I have a complicated relationship with Barbie — both the movie itself and what it means for Greta Gerwig’s career. The Will Ferrell-heavy middle section really doesn’t work for me, but the opening and final acts — essentially everything in Barbieland — are downright transcendent. It’s some of the best tentpole worldbuilding and filmmaking in recent memory, right there with Denis Villeneuve’s work in the Dune films. Plus, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, two of our best movie stars, are fully committed to the bit. But the movie’s mega-success signaled a shift in Gerwig’s career. Rather than returning to the mid-budget world that gave us two of the best films of the 2010s (2017’s Lady Bird and 2019’s Little Women), Gerwig will likely spend her foreseeable future making Narnia movies for Netflix. At least one of her peers, Ryan Coogler, made a bold return from franchise purgatory last year with Sinners, but it can be a tough system to escape from once a director is entrenched in it. Selfishly, I’d like Gerwig — one of vanishingly few young name-brand directors out there — to use her growing clout more like Jordan Peele, who is scaling up while staying original. But it’s hard to complain when the work is as lovingly crafted and thought-provoking as Barbie.
Midnight at the Belcourt
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