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Ok everybody, how about we take a big, deep ding dang breath for a minute? Yes, I'm going to talk about the controversies, but let's just have a moment of calm the f down.
First the plot (and no, not getting nominated for an Oscar is not the plot of the Barbie movie) - Barbie is living her best life in Barbieland where the Barbies run the show and everyone is happy. The Kens exist to be adorned in the female gaze, and poor Ryan Gosling Ken just wants to be in Barbie's orbit, while Barbie just wants to live her life in a wonderful matriarchy full of joy. When Barbie begins having more sophisticated thoughts (like thinking about death), she finds Weird Barbie (brilliantly played by movie-stealing Kate McKinnon) who offers her the choice about learning about the real world (where not everyone agrees that Barbie is a feminist icon who fixed the world for women) or staying in ignorant bliss. These choices are manifested through the high heeled stiletto versus the practical Birkenstock. (I would have chosen the stiletto, for the record, because it is gorgeous and the Birkenstock is ugly - but comfortable - garbage. Fight me.) Ken joins her in the real world to discover that men dominate - even at the Mattel factory, a room full of men "making the world better for women" without a single one of them in the room mocks times when women's health panels in the US government don't contain one woman on them. Ken LOVES the real world and comes home to evangelize male power, which includes a lot more scenes with horses.
There's more to the story, but Barbie brilliantly satirizes the challenges of feminism, being a woman in a patriarchal society, and makes a lot of very solid points for people to consider. (and if you're one of the people who lost their minds because a movie talked about feminism, YOU might be the problem.) I don't think it is lost on anyone that Barbie - while claiming to "fix" women's places in the world - is also tall, blonde, enormous boobs, flat stomached, can walk effortlessly in heels, and is Margot Robbie gorgeous (as are most of the Barbies - though not all white and blonde, let's agree most of them are thin and gorgeous). Perfect feminist icon? Probably not, but she did have a lot of fantastic jobs, and THAT did do something important in the lives of little girls envisioning their futures.)
Barbie is fun, makes an important statement (the most important about the challenge of being a woman by America Ferrera), and does it with fun and lighthearted performances. I know plenty of people who couldn't even get through the whole film (feminists!), and so many more who donned the pink and evangelized its quality. Barbie made over a billion dollars (most Best Pic nominees never even come close to that), making it a popular and critical success.
As to the controversies - so let's start with the fact that the Academy's 6000+ voters don't gather in a room and make decisions together. So "The Academy" didn't do anything. Individual voters in the Academy decided what each one liked best and voted accordingly.
So let's address the snubs. Margot Robbie not being nominated is ONLY insulting because Ryan Gosling was. But a true feminist examines the list of nominees in HER category, not his. Did he give one of the top 5 performances of the year? Probably (hello singing and dancing) - but his category is hardly an intense one this year. I might have replaced him with "All of Us Strangers" actor Paul Mescal or "May December" actor Charles Melton, but I don't look at his inclusion and think - nope, way out of bounds, and I would bet most of the angry folks don't either. But, among the list of lead actresses? It's not even close. Among the nominees, I would replace Carrie Mulligan (Oscars love an accent), but I would do it with Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor in Origin or Greta Lee in Past Lives, not with Margot Robbie as Barbie. So, if you're mad that she wasn't nominated, tell me with a straight face BOTH who you would knock out instead, AND that you thought her performance was better than Lee's or Ellis-Taylor's. (and if you haven't seen either movie, go see them now.) If the argument is that Margot Robbie is semi-responsible for the film and should be recognized for that... guess what? SHE IS BEING RECOGNIZED FOR THAT WITH A BEST PICTURE NOMINATION FOR HER PRODUCING, which is the recognition you get for making a movie, not a lead actress nomination.
Now Greta Gerwig is a bit of a different story.
Before I say why, PLEASE stop saying how unacceptable it is that a film can be nominated for Best Picture without the Director also being nominated because that person is responsible for the excellence of the film. Here's where paying a little closer attention in math class in 1st grade would have been useful. There are 10 Best Picture nominees. There are 5 Best Director nominees. Can we do the math and see that there are actually five films where the Director responsible is not being nominated for the work? Great, so stop it with that argument, it makes you sound stupid. (with love, and thank you for following the blog.)
So why do I think Greta needed to be nominated? Back to math. The top nomination getting films this year are: Oppenheimer 13, Poor Things 11, Killers of the Flower Moon 10, Barbie 8, Maestro 7
This is where we go back to that argument - who is responsible for these top vote getting masterpieces? Primarily, the Director. So yes, Greta deserves to be on that list. Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest (one of my favorite films of the year) are both excellent - but they don't have the same cultural impact that Barbie did, and while they were both excellent, if we're angry for Greta, we must also be angry Bradley Cooper. While it is impossible to know these numbers in time to have it influence voting, the various Academy branches themselves have weighed in and said clearly that Barbie is a distinctive achievement. None of that is possible without Gerwig. So I endorse the outrage on her behalf, but not for the reasons most are upset. I suppose we can diagnose whether the snub is because of sexism or if it's just that older, white male voters didn't "get" or like the film, but in this case, the snub is a travesty.
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