Greta Gerwig's Barbie movie

I just went to see a 70mm screening of Oppenheimer. It was insanely packed & I couldn’t understand why there was such a joyous atmosphere. After finding the last seat in the auditorium I looked around and noticed almost everyone was in pink and asked the person next to me what film was showing. Of course i knew the answer before they said it. Barbie! I had got the screening times mixed up and they obviously weren't paying attention when they took my ticket. I was not in the right mood to stay and see it though do intend to. Back to the cinema in an hour for my correct screening!

was the Barbie also a 70 mm

According to my students, many people ARE doing back-to-back screenings of Barbie and Opps.

several friends of mine have done it

uh wow:

“Barbenheimer” is more than just a meme. It’s a full-fledged box office phenomenon.

Over the weekend, moviegoers turned out in force for Greta Gerwig’s neon-coated fantasy comedy “Barbie,” which smashed expectations with $155 million to land the biggest debut of the year. But they also showed up to see Christopher Nolan’s R-rated historical drama “Oppenheimer,” which collected a remarkable $80.5 million in its opening weekend.

Hundreds of thousands of ticket buyers refused to choose between the seemingly different blockbusters with twin release dates. So they opted to attend same-day viewings of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” turning the box office battle into a double feature for the ages. The craze known as “Barbenheimer” worked together to fuel the biggest collective box office weekend of the pandemic era, as well as the fourth-biggest overall weekend in history.

and:

Among its many records, “Barbie” also scored the biggest opening weekend ever for a film directed by a woman. “Captain Marvel,” which was co-directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, previously held the title with $153 million in 2019. “Wonder Woman,” from filmmaker Patty Jenkins, stood as the record-holder for a movie solely directed by a woman with $103 million in 2017.

Hopefully the robot ETs will appreciate the black humor in this endtime activity when they eventually pick through the ruins of our civilization.

I honestly just have a hard time staying at the movie theaters that long anymore. last time I did that was "Das Boot" followed by "45 Years"

I have colleagues who can and do; I'd rather grab lunch.

My daughter did (and liked) both movies.

Thinking now that diehard Springsteen fans will have maintained a level of Sitzfleisch that would make this kind of undertaking a walk in the park for them.

lol otm

was the Barbie also a 70 mm

it was not.

Barbie must be seen in 29 cm

The most positive review I've seen on Barbie - I'm a skeptic and Brody tends to oversell his favored comedies (Trainwreck, The Spy Who Dumped Me), but using references like the classic Warner Bros. cartoons could very well make a plausible case for greatness:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/barbie-is-brilliant-beautiful-and-fun-as-hell

― birdistheword, Saturday, July 22, 2023 12:38 AM (yesterday)

I started reading this the other day and then just decided to put it off until I saw the film myself -- brody it should be noted is probably one of the biggest gerwig boosters there is, so I wasn't surprised to see what seemed to be such a breathlessly positive review

I'm a gerwig fan and I can't say that there is that much about the film that reminds me of anything else she has ever done; certainly not visually, but even script-wise, the comedy is usually insanely broad and OTT. That it works is a small miracle and, as I said, a testament to her abilities.

My SO is doing OPPENHARBIE (yes in that order) today but with a friend right across the city and I'm not a big enough Nolan fan to want to see a film that long that in the cinema but might see Barbie at the place just down the road once the furore dies down.

this was fantastic, a blast all the way through and yes that last line was lol. It was also unexpectedly moving? my 16 year old was crying buckets towards the end and she wasn’t the only one

my husband was extremely, extremely reluctant to see this and came out a fan

What’s the big deal, nobody remembers the 1977 craze of Salòday Night Fever?

Totally forgot about this, but there used to be double feature drive-ins in Illinois. I went to one when I was 4 and have vague memories about it, but I think they were all gone by the end of the ‘90s.

I’ll probably catch Barbie later and skip Oppenheimer but the whole double feature concept is a nice bit of nostalgia. I do it all the time during the summer (A/C helps as do an easy, quick lunch breaks that are typically around my go-to theaters) but it’s especially nice when they’re programmed as such. Film Forum used to do a lot of ones and the summer before the pandemic had a great one on the ‘80s programmed by Jim Hoberman courtesy of Lincoln Center.

Forgot about this too, but the kids I used to babysit back home told me they and their friends used to hang out inside the multiplex and just see movies all day for essentially the price of one (obviously not what you’re supposed to do).

The weather in most places is helping people want to spend upwards of 5 hours in an air conditioned theater too.

When you don’t have AC at home, it’s really hard to leave the theater - I’ve spent entire 100 degree days at MoMA watching movies.

In Westwood after seeing “Oppenheimer,” Quentin Tarantino walks across the street and buys a ticket to see “Barbie.” pic.twitter.com/w7TdfCE04n

— Saul Gonzalez (@SaulGonzalezCA) July 23, 2023

I took 1 star reviews of #Barbie from furious men on letterboxd and put them on the posters because it makes the film seem ever cooler. pic.twitter.com/V4YzmnB8bj

— TechnicallyRon (@TechnicallyRon) July 23, 2023

"confusingly attractive" one is my favourite

Barbie vs Oppenheimer: Which is the most searched movie in the Balkans in the last 24 hours pic.twitter.com/NdGhhZ9IUw

— kos_data (@kos_data) July 22, 2023

Cultural divide

Ope, even bigger...

#Barbie opening weekend has soared to $164 million, a big jump from Sunday’s already record-breaking estimate of $155 million. https://t.co/h1HwxXYFA8

— Variety (@Variety) July 24, 2023

Walter Chaw's take sorta reads like Armond White's review as written by a reasonable person: https://www.filmfreakcentral.net/ffc/2023/07/barbie.html

You're better off tracking down a bootleg of Todd Haynes's Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, in which the singer's downfall as she struggled with an eating disorder and the social pressures on a woman in the spotlight is told exclusively through the use of Barbie dolls. Mattel's had that one hidden away in copyright limbo for decades now. Funny, that.

this is reasonable?

Stereotypical Barbie not having a vagina is fascinating, however, and I wish they would have shown her naked: hairless and nipple- and vagina-free. Ditto Ken, who jokes about his smooth genital mound without our ever getting to regard the Cronenbergian uncanniness of an entirely castrated Ryan Gosling.

Question: if they showed Barbie or Ken naked but smooth, with no genitalia or nipples, like the dolls (that kids play with), would the movie have gotten an R?

Undermentioned "Barbie" stat is that the movie runs under two hours, which allows for more screenings and hopefully encourages others to cut down a bit on bloat.

I think the entire review is reasonablein the sense that is that it is a take that considers the film in terms what it appears to be trying to do, and fails.

Again, haven't seen, and probably won't, but it strikes me as reasonable to expect that a film that aspires to a metacommentary on an iconic product to explore the full implications of its subject.

oh crumbs, my mate watched it at the weekend and said it was mostly awful.

The more I read the WC review, the more sane Arm0nd's take almost seems in comparison?

("The devil you know" etc.)

can't believe they dedicated this movie to valerie solanas.

The post-credit sequence, which was just a supercut of Town Bloody Hall, was also a shock

This is the track they should have put over the end credits:

https://soundcloud.com/lighghtmusic/lighght-pulse-b-aqua-x-youngstar

saw it this weekend, it's hilarious and yes America Ferrera's monologue is unsubtle but it also got cheers at my screening so it clearly works. The movie has what I would describe as a degree of metacommentary that blockbuster audiences will find interesting without being alienating (no, you don't get any Cronenbergian body horror and the folk biology of a come-to-life Barbie is not in fact fully realized or consistent, but then they couldn't manage that in Blade Runner 2049 either so I'm not sure why it's an issue here). Only weird thing is that it's a movie about Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken pretty much steals the entire show.

Gosling was great in it but at a certain point I did think "okay, that's enough of you."

Since Barbie and Ken have no genitals, it wouldn't have hurt to have shown him nude a couple times imo

You're better off tracking down a bootleg of Todd Haynes's Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, in which the singer's downfall as she struggled with an eating disorder and the social pressures on a woman in the spotlight is told exclusively through the use of Barbie dolls. Mattel's had that one hidden away in copyright limbo for decades now. Funny, that.

Funny, but wrong. It's Richard Carpenter that has blocked distribution of Superstar.

I unequivocally do not think Gosling steals the entire movie. Robbie is magnificent in it.

Yeah, Gosling has just enough screen time. Also: he has a gift for not overdoing his effects when he senses we might be tiring of him.

it is a take that considers the film in terms what it appears to be trying to do, and fails.

Again, haven't seen, and probably won't,

ok then

Again, haven't seen, and probably won't, but it strikes me as reasonable to expect that a film that aspires to a metacommentary on an iconic product to explore the full implications of its subject.

expectation is a prison, etc

I saw it last night, loved it, generally. The music is great! I loved the “Hi, Barbie” song and the “I’m Just Ken” sequence

It did feel strange that the film’s larger crux was about the crisis of modern masculinity rather than anything present-tense feminism. Also it did feel like it had an essentialist thesis, the denouement was nice and appealing ”Barbie becomes human woman, acquires a vagina” but, well, yeah. I had fun

Called my kids, who are seeing the movie today with their conservative grandmother, to make sure they know what "patriarchy" and "gynecologist" mean.

me: "Do you know what a gynecologist is?"

8 year old: "A scientist that studies guys?"

No that's an anthbropologist