Barbenheimer
Reviews of both movies and thoughts on the craze itself
Well, it’s been awhile since I was here on a Thursday, sorry about that. Even if it’s not every week, I’m hoping to be back here with more posts on random interests, but sometimes life is busy and making these posts into a chore would be a disservice to both you and me.
It took an event that has been hyped up all year to break my Thursday hiatus, and friends, I’m glad it did.
Last weekend, we saw two of the biggest movies of the summer coming out on the same day. Those movies were Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” a set of films with starkly different energies, but both with exceptional hype based on the concepts and the people involved.
This weekend has been talked about for months and months, and it has been extremely cool to see. The movie industry has certainly had its hits in recent years, but many of those have come in major franchises, cinematic universes or with movies that were simply not very good.
I, and likely many others, had very little doubts that both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” would at the very least be well-made, solid films. Gerwig and Nolan are two tremendous filmmakers, and the casts and crew of both were absolutely loaded, so the floor of movie quality felt very safe. That, mixed with how unique and refreshing both movie concepts felt, is why I was so excited to see both movies this weekend.
Major movie studios will likely see the success of this weekend — one of the highest-grossing weekends at the box office ever — and try to capitalize on it with more weekends that have competing, contrasting films. But it will be nearly impossible to match this lightning in a bottle, primarily because it’s harder to imagine two big-budget movies this unique, this hyped up and this good coming out in the same weekend.
No matter what, Barbenheimer arrived, and I saw them both. My order was “Barbie” Saturday morning, “Oppenheimer” Sunday morning. “Barbie” was in a regular theater and “Oppenheimer” was in IMAX, but not 70mm, mainly because it wasn’t available near me.
Let’s talk about these movies, as spoiler-free as possible in case you have not seen them, because you definitely should.
Barbie
As said above, “Barbie” was directed by Greta Gerwig, who most recently directed “Lady Bird” and “Little Women,” two total bangers. It stars Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Will Ferrell and so many others.
The film is about Barbie (Robbie) going through a mental crisis of sorts that forces her into the real world to try and save Barbie World as she knows it, and she is joined on the journey by Ken (Gosling) in an attempt to impress her.
When I entered the theater for this movie, I was really just hoping for fun, and fun was what I got. “Barbie,” from start to finish, is full of comedy and heart, and it is seemingly filled with joy from the entire cast and crew.
Gerwig has been so good with her craft up to this point that my only fear was a larger budget taking away some of that specific style of writing and directing she has shown in her prior efforts. Instead, it feels like she was really able to create her vision, utilizing the extra resources and, in ways, enhancing what she can do by being more tongue-in-cheek and utilizing some meta humor to make it clear that this is all supposed to be a little silly.
“Barbie” has a lot to say about the world we live in, but also knows that this is a movie based on a series of dolls, and it balances that tightrope exceptionally well for most of the film. When it needs to be serious, it does a pretty good job at driving that home. When it goes for a joke, a large majority of those jokes land, including some that had me laughing to the point of tears (building chase and brick wall jokes specifically come to mind as major highlights).
Two areas of this movie shined brightest for me: the production design and the performances.
It sounds like a simple task, but creating a Barbie World that feels like a world is worth celebrating, and I think “Barbie” does that excellently. The set designs pop and the visuals are eye-catching from start to finish, and it makes for a visible treat that matches the tone of the movie very well.
But above all else, it is the performances of this cast that makes “Barbie” such a fun ride. Robbie and Gosling specifically are excellent, playing off each other well while also each having their own standout moments. Ryan Gosling is the best physical comedian of our generation, and Gerwig gives him every opportunity to show that off here. Also shoutouts to Will Ferrell, Kate McKinnon and Michael Cera, who I thought were major highlights whenever they were on screen.
My gripes with this movie are minimal, and it mainly came with the heavy-handedness of some of the jokes and themes. This is a PG-13 movie that undoubtedly still has to market to children, so getting a message across is a difficult task. “Barbie” certainly accomplishes this, but I think some of the lines suffer because of the necessity to get people of all ages to understand them.
I also wish there was more from the human protagonists, mainly America Ferrera. She is very good in the screen time she is given, but I think more could have been explored with her character and story.
None of this stops “Barbie” from being a total blast of a time, with excellent performances, wildly funny lines and a real tug on the heart strings by the end. It’s a visual delight, tons of fun and absolutely worth the buzz it has been given.
8/10
Oppenheimer
I mean where the hell do I begin with this movie man.
“Oppenheimer” is Christopher Nolan’s newest mind-melter, and it stars Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh and like so many other actors you have heard of. This film is based around the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, and his role in creating the atomic bomb.
This is a three-hour biopic that consists primarily of dialogue in various eras of time, some of which is in black and white. It is one of the best movies I have ever seen.
From the moment this film starts, my attention never wavered for 180 consecutive minutes. “Oppenheimer” grabs you, shakes you around, gets your expectations ready, meets them, then goes for another hour with some of the most enthralling back-and-forth dialogue you will ever witness.
I know I am talking with a lot of hyperbole but these are the raw feelings I have about this movie in a nutshell. How do I describe it? Talking, lots of talking, outrageously good performances across the board, delightful visuals, a world-class musical score and a director so specifically honed into his craft that he can make it all work perfectly throughout an obscenely long runtime.
We have to start somewhere so I’ll start with the cast, which is just superb. This is Cillian Murphy’s Oscar-winner, it simply has to be. He is out-of-this-world good as the titular character, both with his delivery of lines and the amount of emotion he can display with subtle facial expressions. It is as gripping a performance as I can remember.
Outside of him, every supporting actor is on their A game. Emily Blunt’s performance is so excellent here, likely my favorite of hers since “Sicario.” She displays emotion so well with so little, and she may have the most gripping scene in the entire film based simply on how well she plays it. Robert Downey Jr. has a career-best turn as Lewis Strauss, and I love how Nolan plays his scenes within the arc of the movie.
Matt Damon is terrific. Florence Pugh is terrific. Jason Clarke is really really terrific. Tom Conti as Albert Einstein? You know he’s terrific folks. I will avoid saying every name in the cast as some were surprises to me, but just know that if they showed up, they blew me away.
Nolan always finds a way to surprise, and the way this story is told makes it feel so fresh and exciting and intense the whole way through. You feel like you know where it’s headed the whole time, but then *that* happens, and there’s a whole lot of movie left to go. Somehow, Nolan delivered on the promise of “Oppenheimer” and managed to make the next hour even better. It feels impossible, but so does everything this movie accomplishes.
I need to give a special shoutout to cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema and composer Ludwig Göransson, who were Kobe and Shaq behind the scenes. The visuals, all of which supposedly occur without the use of CGI, are beyond stunning, and they are paired with a stress-inducing score that heightens every scene throughout the film.
Flaws? Not one. I don’t have the time to nitpick here, this movie had me on the edge of my seat the whole time and I never wanted it to end. It might be Christopher Nolan’s best, and you should see it on the largest screen you can possibly find.
Go see both of these movies, but really really see “Oppenheimer” in theaters while you can.
10/10
Feature Photo Credit: @justralphy on Instagram
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