opinion or even polemical messaging in film, but show, don't tell--and unless its a children's movie, please stop treating me like I don't have any idea about the world, and that you do.
I’ve been wondering, at an ever increasing frequency, what percentage of people just love to troll. They find low hanging fruit like movies like this and then they just feed into the opposite sides hate towards it by trolling them. I used to see it back in 2016 and found it hilarious. Now I’ve realized how bad that makes things for us without being able to properly communicate to another and their viewpoint.
I think a lot about this as well. I really enjoy good trolling & shitposting, but it seems like so many people take that kind of thing seriously. It feels similar to how I enjoy a good satire, but then a significant amount of people take it completely seriously. Perhaps we should focus a little more on showing people how to identify & appreciate things like irony, satire & trolling?
@@internetuser8922 Good satire really shows us something pervasive in our society or culture at large, but that's sort of the issue I think. When we troll someone online or laugh at someone being trolled, we are actively dismissing them and in order for the joke to persist, there must be no genuine effort to engage with the person seriously or have a conversation with them. If that happens, then we are effectively looking at them as an individual that we can have a real back and forth with, and once we do that, then the joke is ruined. I'm no saint in all of this, but it's something I've been coming more and more to terms with myself. It's not that I don't appreciate irony or satire anymore, but in a world that has become so laden with it, I feel like the thing I want more in my life is people intent on taking themselves and the people around them seriously. The more I bought into the joke before, the more I got lost in it because when the laughter died down, I realized how empty I felt inside. I am much happier as a person after I learned how to deal with my own personal shit, and started forming genuine connections with people and then I realized just how much more nuanced everything was. I will say for me that unplugging from social media helped with this process. It's harder to view someone as a caricature when you're both staring each other in the face.
I have long been convinced that the entire right-wing media eco system is one massive troll farm. It was born from 4channers taking down Steve Bannon's WoW gold farming operation... he saw the power of trolling. Now every pundit and talking-head on the right is so deep in their trolling/lies that they have to keep doubling down in order to pay the bills.
It's the viewers that aren't in on the joke, not the pundits.
@@vincentbatten4686I think you just summed up everything wrong with social media. And what the solution to it is.
Loved your comments. Thank you for sharing that. And I'm glad that you're in a better place, now, with this.
Its very easy to forget, even with all this "communication" over the internet, that its actual living, breathing, imperfect people that we are really talking with. Thanks, sincerely, for the reminder! 👍
What makes one write so sharply and precisely?
Such a great piece!
I just realized I was starting to fall into the pathology trap of suspecting someone of misogyny for their statement that the movie was misandrist. I keep looking for enemies. I suppose that must indicate that I feel threatened. Thank you for thinking deep enough to help me learn something important about myself through the Barbie movie, of all things. I appreciate your work and voice, Jared.
"Destroy the patriarchy by embracing the patriarchy"
- Appabend
The film was a Shakespearean tragedy, with Ken our tragic hero. A would be Nietzschean ubermensch who ultimately failed due to his fatal flaw: seeking the approval of women.
KEN IS SPARTACUS !!!
If you are so worried about turning people into caricatures, maybe start with you not turning people into caricatures
Pitch Meeting (Ryan George) had the best take on Barbenheimer.
What a fantastic breakdown, very well explained. I wish I could cut paste you when I talk to others.
I found that I enjoyed moments of the film, but when I left I thought it was just another film like “Don’t Look Up”. A not so subtle satire.
Much like the irony of a person stuck in traffic complaining about traffic not realizing that they themselves are the traffic, we don’t realize that by commenting on the culture war, even as “neutral,” or “unbiased” observers, we are still part of the culture war.
Well, we DO live in a society. You're kind of not really saying anything pointing that out unless your point is that we should ignore it all and talk about things nobody cares or even knows about.
@@jp.dlaminiI must be misunderstanding you because what you seem to be saying is that the ONLY thing worth talking about is this culture war bs?
But they're not the one's blasting their horns or swearing, thinking its making things better. A traffic jam could be an opportunity to get some rest or an excuse to raise your cortisol.
I thought the real antagonist of the film was a lack of identity and not knowing one's self.
Which I appreciated
I kind of thought feminism and patriarchy were red herrings, and the crux of the movie was about identity.
How we let our identity be made through the other.
The eloquence is outstanding!
I agree with your problem with Ken immediately discovering patriarchy - it doesn’t seem like the audience should understand that a toxic patriarchal worldview is what Ken witnesses (and is enraptured by). This is only my perspective, but I read that initial montage of businessmen shaking hands, friends going to the gym together, playing sports etc as Ken seeing for the first time self-actualised and independent men, rather than the airbrushed window dressing that the Kens act as in Barbieland. Ken sees for the first time that men can live their own lives and find fulfilment through hobbies, sports and careers independently in a way they never could in Barbieland. The montage is played for laughs because traditionally this kind of realisation would happen to a female character in a moment of feminist awakening. It’s not until Ken reads those books that he decides that this kind of masculine independence and autonomy is only possible through the adoption of hyper masculine gender norms, and the subjugation of the Barbies into the superficial accessories that the Kens had previously acted as. By the end of the film, he’s reverted to something resembling the more acceptable vision of positive masculinity he saw un that first montage in the real world, one that allows Kens to be themselves, develop interests and careers of their own, without needing to adhere to strict gender roles or by prioritising their goals at the expense of the Barbies’.
100%. This is even primed by the marketing: "She's everything. He's just Ken"
From the very beginning Ken's journey to self-actualisation and independent existence is a critical component
@@TAP7a So he goes from simp to an incel?
Jared, in the middle of this demented culture war, your mostly neutral takes are always refreshing. I wasn't planning to, but I think I might give the movie a chance once it is released on VOD. I am, however, a little tired of movies and shows attacking men just for being men. I'll probably see it, but I don't know if I'll finish it. Thanks for the video.
What sort of movies that are attacking men, for example ? Genuine question, because I generally think I’m unaware of them
So true. I was subscribed to Wise Crack for ages, but the current guy is incapable of being neutral.
Jared's takes are always thought-out, interesting, and surprisingly free of ego.
@@maxfli95 Black Christmas 2019
@@LillyianPuppy I also unsubscribed from Wisecrack, and for exactly the same reason. The spirit of the channel left with Jared.
@@maxfli95 Maybe attacking is too strong a word. I should have said hostile. She-Hulk comes to mind immediately; Masters of the Universe: Revelations, Velma and Eternals are other good examples. On many modern media, men (specially white men) are portrayed as misogynistic, evil, stupid or any combination of those. You can see it in the way Thor transformed from movie to movie from a complex character to comic relief. I'm no blind. Many men are bad, but not all of us.
I think in part you felt about Barbie the way I felt about The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. It was the most meta thing I’ve ever seen, and it was incredibly self aware. But I’m not sure that kept me hooked on the plot as the film became more and more a Michael Bay action flick.
This sounds like Schumaker's Batman and Robin.
It would be interesting to see how this movie ages. Since this movie was massively lucrative, It started a trend of not just more Barbie movies but "video Essay movies".
There have been video ‘essay movies’ before. this wasn’t new I don’t think, the bad sorkin ones are just “here my take on this spread out between characters”.
@@Captainpuntymidgets damn, I hope someone makes a "video essay movies" list on Letterboxd
Jared! not only are you obviously the reason Wisecrack had its empathetic side for the more majority-centric topics, but the H-Town jersey makes me get it. love you (parasocially from a safe distance) man
you actually presented some critiques here none of the more emotional folks had brought up, and as a big Barbie fan I appreciate that.
Jared. BARBIE LIVES IN PLAYTIME. Her actions
Oh my god a level of sanity
Identity is dependent on an opposite, especially at its infancy: knowing what is requires first knowing what isn't.
I think you articulate it better than I have so far, Jared!
Being blissfully ignorant of the American culture war I really only came away from this movie thinking that Ken rocks hard and that I too want my own Mojo Dojo Casa House
This is peak media analysis. Thank you
So,barbie is just another matrix sequel...
11:05, 12:08 - 12:32 That's a beautifully composed conclusion.
Thank you for articulating what a lot of people who share your opinion think. Love you, Jared
A lot of this film felt like several short films stringed together without cohesion. Really good short films, but with no narrative to connect them.
the funniest takes are the people who, either ironically or genuinely, are saying Barbie is pro-patriarchy and mocking feminism because of how easily the Kenvolution takes over Barbieland and how Gosling-Ken is the only character with an arc. If you just sit back and watch the discourse with a bucket of popcorn then it's quite funny to watch people react to this film.
Great stuff
2 comments:
1) my issue with the film is the zero queer characters / representation. I find it really tedious when people see women as the only victims of patriarchy… I probably would have been on board with the silly plot and the video essay vibe otherwise.
2) what you said at the end took me immediately to the Israel Palestine conflict… so spot on. We are playing with dolls, calling each other nazis so we can feel that we are the good guys.. from both sides.. scared to face our own complexities and the horrors we inflict.. may the war end soon 😢
I as a right winger enjoyed the zero queer characters. It was actually refreshing, since so many leftist stuff is about queers these days. It's true that women are not the only victims of patriarchy, but they are at least the main victims, the most obvious victims. So, it is better to explain patriarchy through the relatively uncomplicated lens of just women, since so many right wingers don't even believe in patriarchy. You must not make it too difficult.
But I get it that other people may come from a different point of view. Just wanted to share my perspective.
I have a lot of similar takes to Jared except I actually liked it. I saw it with my younger sister and it was the first movie (at least I think) to introduce these feminist concepts to her and seeing her smiling ear to ear talking about the movie was enough for me.
However you feel about Barbie, the scene with all the Kens singing Matchbox 20 was one of the funniest movie jokes in years
This is the most honest and level-headed take on the movie.
The rift is not the conflict of the movie
Bro speaks in essay
We saw both Barbie and Sound of Freedom and liked them both for different reasons, shocking isnt it
Very fair evaluation of the movie. Good take Jared!
Politics of Barbie 🎥
1:33 Measured Critique
1:50 - The Writer uses characters as a caricature to write a video essay.
3:35 Deadpool’s 4th Wall Breaking.
3:59 - The Barbie movie does not take the plot seriously
4:49 Kens get Manipulated
5:09 - No Stakes
5:38 - Pre-ocupation with Patriarchy is done lazily
6:07 - The Barbie Movie tells way more than it shows
- smug and lazy scriptwriting
6:58 _Promising Young Woman (2020)_ does patriarchy critique in a better way.
7:55
- Barbie is mean spirited towards men
- EVERY Character is a stereotype.
8:53 Not everything has to cater to my proclivities.
9:24 “sometimes Art accidentally tells The Truth.”
10:17 Projecting onto Dolls, seeing what you want to see.
11:22 Paranoia of The Culture War , aka “Assuming the worst.” (Not good to assume the worst of others)
12:25 Playing with dolls is for kids.
“Politics is division by definition.
13:02 Comments, Twitch, Discord, RUclips, Peace ✌🏼
Good review. I want to add something else. The movie doesn't just defend capitalism by being, in itself, a two-hour commercial for Mattel, but even in its discourse. The executives are not the villains; they're foolish and cynical, yes, but they respond to the direction of the consumers. If they're told that an ordinary Barbie could make money, they start selling it...they are, in themselves, almost neutral. If at any point they accumulated capital through stereotyped views of women, it's because that's how society was; once it changes, they change. Another element: the only character with subversive feminism, Sasha, has an arc that ends with her reconciliation with the company's pink culture through the connection with her mother. The movie, it seems clear to me, is neither empty nor foolish. And its meta-content has a couple of layers; it even has a reference to Lang's Metropolis (I hope this is confirmed someday). The problem is its politics: too liberal, too white, too pro-business.
we get it jared, you don't like horses.
Wisecrack stopped making sense when Jared left. But thankful he’s back doing his own thing👌
The director did what we all do, played with the dolls, and self inserted, and that made the movie a bit Better in my eyes, which Is funny to me
This is one of the best honest takes I have heard about this movie. However, I am not willing to pay to watch it I will wait until it is available on a streaming service.
9:05 Thank You
I may not be first, but I am Kenough.
FWIW, I also didn’t care for the film
Honestly I think A lot of it box office because of parents actually not knowing that this movie is not a kids movie.
So they bring their kids thinking it’s gonna be a kids movie and then find out it’s a terrible done social commentary.
@@1massboy I don’t know about that. The showings I experienced were pretty much all adults and older teens. Most of the parents I know (including myself) knew it wasn’t really for kids.
Although, I did sit next to a mom and her younger daughters. She was laughing so much but the girls were miserable. They ended up leaving early once the mom actually looked at her daughters, slumped in their seats trying to just sink into the floor and get away.
To me the movie just sounds stupid and pointless. I thought it would be more like the Lego Movie. Think it’s just another case of writers trying to be clever but they themselves aren’t very clever.
I'm a men. I saw Barbie. I liked it.... But I'm INsecure as FUCK!!!
Kidding aside, I found the movie to be a little preachy, but very funny! (A spoonful of comedy helps the preachyness go down.)
Great production design! Awesome soundtrack!! (though I would've prefered Aqua's original song rather than a remix during the credits) and God Tier casting!!!
MJ Tanner has a great video on the history of Mattel and how they’ve lied over and over again (especially for the movie) about their heritage.
And remember kids... You are Kenough! 😅
Couldn't agree more, Jared!
Jared is trying so hard to pretend he’s unbiased and neutral on all these ridiculous culture wars when some of them are just flat out dumb and it’s okay to admit that
Awesome take Jared!!
I watch it as a kind of postmodern fairytale, and through this lense I loved it.
Not surprised most people expecting poignant social critique left movie theater dissapointed. I never expected it and got pretty much what I wanted, fun plastic movie.
Excellent take, as always, Jared!
The list of things people will say about your opinion based on they’re own views on the movie was on point 💯
jared is back. makes me happy :)
Go Jared!
“Playing with dolls is for kids”
I love the comparison of treating the people that disagree with us as dolls! Dolls that we project our worst assumptions onto! Such an amazing point.
Maybe that’s the answer to all of this collective bad behavior. We are all just fucking acting like children. Well I guess it’s time to grow up.
Philosophy Ken. I love that we don’t necessarily agree on this movie.
Great video Jared. Excellent!
I always appreciate your reasonable, measured response to these kinds of controversial issues. I tend to disagree with you on a fundamental level on many issues, but I appreciate your good faith in engaging those ideas head on. We can always use measured, and even-tempered discourse around culture, film, and politics. I love your content, and Wisecrack is a hollow shell without you.
Eh, I actually took the third act and Ken's arc as a jibe at toxic feminism and advocacy for men. Same with seeing "patriarchy" everywhere, even when the reference appears superficial and hollow. At one point Ken attempts to use his status as a man and fails to get a job even at a beach. Turns out that just being a man was not enough to succeed. I feel the movie's lampooning both sides. So to answer Jared's question, in this regard it didn't conform nicely to tribal lines for me I suppose?
Ken looking for a job by appealing to patriarchy was meant to show what a goofball he is. No feminist would ever say that patriarchy is about being able to find positions of power just because you come for that position and you are a man, it's a straw-man. On the other hand, the corporate guy who says they're hiding the patriarchy seems more like a mouthpiece of the writers' stance. Regarding the third act, it's implicit that in barbieland Kens are representative of the majority of men, just like the barbies are for women in the real world; they even allude to that at the end in the scene w president barbie, but the kens are shown as archetypical incels, whereas barbies are meant to be seen as smart and endearing. I know it's not the only interpretation you can pull, and I'm not saying it was intentional, I'm not sure, but i can see why people might see the movie as pandering to a more 'progressive' audience
@@billcipher3168 Are barbies meant to be seen as smart and endearing though? They manipulated kens to "put them back into their place" on a technicality (disenfranchising them during a vote). In the end barbies learned nothing about living with kens and seeing them as people, instead going for a token representation (learning to hide their matriarchy). Which to me ties into the theme of "Barbieland is a reflection of the real world", as in while the real world is not harmonious, neither is Barbieland. It didn't look like a "perfect order to strive towards" to me, more like a broken mirror that should make audiences rightly squirm.
And then there's Ken's song, which in my opinion is very earnest and sincere.
@@FelixDaleth yeah, good point, but i feel like one can almost interpret it in opposite ways here. I agree it's arguably a critique of some sort of feminist views, but I'm not sure it's intentional on the writers' part; the movie didn't strike me as subtle in general. I'm inclined to believe it could be just pandering to a major feminist audience who sees it as justice to deprive the kens of positions of power simply because of historical oppression
@@billcipher3168 Sure, that's why Jared is spot on calling it a Rorschach test of a movie. Still, I think the movie's treating Ken with too much sympathy for it to be unintentional. :)
its a metaphor, not all movies have to have realistic plot or characters
I think it was exactly the type of ending that would be in a Barbie world. However, Barbie agreed that the ending wasn't right.
All the other Barbies were thrilled, but main Barbie was not. She wanted to become part of a more complex life.
As always, I appreciate your critique. I really enjoyed Barbie, but it was also speaking to me, and I don't see you as an alpha bro for disliking it.
You tend to need a layer under the layer, and in this, the messages, the absurd, the feels, the Barbie-ness, and the humor were all splashing together on the surface. This is part of why it was so refreshing for me.
To me, the movie felt like when the Wendy's Twitter account tries too hard to be relatable.
I really loved Barbie's existential character arc and her final line with Ruth was really poignant; that she wants to imagine instead of being an idea. This was severely undercut when she ended up getting a job at Mattel and the status quo of both world remained predominantly the same. If we are tasked to imagine something better I really don't think anyone would imagine working at a corporation, nor would they imagine a world that's under a pernicious hierarchy. I enjoyed the movie but it really felt like it was fighting against itself there.
Are you saying that Barbie got a job at Mattel?
@@meximan282 that's the final beat of the movie where america ferrera's character drops her off at her new job at Mattel lol
Edit: nvm I totally missed the whole doctors office
@@kevinchrisney yep! It was a bit of a fakeout
In the late 2000s when one called a hipster a hipster they would get so mad and say “I’m not a hipster!”. I never understood that back then. Now, with the Barbie movie fans, I think I get it
I love the shirt Jared!
It was interesting to deconstruct the social hierarchies in each phase of the movie. It starts with the Barbies having a completely flat hierarchy among themselves (even the president chills with them and doesn't show any dominant characteristics, though maybe there's an argument that stereotypical Barbie is slightly elevated), with the Kens below them, and one outcast. Fast forward to Mattel, where there is one clear leader, followed (literally) by a bunch of yes-men, followed by a secretary, followed by some office workers, and finally the creator is on the 17th floor (which I guess isn't the bottom but I'm assuming she's below the office workers). The very noticeable thing about this is that there is very little portrayal of female hierarchy, and not one mention of the matriarchy despite being prevalent.
"Don't reduce complex humans down to simple dolls" would have been a much nicer takeaway from the film. I enjoyed Barbie, but only because it gave me so much to think about.
I felt like the Barbie world was more reflective of childhood play and imagination. Maybe it's more about superficiality rather than patriarchy. But thus is the subjectivity of art. No ones wrong when it comes to their personal experiences.
Well said Jared
I often wonder what Carl Jung would have to say about our current culture and the prevalence of fandom as identity. So many people compromise the entirety of their personality based on the toys, comics, books, tv that they love. I can't help but feel the loss of religion in the lives of many people has been replaced wholesale by these consumer products. The sense of community, myth, and storytelling that we sought in spirituality; has been subsumed by cultural juggernauts like "Star Wars" and "Barbie".
This really sums up my thoughts on the film. It had a couple of interesting points, but largely from a narrative stand point it was weak and it's humour largely didn't land. Ironically, it's points on patriachy and misogyny also felt largely shallow and superficial.
If you want to see a really GOOD film that analyses gender and patriachy, watch the French film "I am not an easy man" in which a typically masculine business man from our world ends up in a world exactly the same but with the genders flipped and he has to make sense of his new role in the classically feminine gender type. It has a ton of genuinely insightful and funny moments and the film works great as a comedy in it's own right, but it highlights a ton of issues simply by putting a man in that role and showing how dumb or unfair those cultural expectations are. Hugely recommend it, it's a great film.
Well said. Too easy reducing those we disagree with to cartoon caricatures of everything we project as our opposite, keeping our beautiful souls as simple and unsullied in the process.
First it was Deadpool that did the 4th wall breaks and sarcasm (because it's his MO). Then MCU suits stupidly assumed that's what makes people like Deadpool and started making literally every Marvel movie with a main character that does 4th wall breaks and toxic sarcasm. Then A24 came as an "alternative" to superhero movies and made EEAAO - an "indie" movie about the multiverse where everything is "le random XD" and much meta wow. And now I'm 31 years old and Francis Ford Coppola is giving interviews, telling me to go watch a movie about Barbie and Ken with opinions on social issues...
Blockbusters nowadays make me think of older movies like "Jingle All the Way" and "Look Who's Talking" like they were some genre-redefining 10/10 kino masterpieces...
Look who's talking now.
Imagine the sheer amount of brain rot it would take to watch a movie wherein sorority girls made jokes to show that they were in a matriarchy and then calling the movie "tonally appropriate" LMAO
I agree with your critiques, but i also found the fascism line hilarious.
I found Poor Things to be more empowering and deep than the Barbie movie. The things Madam Swiney tells Bella resonated more with me than Ferrera's monologue in Barbie. I think both movies were about a woman starting as an inanimate object and striving to become a fully actualized person. Both movies showed men as fools in the process, but Barbie movie was being more deliberate while claiming to want equality for the sexes. It bothered me that the grand resolution to the Ken revolt was to reset everything in Barbieland to the beginning, where Kens were once again second class citizens. Nothing was healed or solved.
IF indeed Barbie was created to be "open ended," then that to me is the best message in the film. It's not the "glorious purpose" society has deemed worthy of a gold medal, it's the endless possibility of being whatever 'you' want to be. The idea that (stereotypical) Barbie was nothing without her looks (especially because she was designed like that) can be applied to anything we place cultural value on. In the same way, Ken was explicitly designed in reference to Barbie and literally wouldn't exist without her. Hence why it makes sense he would bring back that sense of (albeit twisted) liberation when he finally experiences genuine acknowledgement.
As always, you’re writing is excellent. Great episode!
I definitely think that it's cartoonish, but, and I don't mean this in the "It's just a movie bro don't look into it"--it does need to be reductionist to some degree, but it would need to do that to hit where it needs to for kids to understand it. My expectations of an accurate dissection of patriarchy, corpocracy, etc. were pretty limited.
I think it was a light, fun comedy. I saw it with my mom. It wasn't that deep but I think we both liked it. I thought it was funny.
Loved this video! I also have a nuanced take on the movie so it's refreshing the hear someone else feel the same.