Goodbye, Mr. Chips is one of my favorite oldies. I cry every time. I love everything about that movie. Greer Garson is so good. I saw a list recently of best movies for every decade starting in the 1920’s. I didn’t know many of the movies after the 70’s honestly. But I noticed a couple that were missing. Captain Courageous should be on every great movie list and Yankee Doodle Dandy is also great.
Adrian, In one of your posts I think you said you would not be seeing the Barbie film. So here is my review of it. Cheers!
I saw Barbie this weekend with my husband and our GenZ daughters. Here’s my reaction along with some thoughts from our family conversation.
From the outset, I think Barbie employed “humor” to sometimes mask a rather mean-spirited commentary. The 2001 A Space Odyssey opening homage – in which young girls bash the heads of baby dolls against rocks – was so terribly clever and amusing to “sophisticated” audience members, I’m sure. But I do wonder why Gerwig, the mother of a newborn, did not recognize that the violent scene was more disturbingly dark than funny.
But at least one of my daughters felt the parody was merely "exaggerated" humor only meant to say "motherhood isn't the only choice," not that motherhood is a negative choice. But maybe she takes away that message precisely because motherhood is a positive good in our stable, two-parent household? What about all those girls in the audience with a different "default setting?"
The same is true for “discontinued pregnant Midge.” I will grant that the actual doll was an odd concept, but clearly in the film the doll is used to convey at least an ambivalent attitude toward motherhood -- which sidelines you from the joys of Barbie World.
My husband said he was impressed with the film’s set design and was good-naturedly amused by the guitar-playing scene as well as the scene involving “mansplaining” investments and computers.
But, he said, the film presents “the same ‘rights’ conversation” he has “heard his whole life” – as important as that has been. He would have liked Gerwig’s film better if it had explored the issues of death that began Barbie’s crisis and purpose that mournfully closes the credits in song.
One daughter thought dad had raised valid ‘eternal’ issues. But for her, the movie was about the temporal need for woman to have dignity, safety and sisterhood. I later remarked that it’s men who actually experience more loneliness. I could have added depression and suicide.
To me, Gerwig’s/Baumbach’s portrayal of men in Barbie, is its central flaw, despite Gosling’s winning performance. The pretty pink surface of this film is littered with over-the-top stereotypes that aren’t as witty as the filmmakers intend: all men have power, fragile egos and no self-awareness. All men objectify women. (Is nerdy Allen our only other choice?) Men prefer weak, dependent women. When man are present women become defenseless and easily deceived. Pluh-leeze.
One daughter contended that the men were “standing in for what it feels like to be a woman in a man’s world.” Maybe, but I thought the overall message was convoluted. At a pivotal moment after Ken has taken over Barbie World, he asked her “what does it feel like” to be displaced. She responded by crying. But what was she exactly in tears over?
The plot did not indicate that Barbie realized the folly of a zero-sum power struggle between the sexes. Instead, she proposed a plan to take it all back and restore the Barbies’ control with men being far more marginalized than women in Western society today. No Supreme Court positions for you, my fine fellow.
After her victory, Barbie comforts a distraught, rejected and homeless Ken. Barbie’s sage advice to Ken is to find himself. So later he is seen wearing a fuzzy tie-dye shirt proclaiming: “I am Kenough.” Apparently, Ken just needed Oprah-style pop psychology to sort himself out. We’re supposed to be tickled pink that Ken embraced a dumb feminine stereotype. Seriously?
Another daughter felt the movie was about “not depending on an (opposite sex) relationship to define you.” But what if that message, if overstated, diminishes the truly profound mutuality and self-understanding that differentiated sexes offer each other? Yet Ken was designed by Mattel to be a mere masculine “accessory.” Maybe he should be upset at losing his purpose within Barbie World? Such is the dilemma of trying to be logical (much less subversive) with ludicrous “source” material.
Predictably, Barbie offers the same old Disney-fied “identity crisis solution” of individual self-actualization with a dash of girl-power solidarity. Has this tired formula delivered on its promises of personal fulfillment? Hardly, as we now witness the toxic results of extreme expressive individualism, even to the point of certain males actually commandeering “women’s spaces.” The culprits are not the hyper-masculine Ken dolls.
Ken’s journey also speaks to the incoherence of this film even within the limits of a ‘rights’ paradigm. It is Ken who learns (and then unlearns??) that in the Real World you have to know things and accomplish things, for instance, to be a doctor. That Ken is informed of this fact by a female doctor undermines the argument about women not having rights.
Just as bad, Gerwig throws in the fantasy that women routinely seek to do all the jobs traditionally taken on by men, such as construction work. Funny how’s there is no “equal rights” conversation around women in mining and sanitation jobs. But no matter, as Barbie World is actually one of pretending not achieving. Quite ironically those “professional Barbies” never sold that well. Maybe stereotypical Barbie was just more fun?
So, with the ‘rights’ argument becoming passe (given the actual status of Western women), the goalposts move toward the psychological. Barbie feels distinctly, if vaguely, threatened in the Real World. Strangely, Barbie feminism has a touch of that old “radical feminist” vibe in which “all men are rapists” and women ought to live separately. Then, again, in a “liberated” world where porn reigns supreme, perhaps far worse problems have been unleashed than those ever created by “putting women on a pedestal.”
Meanwhile Gerwig under-develops the mother/daughter reconciliation narrative in Barbie. This potentially interesting storyline gets summarized into one BIG speech about “women’s cognitive dissonance.” However, the speech fails to consider that women themselves contributed to this dissonance. “Having it all” was a false aspiration made up by women, for women. And clearly, the mom’s marriage to the ideal Beta-Bro leaves her unsatisfied. But of course the dad-who-isn't-worthy-of-respect has been standard comedic fare for decades now. That the mom introduces Death to Barbie may be saying more than Gerwig appreciates.
Still, if there’s any subversive message in this film, it comes at the very end. Barbie – seeking to discover her Real World identity – visits the gynecologist. Is Gerwig suggesting that womanhood is based in biology? Even better, is she suggesting that it is overdue for secular feminists to come to terms with it, as Helen Joyce argues? Probably not. But when you’re as beautiful as Margo Robbie you can get away even with cultural heresy, a power such women have always welded.
Goodbye, Mr. Chips is one of my favorite oldies. I cry every time. I love everything about that movie. Greer Garson is so good. I saw a list recently of best movies for every decade starting in the 1920’s. I didn’t know many of the movies after the 70’s honestly. But I noticed a couple that were missing. Captain Courageous should be on every great movie list and Yankee Doodle Dandy is also great.
Captains Courageous has to be one of the best!
Adrian, In one of your posts I think you said you would not be seeing the Barbie film. So here is my review of it. Cheers!
I saw Barbie this weekend with my husband and our GenZ daughters. Here’s my reaction along with some thoughts from our family conversation.
From the outset, I think Barbie employed “humor” to sometimes mask a rather mean-spirited commentary. The 2001 A Space Odyssey opening homage – in which young girls bash the heads of baby dolls against rocks – was so terribly clever and amusing to “sophisticated” audience members, I’m sure. But I do wonder why Gerwig, the mother of a newborn, did not recognize that the violent scene was more disturbingly dark than funny.
But at least one of my daughters felt the parody was merely "exaggerated" humor only meant to say "motherhood isn't the only choice," not that motherhood is a negative choice. But maybe she takes away that message precisely because motherhood is a positive good in our stable, two-parent household? What about all those girls in the audience with a different "default setting?"
The same is true for “discontinued pregnant Midge.” I will grant that the actual doll was an odd concept, but clearly in the film the doll is used to convey at least an ambivalent attitude toward motherhood -- which sidelines you from the joys of Barbie World.
My husband said he was impressed with the film’s set design and was good-naturedly amused by the guitar-playing scene as well as the scene involving “mansplaining” investments and computers.
But, he said, the film presents “the same ‘rights’ conversation” he has “heard his whole life” – as important as that has been. He would have liked Gerwig’s film better if it had explored the issues of death that began Barbie’s crisis and purpose that mournfully closes the credits in song.
One daughter thought dad had raised valid ‘eternal’ issues. But for her, the movie was about the temporal need for woman to have dignity, safety and sisterhood. I later remarked that it’s men who actually experience more loneliness. I could have added depression and suicide.
To me, Gerwig’s/Baumbach’s portrayal of men in Barbie, is its central flaw, despite Gosling’s winning performance. The pretty pink surface of this film is littered with over-the-top stereotypes that aren’t as witty as the filmmakers intend: all men have power, fragile egos and no self-awareness. All men objectify women. (Is nerdy Allen our only other choice?) Men prefer weak, dependent women. When man are present women become defenseless and easily deceived. Pluh-leeze.
One daughter contended that the men were “standing in for what it feels like to be a woman in a man’s world.” Maybe, but I thought the overall message was convoluted. At a pivotal moment after Ken has taken over Barbie World, he asked her “what does it feel like” to be displaced. She responded by crying. But what was she exactly in tears over?
The plot did not indicate that Barbie realized the folly of a zero-sum power struggle between the sexes. Instead, she proposed a plan to take it all back and restore the Barbies’ control with men being far more marginalized than women in Western society today. No Supreme Court positions for you, my fine fellow.
After her victory, Barbie comforts a distraught, rejected and homeless Ken. Barbie’s sage advice to Ken is to find himself. So later he is seen wearing a fuzzy tie-dye shirt proclaiming: “I am Kenough.” Apparently, Ken just needed Oprah-style pop psychology to sort himself out. We’re supposed to be tickled pink that Ken embraced a dumb feminine stereotype. Seriously?
Another daughter felt the movie was about “not depending on an (opposite sex) relationship to define you.” But what if that message, if overstated, diminishes the truly profound mutuality and self-understanding that differentiated sexes offer each other? Yet Ken was designed by Mattel to be a mere masculine “accessory.” Maybe he should be upset at losing his purpose within Barbie World? Such is the dilemma of trying to be logical (much less subversive) with ludicrous “source” material.
Predictably, Barbie offers the same old Disney-fied “identity crisis solution” of individual self-actualization with a dash of girl-power solidarity. Has this tired formula delivered on its promises of personal fulfillment? Hardly, as we now witness the toxic results of extreme expressive individualism, even to the point of certain males actually commandeering “women’s spaces.” The culprits are not the hyper-masculine Ken dolls.
Ken’s journey also speaks to the incoherence of this film even within the limits of a ‘rights’ paradigm. It is Ken who learns (and then unlearns??) that in the Real World you have to know things and accomplish things, for instance, to be a doctor. That Ken is informed of this fact by a female doctor undermines the argument about women not having rights.
Just as bad, Gerwig throws in the fantasy that women routinely seek to do all the jobs traditionally taken on by men, such as construction work. Funny how’s there is no “equal rights” conversation around women in mining and sanitation jobs. But no matter, as Barbie World is actually one of pretending not achieving. Quite ironically those “professional Barbies” never sold that well. Maybe stereotypical Barbie was just more fun?
So, with the ‘rights’ argument becoming passe (given the actual status of Western women), the goalposts move toward the psychological. Barbie feels distinctly, if vaguely, threatened in the Real World. Strangely, Barbie feminism has a touch of that old “radical feminist” vibe in which “all men are rapists” and women ought to live separately. Then, again, in a “liberated” world where porn reigns supreme, perhaps far worse problems have been unleashed than those ever created by “putting women on a pedestal.”
Meanwhile Gerwig under-develops the mother/daughter reconciliation narrative in Barbie. This potentially interesting storyline gets summarized into one BIG speech about “women’s cognitive dissonance.” However, the speech fails to consider that women themselves contributed to this dissonance. “Having it all” was a false aspiration made up by women, for women. And clearly, the mom’s marriage to the ideal Beta-Bro leaves her unsatisfied. But of course the dad-who-isn't-worthy-of-respect has been standard comedic fare for decades now. That the mom introduces Death to Barbie may be saying more than Gerwig appreciates.
Still, if there’s any subversive message in this film, it comes at the very end. Barbie – seeking to discover her Real World identity – visits the gynecologist. Is Gerwig suggesting that womanhood is based in biology? Even better, is she suggesting that it is overdue for secular feminists to come to terms with it, as Helen Joyce argues? Probably not. But when you’re as beautiful as Margo Robbie you can get away even with cultural heresy, a power such women have always welded.