Yesterday - a rainy day in northern England. What to do? Shirley was meeting up for lunch with a bunch of other retired practice nurses so I decided to head down to "The Showroom" in the city centre. My chosen film was "Barbie" starring Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken.
I had read some stuff about it - including how the film had riled some sections of the American right who amongst other mean complaints, bridled at the encouragement of "girl power". Also "The Guardian" said of "Barbie": "It’s a riotously entertaining candy-coloured feminist fable that manages simultaneously to celebrate, satirise and deconstruct its happy-plastic subject. Audiences will be delighted."
There was singing and dancing and many clever references to plastic Barbie's heyday. The film was colourful, consciously silly and yet rather like a good episode of "The Simpsons" it contained some interesting and challenging notions just below the comedic surface.
There's Barbieland and not too far away there's The Real World. Barbie and Ken get to travel between the two as Barbie seeks the little girl who once owned her in order to combat issues that have begun to threaten her perfectly pink happiness.
Over at Mattel corporate headquarters, the chairman of the board is played by Will Ferrell who is well-cast as a madcap and suited leader of a business that is anxious to keep on thriving.
"Barbie" is quite absurd as I am sure everybody involved in its making would admit but it is also joyful and colourful and if you let yourself go with it all you end up leaving the cinema as I did - thoroughly entertained. Oh, and I must admit that Margot Robbie is gorgeous. If there had been Barbie dolls like her back in the day, I would have begged for one at Christmas.
from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/crx1Cst