She is everything. He is become death, destroyer of worlds
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On Saturday, I did Barbeheimer.
For those who don’t know, Christopher Nolan was unhappy with Warner Brothers, who had distributed his films since Batman Begins, over the release strategy for Tenet. So, he set up Oppenheimer at Universal. Warners responded by announcing that Barbie would be released on the same day and the internet did what it does and decided to make seeing both a double bill a meme.
I was planning on seeing both, so I did the double bill for the meme.
First up was Oppenheimer. Based on the book American Prometheus (which Robert Pattison bought Nolan as a present when they were making Tenet), this is, strangely enough, a biopic of J Robert Oppenheimer, seen as the father of the nuclear bomb. The film tells two stories, one about Project Manhattan, told as flashbacks as Oppenheimer and others testify at a hearing into whether he gets to keep his security clearance and the Senate hearing into approving the appointment of Lewis Strauss to a cabinet position. Nolan made the smart decision to use colour for the Oppenheimer section and black and white for the Strauss segment, making it easy to tall them apart.
This has a ridiculously stacked cast. But, I’ll just concentrate on the main cast. Cillian Murphy plays Oppenheimer and he is fantastic in the role, particularly when the weight of what he created becomes apparent to him and in the scenes during the hearing. Strauss is played by Robert Downey Jr and he is absolutely amazing in the role. He’s being widely tipped for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, if not the win, and it would be thoroughly deserved. He is absolutely magnetic in the film. One person who isn’t being talked about much is Matt Damon. He plays Leslie Groves, the military advisor to the project and it’s fascinating to watch as he alternatively butts heads with and defends Oppenheimer and the scientists.
An oft held complaint about Nolan that he’s not good at writing female characters and it’s obvious here. Florence Pugh and Emily Blunt do their best. Pugh plays Jean Tatlock, who Oppenheimer has a relationship with. She is quite important to the hearings storyline, but the relationship between the two isn’t that well relayed to the audience. She also has a couple of nude scenes, one of which wasn’t necessary and the other one is. Pugh is good, as ever, but I did slightly wonder why Nolan even bothered casting her. Blunt is excellent. Again, we get a surface read on what looked like a complex woman, but Blunt really makes the best of what she is given.
Ultimately, it’s a very good film. I do, however, feel that the last act lets it down. After the test explosion, the film suddenly decides it’s actually a political thriller and it didn’t quite do enough to set that up for me.
After a quick break to get food and stretch my legs, it was time for Barbie.
The plot of Barbie is quite simple. There is a problem with the barrier between Barbieland and the real world and stereotypical Barbie has to come to the real world to fix it.
Onto that simple frame, director and co-writer Greta Gerwig and co-writer Noah Baumbach hand what is, quite simply, the most political film I have seen in a long time. The film discusses the patriarchy, matriarchies, equality and the nature of Barbie itself. The script is smart and sharp as a tack. It’s satirical and has great jokes. It brings up stuff that Mattel probably wanted to keep burried.
The design for Barbieland is absolutely gorgeous. The set designers clearly had a blast making it and it uses so much pink paint, it legitimately caused a worldwide shortage of one shade. The real world doesn’t look as vibrant, which was an excellent choice.
The casting is good. Issa Rae is good as President Barbie and Kate McKinnon is hilarious as Weird Barbie (a Barbie that’s been played with too much). America Ferrera plays Gloria, someone from the real world and is brilliantly subtle. She also gives a stunning, jaw dropping speech to kick off the third act of the film.
Simu Liu plays Ken, a rival to Ken and is hilariously good at it. Michael Cera plays Allen and is wonderfully kind of pathetic in the role. Will Ferrell plays the CEO of Mattel and he is good, but that whole subplot is kind of redundant.
Margot Robbie plays Barbie and she is good at the role. She’s probably the only character who could play the role looks wise and she imbibes Barbie with humanity. However, it’s Ryan Gosling as Ken who is the heart of and completely steals the movie. He is stunning as a character who doesn’t really know who he is.
Out of the two of them, I have to admit my favourite was Barbie. Partly because of the third act issues in Oppenheimer but mostly because it took me completely by surprise.
Will