On the seventh episode of All the Film Things, I am joined by my friend, Dina Vo, to discuss the film that took this summer (well... year) by storm: Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. This episode is spoiler- filled.
Barbie is a comedy/ fantasy film focused on the famous variety of the Barbie (and Ken) dolls. The film was written by two of the best working American filmmakers today: Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach. While the film features a wide range of different Barbies, Kens, and Allan, the story revolves around stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) as she suddenly starts to change and feel an emotion other than routined happiness. The audience, along with stereotypical Ken (Ryan Gosling) join Barbie on her journey to finding who she really is. Barbie, and by extension “Barbenheimer” became a phenomenon. The cast and director went on an extensive press tour with a level of promotion that hasn’t happened with a film in a long time. Greta Gerwig became the first sole female director of a film that made over $1 billion at the box office. This is her third directed feature film. The film also stars America Ferrara, Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon, Simu Liu, Will Ferrell, and Michael Cera.
This is the first and only ATFT episode Dina has appeared on. We recorded this on August 15, 2023. Dina is not much of a movie- goer. It is rare for her to go to the movies or even watch movies so when she went to see Barbie, I knew we could make an episode around it… especially since I had two more friends waiting for me to see Barbie in order to do certain episodes. Dina enjoyed the film as she dressed up in pink when going to see Barbie in theaters. She even got to take a picture in the now- famous Barbie box!
Since this episode was recorded while sitting in a car, the audio quality isn’t as great at times. This episode was originally 90 minutes but it had to be cut down mostly due to poor audio. I was able to improve the audio but unfortunately the audio peaks at times and also becomes more muffled. Despite the poor audio quality, I wanted to post this episode because it is certain to be an Oscar contender in March. There will be a few more episodes focused on guaranteed Oscar nominated films leading up to the 2024 Academy Awards.
In this episode, Dina and I cover a range of topics about the film. I had prepared notes but I was surprised to learn Dina prepared notes as well! We mostly went through her notes so this episode moves fast with frequent changing topics, Dina and I discussed the “anti- man” criticism surrounding Barbie, the two opposing viewpoints on the Barbie doll, resonant lines and moments, and all things Barbie- land! Later in the episode, Dina takes the same Buzzfeed character quiz that the Barbie cast took (which left Margot Robbie shocked)!
Background music created and used with permission by the Copyright Free Music - Background Music for Videos channel on YouTube.