RECENTLY VIEWED: BARBIE

Okay, you readers will probably laugh at me but this past weekend I just saw the best movie I have seen this year - Barbie! Yes, it is a girl's movie and a kid's movie, which is sometimes is, but it also has some adult themes, and the message behind the movie is pretty profound. Barbie is a 2023 American fantasy comedy film directed by Greta Gerwig and written by Gerwig and Noah Baumbach. Based on the Barbie fashion dolls by Mattel, it is the first live-action Barbie film after numerous computer-animated direct-to-video and streaming television films. The film follows Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) on a journey of self-discovery following an existential crisis. It features an ensemble cast that also includes America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman, and Will Ferrell.

A live-action Barbie film was announced in September 2009 by Universal Pictures with Laurence Mark producing. Development began in April 2014, when Sony Pictures acquired the film rights. Following multiple writer and director changes and the casting of Amy Schumer and later Anne Hathaway as Barbie, the rights were transferred to Warner Bros. Pictures in October 2018. Robbie was cast in 2019, and Gerwig was announced as director and co-writer with Baumbach in 2021. The rest of the cast were announced in early 2022. Filming took place primarily at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden, in England and on the Venice Beach Skatepark in Los Angeles from March to July 2022.

Barbie premiered at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on July 9, 2023, and was theatrically released in the United States on July 21, 2023, by Warner Bros. Pictures. Its simultaneous release with Oppenheimer led to the "Barbenheimer" phenomenon on social media, which encouraged audiences to see both films as a double feature. The film received positive reviews, and has grossed $382 million worldwide to date.

Margot Robbie is also a producer on the film and had pitched the film to Warner Bros early on. During the green-light meeting, Robbie had compared the film to Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park (1993) and had also jokingly suggested that it would gross over a billion dollars. Later on, she approached Greta Gerwig as the screenwriter as she enjoyed Gerwig's previous films, particularly Little Women (2019). Gerwig was in post-production for another film, and accepted the role on the condition that her partner, Noah Baumbach, would also write the screenplay. Gerwig signed on to also direct the film in July 2021. Robbie said that the film's aim was to subvert expectations and give audiences "the thing you didn't know you wanted".

The film could very well make a billion dollars. As a father of a beautiful daughter, I try to instill her that women can do anything but also making her aware of the harsh world she'll be facing. This movie does a great job of not only being optimistic but realistic as well. The movie theather was full of young children, but some of the adult jokes will go over their head so be prepared to explain some of the jokes afterwards, but this film had it all - fun, tears, laughs, and an important message to not only young girls but society in general...

MY RATING: 10