There are a thousand densely layered visible and verbal jokes in Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s script for Barbie, however one specifically stands out, as a result of it’s a lightweight gag with such large story implications that it appears like an ethos. When Aaron (Connor Swindells), a low-level Mattel worker, finds out “Stereotypical Barbie” (Margot Robbie) has escaped from the fantasy world of Barbieland and entered Actuality, he instantly alerts Mattel’s CEO (Will Ferrell) and the company’s board of administrators. However then Aaron takes a second to ponder the ontology of the world he lives in.
“So… is Barbieland an alternate actuality?” He begins to ask. “Or is it like a spot the place your creativeness—” In absolute unison, your entire board cuts him off with a powerful “YES!”
The message is evident: Do not take into consideration the underpinnings of this world. Simply cease asking questions proper now. Additional, due to the best way Aaron will get reduce off with a sure earlier than he’s even finished itemizing the probabilities for what Barbieland is perhaps or may imply, there’s an additional layer to all of it: a suggestion that positive, all theories about Barbieland are equally legitimate, and equally meaningless. And since your entire Mattel board delivers that verdict in emphatic refrain, there’s an additional trace of impatience and authority to all of it, an air that claims We’ve addressed this query a thousand occasions already, we’re bored with it, and we’ve come to a consensus. We simply need you to toe the celebration line on this and transfer on.
It’s a humorous second each as a result of it’s so abrupt, and since there’s a lot nuance to the best way Gerwig shoots and presents it. Nevertheless it’s additionally fulfilling in a approach that’s fairly uncommon for motion pictures, as a result of it’s a pleasant, jokey invitation to simply settle for the metaphor, and never fear in regards to the particulars of Barbie’s cosmic development in any respect.
Loads of us like to consider the small print in motion pictures. A few of us can’t assist it. For individuals who’ve made a life out of analyzing and discussing movie, being instructed “Simply flip your mind off and revel in it!” or “Don’t you know the way to have enjoyable?” is annoying and pointless. Occupied with motion pictures is enjoyable! If it wasn’t, why would there be so many on-line fora devoted to discussing and decoding popular culture? Why would wingnut concepts just like the Pixar Universe Principle get a lot viral traction, as followers mess around with ridiculous concepts about their favourite motion pictures or reveals and share them round for an viewers of like-minded armchair analysts?
That mentioned, typically we will all get too obsessive in regards to the particulars, in methods that may distract from a narrative. Simply take a look at the rise of the Reddit Detectives, the type of people that band collectively on Reddit to share microanalysis and mysteries in popular culture, and decide them aside. The Reddit Detective is an idea, not a selected circle of individuals — a approach of summing up the kind of on-line sleuths who obsessively pored over the proof within the Serial podcast, minutely decoded the net bread crumbs laid down for followers of Westworld as a part of that present’s viral advertising and marketing, or examined each potential trace about who Jon Snow’s mom is perhaps on Recreation of Thrones.
This type of on-line sleuth — a detail-focused, collaborative fan, at all times racing to be the primary to note and submit about some Easter egg or secret connection — has finished a number of useful work on behalf of the remainder of us, like mapping each story path and potential ending in Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, or in a much less pop-culture-focused sphere, monitoring down proof of malicious moderation fraud on Reddit. However the darkish aspect of that analytical urge is the drive to select every part aside and root each secret out of each story — like, say, determining each huge twist in Westworld nicely earlier than it occurred. This type of evaluation additionally takes each plot level to its logical excessive.
Barbie invitations and defangs that impulse by saying that sure, all potential theories in regards to the nature and implications of Barbieland are true, and also you’re allowed to spin out any choices you need. Does the existence of Barbieland counsel that each different standard toy or character that figures closely in youngsters’ imaginations has its personal precise, tangible alternate-reality universe? Positive, why not? Is there a Sonicland, a literal Mario World, a Legoland the place the motion of The Lego Film really came about? Yup, that’s high-quality with us. However wait! Gasp! If Barbies can simply stroll out of Barbieland into Actuality, may Pikachu and Mewtwo try this as nicely, resulting in an precise Detective Pikachu scenario? We’ll permit it. May all these IPs collide in a single large real-world crossover? When you can think about that, go forward! It’s as actual as the rest on this film.
Barbie’s “Positive, any idea goes” angle provides us all permission to dream, whereas absolving itself of any thought we give you. However extra importantly, the Mattel board is telling Aaron (and the remainder of us) that determining these particulars isn’t an essential facet of this film. Does it make sense that, when Ken claims Barbie’s DreamHouse and turns it into Ken’s Mojo Dojo Casa Home, that home abruptly and immediately manifests as a real-world product and begins “flying off the cabinets”? If Barbieland characters are simply reflections of real-world toys at present being performed with, why are there so many discontinued dolls and fashions nonetheless represented in Barbieland? Why is there just one Allan?
Did any of those questions matter within the writing of Barbie? As Roger Rabbit would put it, “Solely when it was humorous.” There isn’t some Transient Historical past of Time-degree guide to the mathematical guidelines of Barbieland on the market someplace, masking all potentialities — you’re allowed to make up your personal guidelines.
Gerwig and Baumbach deal with Barbie’s weirder fantasy components with precisely as a lot lightness and momentum because the film wants. They don’t waste time on boring disbelief and debate. Will Ferrell because the Mattel CEO factors out that Barbie characters have leaked into Actuality earlier than — so there’s no want to spend so much of power on a bunch of characters questioning how Barbieland might be actual, choosing by means of the metaphysical implications, or slowing the film down by complaining about its basic premise. They’ll simply transfer previous that, and get on with the humor and the trenchant evaluation of gender relationships.
And when disaffected teenager Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt) and her associates are confronted with a dwelling Barbie, they don’t spend a dreary chunk of the film asking how she may presumably be actual, or what it implies that she exists — they only lay into her for all of the negativity she represents. It’s simple sufficient to argue that in that second, they don’t imagine she’s the precise avatar of Barbie the doll, that they only suppose she’s a perky bimbo styling herself after the toy. However the film doesn’t trouble splitting these hairs. You may learn the scene both approach, and it really works high-quality. Are they speaking to the doll, or a human lady who admires the doll? Sure, says the Mattel board, in unison.
This type of breezy hand-waving doesn’t work for each film — in critical horror, science fiction, and fantasy, it’s rather more essential to have some sense of what the foundations are, as a result of there are not any clear story stakes in any other case. However for a comedy that’s targeted fully on different particulars — precisely what the accoutrements of a Ken-dom macho man are, or why Barbie floats in all places in Barbieland — pinning down the scientific particulars of the world simply doesn’t matter.
Barbie takes precisely the proper path by means of its fantasy components by breezing previous the points of study that might make the film extra actual than it must be, whereas giving viewers enthusiastic consent to fill in the remaining any approach they need. Is that this a film for the Neil deGrasse Tyson-style nitpickers of the world? No. Is it a film that asks the viewers to think about who they need to be and what sort of world they need to stay in, whereas finishing the metaphor by leaving every part else within the film as much as their imaginations? A hearty, resounding, choral Sure.