Barbie written by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, directed by the former, who has enchanted audiences with Ladybird http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/12/lady-bird-by-greta-gerwig.html and a few other gems - 8 out of 10

 

Barbie written by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, directed by the former, who has enchanted audiences with Ladybird http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/12/lady-bird-by-greta-gerwig.html and a few other gems

8 out of 10

 

 

Barbie has been the phenomenon of the year, in that it exploded at the box office, where it has passed a billion dollars (incidentally, she has told executives at the studio that the movie has the potential to make a billion, when they were discussing the then project) and it is a success with critics as well

 

Alas, it was not such a tremendous success with this cinephile, albeit here is the spoiler alert, warning and disclaimer – these lines are not for you to read, but to avoid, so that we both have no side effects, you miss the text to follow, and I will not have a complaint, and yet another deleted work of art…

Somehow it has happened recently, a note of mine was deleted by Goodreads for a spam accusation, only why do they let the Number One for this country to put online only fraudulent ‘reviews’, all this Con man does is copy a quote, or some lines from the net and then claim this is his contribution, hundreds of posts on a single day, mass produced by plagiarizing, and when told, the same site did…nothing!

 

Barbie is clearly an astounding achievement, indeed, knowing about the massive impact it has had has worked against it for the under signed, because of the old problem of expecting too much, I had been expecting to be killed by it, and yet I survived, to a mild disappointment – what was all that chutzpah about?

Yes, the feminist message is obvious, noteworthy and a male that objects to the film could be accused of sexism, however unconscious that could be – thus, it may be that it has contributed to my less than exuberant reception of the story – we have had a male dominated world, it still is in so many lands…

 

Eventually, Barbie land becomes Kendom in the movie – by the way, The Economist has a prize for the Country of the Year, and for 2023 they have looked at Brazil, Ukraine and…Barbie Land as finalists, I do not yet know who won, have not rad that yet – as a symbol of what men have done to women through history

“History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men…What is history? History is women following behind with the bucket…” we find this stupendous comment in the marvelous chef d’oeuvre The History Boys http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/06/history-boys-by-alan-bennett-really.html

 

For Barbie, and for that matter any other great work of art, we have the surface, with the pink, the dazzle, and then what lies beneath, the irony, sarcasm that is often targeted at the privileged, ergo the Matel executives, the CEO aka Will Ferrell in particular, although it is not just the toy maker, and that bunch of managers that are the focus, it is the powerful, the arrogant in general, I presume and that is one great merit

We live in a world where this ludicrous CEO presented in the motion picture stands in for other, even more preposterous, absurd leaders, such as Javier Milei (‘let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments’ Shakespeare) the newly installed president of Argentina, the first self-proclaimed anarcho- capitalist to get that high, in the world, one that attacked the pope, talks to his dogs…

 

He is a version of Trump – let us presume he does better in office, but he acts crazy nevertheless – and Orange Jesus is for me the hidden target, the shadow I see exposed in Barbie – it could be a far stretch and so let me remind you (if you are still following this) that you have had a spoiler earlier, so don’t get mad

On some levels, Barbie seems crazy, there is this doll that all girls – well, let me rephrase that, girls in the West or what Johnson of The Economist says it is now ‘The Global North’ –have had and which has some existential angst, escapes into the real world, then is chased by Mattel executives that want her back in the box

 

We are invited to think about this, the difference between that artificial, syrupy, plastic realm in which we have Barbie, Ken and the rest, and the real life, with the problems, wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and how we are the targets of advertising, propaganda, lies, and we can see all that though our own view of the film

As mentioned before, for me the Mattel CEO is just a harmless rabbit, when compared with the likes of Orange Jesus – Liz Cheney has revealed in her book that Republican leaders called the idiot Orange Jesus – who might well come back next year and then Barbie land will become the opposite, a dark, hellish place

 

It could sound alarmist, spurious, but look at what has happened when Orange Jesus was in control last time, and I am sorry, but if you enjoyed it, then I complain about you, just let me know where you are, and then I will play the great Donald for you…he will solve the war in Ukraine, just like he said, in twenty four hours, but just because he will give Putin whatever he wants, after all, the Monster in the Kremlin has said some nice things about OJ, and that is all that matters for this sort of Jesus…

Notwithstanding all that, Barbie has been much less effective for this cinephile than Oppenheimer, and today we have the premiere of Maestro on Netflix and that could set Barbie back yet another place in my rankings…

 

Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world  – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

Some favorite quotes from To The Heritage and other works

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

‚parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”