(includes spoilers)

The movie of the summer, “Barbie,” directed by Greta Gerwig, swept theaters by storm and features 95 minutes of pink scenery and dance sequences — with a side of consumer-friendly feminism. More than just a fun and lighthearted movie, many moviegoers have praised “Barbie” for its feminist message and celebration of girlhood. The criticism “Barbie” has faced as “anti-man,” shows the existing tensions within today’s political and cultural environment. “Barbie” is rightly celebrated as a heartwarming and witty movie, and further, the idea of women’s empowerment that “Barbie” preaches is valuable and starts an important conversation. 

While “Barbie” makes a good-faith effort to right the wrongs of Mattel’s rocky past and paint Barbie as a feminist icon — rather than a symbol of unrealistic beauty standards — it would be amiss to ignore the selective subversion that the film employs. While it criticizes some elements of patriarchy, it ignores some of the broader socioeconomic issues that impact women. Despite the upbeat soundtrack and message of female empowerment, I couldn’t help the sinking feeling that I was watching a pink and campy commercial for Mattel as the film attempted to cleverly rebrand Barbie as a feminist icon and move beyond its problematic past to sell countless brand deals and its up-and-coming slate of blockbusters. 

Played by Margot Robbie in the film, Barbie lives in the idyllic world of Barbieland alongside a group of diverse Barbies who collectively run politics: all the problems of feminism have been solved and everyday is perfect. In Barbieland, all the Barbies love and support each other, and all the Kens’ existence revolves around the Barbies. 

The main tension in the movie occurs when Barbie begins to experience un-Barbie-like symptoms, like flat feet (gasp!), messy hair and thoughts of death. Barbie consults “Weird Barbie,” played by Kate Mckinnon, who tells her that she must enter the Real World to return back to her perfect life. Ken, played by Ryan Gosling, is Barbie’s himbo-like sidekick who “only has a good day if Barbie looks at him.” Ken accompanies Barbie on her journey where he becomes entranced with real world patriarchy where men rule everything.

When Barbie enters the real world, she’s shocked to find out that women face constant sexism and meets the stressed Mattel employee, Gloria, played by America Ferrera, and her snarky teenage daughter, Sahsa, played by Ariana Greenblatt. Ken returns back to Barbieland where he turns the Dreamhouse into the “Mojo Dojo Casa House,” and the Kens take over Barbieland. Barbie, Gloria and Sasha later return to Barbieland and use feminist one-liners to convert the Barbies back to their normal selves, after which the Barbies take back their world as the Kens fight amongst themselves. Eventually, Ken comes to recognize that patriarchy isn’t the solution to finding himself and commits himself to finding out his identity outside of Barbie. 

Many moviegoers and online commentators have praised Barbie as a feminist movie — and for good reasons as the film is filled with a diverse cast, women in positions of power and a clear message that patriarchy is harmful to all. Critics have raved about Gerwig’s sly commentary and praised the film as “…an ernest and vulnerable take on womanhood…” by the Indepdendent’s Clarisse Loughrey. The Barbie craze has taken over popular culture with people praising the film as celebrating girlhood and spreading a positive message. Online, debates have sprung up with several critics — such as from political commentator Ben Shapiro — as they argue that the movie is “too woke.” It’s easy to see how the Barbie controversy shows the larger political and cultural battles going on surrounding women’s rights and right-wing criticism of culture that is viewed to be “woke” due to its emphasis of women’s empowerment and commitment to diversity. 

There are a lot of things “Barbie” got right in its message, and as I watched the movie in an audience mostly of women and girls who dressed up in pink, it was pretty clear that this movie was special in many ways. In the audience, there were lots of laughs as relatable moments, such as the Kens playing guitar “at” the Barbies when attempting to serenade them and mansplaining movies. The movie resonated with a multitude of women, many of whom cheered when America Ferrera delivered her now famous monologue on the double standards that women experience in society. In many ways, the film had more depth than expected from a movie about a doll, especially with touching moments of Barbie experiencing human emotion and a heartwarming montage of home videos of women and girls.

The message and cultural impact of “Barbie” is one that is important in today’s society, but it would be naive to cast “Barbie” as a feel-good movie that uplifts women without recognizing and addressing the legitimate criticisms surrounding the Barbie doll and Mattel. To this Barbie-skeptic, it seems misguided to praise “Barbie” as a subversive or progressive movie. For some people, including myself, the connotation and message that the Barbie doll carries is a challenging and problematic one as the doll arguably epitomizes the white, blonde, thin ideals of American beauty. Growing up, it was evident to me that Barbie did not represent me and served as a reinforcement that beauty was white, tall, thin and had unrealistically large breasts. 

Mattel has recently attempted to undo the harms that Barbie dolls have inflicted upon girls by distorting their body image and promoting unrealistic standards of beauty. However, to some critics of Barbie, the message seems ironic and insincere: the same company that launched a Slumber Party Barbie with books telling girls “Don’t Eat” is now attempting to rebrand as a feminist and socially-conscious. Of course, this move matches the current corporate climate in which brands use progressive slogans and latch onto social movements to sell more products. 

As I watched “Barbie,” I couldn’t help but see “girlboss feminism,” which is a specific brand of feminism that commodifies women’s empowerment to sell products and promotes women’s liberation as being productive members of society under capitalism. “Barbie” seems to be the epitome of “girlboss feminism” in which Barbieland is portrayed as a feminist utopia because women can be any profession and women’s liberation is as simple as taking back their dream houses and returning to work. 

While it’s unrealistic to expect “Barbie,” a movie about dolls, to touch on all aspects of intersectional feminism, it’s notable that aspects of inequality such as class, sexuality and race are basically absent from the feminist message under the assumption that Barbieland is a utopia because Barbies and Kens of all races and sizes coexist. “Barbie” clearly confronts some of the real-life issues and systems of oppression, mostly the notion of patriarchy, but in the most inoffensive and simplified way possible. 

According to “Barbie,” patriarchy is exemplified in montages of men making money, objectifying women and transforming Barbie’s pink world into the “Mojo Dojo Casa House,” filled with horses and cowboy decor. While objectification and the relegation of women to lower positions are certainly characteristics of patriarchy, the more noxious elements of patriarchy are barely addressed: the persistent wage gap, systemic erasure of women’s reproductive rights and the intersection of other oppressions that often impact women, such as racism, ableism and homophobia, to mention a few. 

Further, the movie’s portrayal of patriarchy fails to address the systemic and embedded nature of sexism by showing that patriarchy is “over” when Barbies take back Barbieland and the Kens, the patriarchal oppressors, were largely misguided and insecure men. This seemingly misses the mark. Patriarchy isn’t easily defeated nor is it merely misguided; it’s an intentional structure of power that cannot be toppled over the course of a few dance sequences. Mattel is clearly launching its largest marketing and rebranding campaign off of the same demographic that it used to sell dolls that promoted white, thin beauty standards. 

Throughout the movie, the film pokes fun at Barbie’s problematic past, often through the snarky teenager, Sasha, who acts as the voice of criticism. However, it seemed as if the valid critiques Sasha brings up are laughed off or largely unresolved. The movie is clever, and it makes sure to let the audience know as it slips in jokes about Mattel leadership being full of white, incompetent men who act as the antagonists who try to put Barbie in a box. The tongue-in-cheek nature of the movie prompts its audience to wonder how the stuffy Mattel suits would let these jokes slide. Viewed critically, these self-deprecating jokes can be seen as a ploy to reconstruct the viewers’ perception of Mattel as a hip and self-aware company, rather than a remote and unrelatable corporation.

Overall, “Barbie” is a great movie if you’re expecting a fun and lighthearted film, but just like the doll, its feminist message is plastic and not very deep. 

Before I actually begin talking about how much I enjoyed the film, I need to express my love for its tagline – “The Most Talked About Movie of the Year is One That No One’s Actually Seen.” In the spirit of humorously self-aware films like “Deadpool,” “The Hunt’s” tagline critiques American society the same way the movie does. In fact, the original title of the movie was supposed to be “Red State vs. Blue State,” so I’m not quite sure if you could get any more on the nose about what this movie is trying to say. 

However, in director Craig Zobel’s attempt to influence a new wave of political nihilists, he becomes Icarus, flying too close to the sun. That is, “The Hunt” tries to be something it doesn’t have to. Before I get into just what that is, it’s important to understand the core plot of the film. 

The film begins with a text conversation. To be honest, using a graphic of a text conversation to basically explain your film’s exposition is terrible filmmaking. A group of what’s perceived as left-winged people jokingly talk about hunting down deplorables at a private mansion that’s seemingly owned by one of the members of the group text. The online conspiracy theory community goes into a frenzy deciphering whether or not that “Manorgate” is real. The notion of whether or not the hunt is a planned thing amongst these people or a gag isn’t revealed right off the bat, so it’s important to pay attention as the film goes on. Surely enough, a group of twelve strangers emerge from boxes in the middle of an open field. The strangers begin to undo their gags and binds while trying to figure out what’s going on, as they find an arsenal of weaponry alongside them. What happens next is something that sets the tone for the rest of the film.

I don’t want to give away too much, because anyone reading this should definitely find a way to watch the film. However, the film does not pull any punches. This film is unconventional, it is not afraid to shy away from disrupting relationships between liked characters and the audience.  The film does a good job of attempting to subvert your expectations of who lives and who dies, but this magic begins to wear off shortly. 

Amongst the crossfire, the film tries to tie this political message around the plot, as if these left-wing liberals are hunting down right-winged conservatives simply because of their worldview. The film doesn’t paint either side to be good or evil, and the hunted and the hunter characters critique their respective political views. In such a politically divisive social climate, I can understand why they wanted a political message, but it isn’t necessary. This movie is bound to offend someone, but I’m not sure if the filmmakers really care. 

All this film had to be was a gory, action thrill ride that relied on its humor and violence. The political theme is there for sure, but its humor and gore outshine that completely. I wanted more of that rather than a shoehorned political message. It’s easy to come out and say that political parties are bad, both sides have problems, and we need to come together. This isn’t the kind of movie to do that. It should’ve played to its strengths more. 

There is also subtle messaging of the threat of social media and conspiracy theorists in society. With this, the film attempts to critique the proclivity of people to buy into and believe outlandish internet stories and the threat that poses to society. Despite half-hearted attempts at critique, the film is highly entertaining. Watch it with an open mind, and be ready to just have fun. Because despite lazily written political messaging, the film is funny and engaging enough to warrant a purchase. “The Hunt” is perfect for those currently stuck in quarantine. Stay safe and enjoy.