“Barbie,” the current highest-grossing movie of 2023, continues to capture the interests of people all around the world. Read what Haven students thought of the movie.
WARNING: Potential spoilers below. We would recommend watching the movie first if you haven’t yet before continuing to read.
When the new “Barbie” movie came out on July 21, people around the globe bolted to theaters dressed in pink to see it.
“There was a lot of high energy, a lot of bright colors. I thought the dreamhouse was really cool. The fact that she could walk on the pool,” senior Catherine Caruso comendated.
The movie, which grossed $1,402,676,857 at the worldwide box office, follows the adventures of Barbie and Ken as they leave the picture-perfect Barbie world to explore the real world, where Barbies are made.
As Barbie discovers how imperfect the real world truly is, Ken begins to recognize that he can assert male dominance over Barbie in Barbie World, believing patriarchy to be the answer. Ultimately, after a long journey of self-discovery, Barbie and Ken decide to pursue their true identities: Barbie discovers that she does not need to be the perfect image that everyone expects her to be, and Ken discovers that he is strong enough on his own without Barbie (but not without a power ballad sung by Ryan Gosling, of course).
When people left the theaters, many felt surprised by the direction that the film had taken.
“I was expecting more of a fun, super happy, sparkly, not serious movie at all, but I thought they did a really good job with it,” sophomore Claire Donavan said. “It was different than you would think. It was more serious and focused on more feminist stuff, but it was really good. Five out of five stars.”
However, some others did not feel the same way about the new movie as a whole, questioning its overall plot.
“I would rank it a two or three [out of five],” Caruso said. “I feel like the movie was kind of all over the place, with them constantly going to the real world and back, and some of the characters were kind of unnecessary. I just didn’t understand it.”
However, the positive reviews significantly outnumber the negative ones. Unlike “Oppenheimer,” which only covers the creation of atomic bombs, “Barbie” emphasizes a message on mental health and self-worth: “You are Kenough,” as freshman Kathryn Kudrick said.*