Zeitgeist: The best thing about the Barbie movie did not happen during the film

OPINION:

A lot has been written about the Barbie movie, the genius of Greta Gerwig, and the great acting skills of Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling and the whole cast. The film has become a cultural phenomenon in its own right and I am not sure I’d seen this much chatter about a movie in a really long time.

In case you’re not terminally online like me and have somehow missed it, the Barbie movie, which has so far made more than US$1 billion (and counting), is a resounding success, filled with iconic moments and great one-liners that have quickly seeped into the vernacular, all worth it for the memes alone. It’s pink, it’s joyful, it’s funny and it is also deep. It touches on big heavy themes like existential dread, feminism and toxic masculinity - and it does so with humour and a lightness that does not often feature when those are the topics being discussed. It’s just, overall, A Good Time.

But even if the movie had not been great, going to the movies to see it was. For many, like me, Barbie has brought back the joy of going to the movies with friends.

Margot Robbie stars in Greta Gerwig's Barbie movie. Photo / Warner Bros. Pictures

I don’t know about you but I don’t go to the cinema much these days. For starters, movies are far too long. Why sit there watching a movie for two hours (three if we’re talking about the other half of Barbenheimer) when I can just watch five or six 30-minute episodes of a TV show instead? I’d like to say I’m joking but I’m not too proud to admit that that’s kind of true. Anyway, life is busy, I’ve been tired since 2017 and a movie ticket is no small change in this economy so I tend to wait for films to get released on a streaming platform so I can ignore them there instead, as I put on my 3645th episode of Friends.

I am glad I made an exception for Barbie (and Oppenheimer too - I’ve seen two movies this month and I didn’t fall asleep during either of them, I am unstoppable).

I went to see it with a group of some of my favourite women. As we stood there waiting to go into the theatre, groups of people queued up to have their photo taken inside the giant Barbie doll box, all wearing every pink item they’d found in their wardrobes. Everyone was smiling, mostly because it is biologically impossible to feel miserable while wearing a load of hot pink.

A man poses inside a large Barbie doll box in Bloomingdale's, New York. Photo / AP

As I watched them waiting to take their photo in the Barbie box, I thought of each of them locked inside their homes, in 2020, not knowing when they’d get to go out with their friends again - not even knowing if going to the movies was going to be a thing again anytime soon.

Seeing different generations of people come together to share the joy of the Barbie movie, felt particularly poignant in the context of post-pandemic lockdowns and was one of the best moments of the whole movie experience.

I don’t particularly remember loving to play with Barbie dolls as a child - but if I had to write a list of iconic things from my childhood, Barbie would definitely feature in it (including Barbie Hollywood, whose long and luscious hair met the wrong end of my kiddie scissors one fateful afternoon). Barbies are a fixture of the childhood of most people I know, regardless of their age or generation. Whether you liked playing with it or just had one because some great-aunt had sent you one for Christmas, if you are a human alive in this cursed year, you likely have had a Barbie doll, or one of the knock-offs, at some point in your life. It’s that cross-generation common ground (seemingly so hard to find these days) that makes Barbie special.

There is no denying the cultural influence of the Barbie movie. I mean, there’s a strong possibility that nine or so months from now we will have a bunch of babies named Barbie and Ken as searches for the baby names have reportedly skyrocketed. High street brands are selling Barbie-themed collections and Barbiecore is an actual fashion trend. If there was an Oscar for best marketing for a movie, the team behind Barbie would be rightful winners.

I sure hope they’re all currently on a nice holiday at a mojo dojo casa house somewhere.