Barbenheimer: The Cinematic Phenomenon

Barbenheimer: The Cinematic Phenomenon

 

One of my best friends texted me the other day and asked when we were going to see Barbenheimer. I knew exactly what they meant, and not just because our group chat is called movie bubs. Barbenheimer is not just Barbie, the new fantasy comedy from director Greta Gerwig based on the best-selling toy by Mattell, and not just Oppenheimer, the new biographical drama from director Christopher Nolan about the scientist who played a pivotal role in developing the atomic bomb, but both, in a double feature on the same day.

Normally if I’m talking about a newly released film, it’s in the form of a review, but today I’m talking about not just one but two new movies—two vastly different movies, at that—in a different kind of way than usual. I’ll consider these two mini-reviews, because I will give some of my initial thoughts on them, but I figured I might as well talk about this curious summer movie event that I don’t think anyone could have predicted would take off the way it has.

I am a pretty big Christopher Nolan fan, but not to the same degree I was a decade ago. The Dark Knight and Inception were two defining movie-going experiences for me in my teenage years, and while I enjoyed The Dark Knight Rises well enough, Interstellar was a disappointment, and I initially didn’t love Dunkirk, but found I appreciated it more upon subsequent viewings. Tenet also disappointed me, but Oppenheimer intrigued me because it was a departure of sorts from the usual Nolan stories. This was a story based on a nonfiction book that covered the true history of a man involved in the Manhattan Project, which led to the creation of the atomic bomb and the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. I was pretty much anticipating the film from its announcement, but when I discovered just how stacked the cast was, my anticipation grew exponentially.

Honestly, I wasn’t initially that curious about the Barbie movie beyond the idea that a movie was being made based on a toy that has been heavily criticized in more recent years for giving young girls unattainable beauty standards, but the fact that it was being helmed by Academy Award nominees was quite surprising. Margot Robbie was cast as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken, which gave the film the right kind of star power. I avoided the trailers because I didn’t really feel the need to know exactly what a movie based on the famous doll would be about, but I had heard enough internet buzz to know it would be in the realm of absurdist comedy, and as the hype for it built, I warmed up to the idea of going to see it, even though it still didn’t really seem like something designed with audience members like myself in mind (if you know my movie interests at all, I don’t need to elaborate further, and if you don’t know, I mean, take a look back at Gamera-thon just for starters, that’ll be enough of a hint).

At first I thought this idea of seeing Barbie and Oppenheimer back-to-back was something only huge movie fans like my friends and I were planning to do, or just a funny proposal a few other people had shared online—we have jokingly been referring to it as Barbenheimer for a few months, or, alternately, as Oppenbarbie, depending on the order they were being seen in. Some proposed seeing Barbie first because it was the lighter, fluffier film, then to end with the epic, serious tale of the father of the atomic bomb. Others, like myself, felt it was more appropriate to see the longer and more depressing film first, then cheer up with Barbie second and give our minds and spirits a break. But then, as the opening weekend neared, I discovered the internet really had taken the idea of Barbenheimer/Oppenbarbie to heart. It started as a meme, but when I started seeing things like sold-out IMAX showings for Oppenheimer at 10:00 PM and lines of people waiting outside the theater all dressed in pink clothing, I realized these movies really were going to do considerable business. 

This phenomenon or trend or fad or whatever you want to call it is a big deal for a few reasons, but mainly because neither of these films are sequels, nor are they part of a Disney-owned franchise. People are excited for both for very different reasons, but the contrast between the content and tone of the films was part of the catalyst for the phenomenon. Once the actors started talking about it leading up to the premieres and fan posters combining the two movies started popping up, it became clear this was not just a joke—people were actually booking their tickets for both on opening weekend. Barbie is a Warner Brothers production, and Oppenheimer is from Universal, which is the first Christopher Nolan film not distributed by Warner Brothers in over two decades (I won’t get into the nitty gritty of why but it’s related to streaming), so this is a win-win for both studios, and for Hollywood in general, because it’s showing that audiences are interested in films from respected directors that aren’t just about superheroes and spectacle.

My girlfriend and I went to both over the weekend, and we even went to two different movie theaters just to have the Barbenheimer experience. I don’t really know how this whole thing came to be so widely embraced (I don’t get the impression it was ever intentional on the studio’s part) and I don’t know if we’ll see more unofficial theatrical events like this in the future, but I’m all for it. Here are my mini-reviews of the actual movies, in the order we saw them.

 

Oppenheimer Mini-Review

 

I loved it. I haven’t been that immersed in a Christopher Nolan movie from beginning to end since Inception. Emily Blunt was quoted as saying it was a biopic disguised as a thriller or vice versa, and she is right. It is shot, scored, and told (in a non-linear way) just like some of Nolan’s other best films, but it is an intimate character study, and the acting across the board was solid, but Cillian Murphy was excellent as Oppenheimer. My biggest qualm is how the story moves at a frantic pace to begin with, then settles into the primary narrative, but it builds to a climax too early, and while I was still engaged and enjoying it for the last half hour or so, it felt like too much of a denouement. Another small thing I didn’t like was the way a particularly famous line spoken by Oppenheimer was used—it came out in an odd way at an odd moment, and while there were a couple other lines that felt purposefully inserted just for audiences to raise their eyebrows, I didn’t have many other issues with it. It is definitely one of the best movies I’ve seen so far this year, with incredible sound design, music, and cinematography, all in addition to the acting and dialogue.

 

Barbie Mini-Review

 

I thought it was OK. I wasn’t too surprised to find it wasn’t really aiming for my demographic, but I was a little surprised with how it tried to play to viewers who were older and remembered Barbie dolls fondly, and to those who were in their twenties or thirties, with well-aimed jokes (one of which my girlfriend felt personally attacked by), and to teenagers, and to very young kids, all at once! I don’t know if they’ll hit every target they were aiming for, but I did find it pretty funny at times, and like everyone else is raving about, I agree that Ryan Gosling as Ken kind of stole the show. I’d forgotten how funny he’s able to be, and was reminded fondly of his surprising comedic turn in The Nice Guys, though he’s funny in a different kind of way as Ken. Margot Robbie was good, too, especially given the way her character (credited as Stereotypical Barbie) was written. My favourite aspect to the film was the visual design. I didn’t expect to be more curious about the making of the Barbie movie than the making of Oppenheimer. The sets, props, and costumes were all impeccably done, and clearly having Greta Gerwig behind the camera made this movie more than it could have been—visually, at least. The plot reminded me of Elf and The LEGO Movie, many jokes fell flat, and what I liked the least was how meta it became. It was almost too self-aware at times, to the point of making me feel alienated instead of laughing.

 

Final Thoughts

If you have considered going for the Barbenheimer experience at the movie theater this summer, I would recommend it! I enjoyed both, I would endorse them as a double feature, and I could probably keep saying more good things about both, but you should just go join in on the fun yourself. I definitely liked Oppenheimer more, which didn’t surprise me and probably won’t surprise anyone else, and if you only want to see one of the two films, that’s the one I would recommend for the cinematic experience. As for which one will have more staying power ten years from now, I’m not sure what the answer will be…

…but obviously it will be Oppenheimer.