No One is Kenough

I liked Barbie just fine. I thought it was consistently entertaining and found clever ways to be the kind of franchise-starting blockbuster it was always conceived to be. The politics were a little incoherent, but that was baked into the cake from the beginning - Barbie has been targetted as a symbol of patriarchy by feminists since at least the 1970s, and there was no way the movie could avoid commenting on that. If the result are kind of bland girlbossy empowerment politics, that just demonstrates the natural constraints of this kind of filmmaking. Yes, the movie is an advertisement for a toy company. But the production design and style are as inspired as everyone says, the casting and performances are great, and it’s just generally a good time. I enjoyed it.