Episode 17: The Barbie Movie Review (and why the Kenergy?)
SPOILER ALERT: This entire description and episode is filled with spoilers.
Co-hosts Brandon and Katie explore the Barbie movie from their perspectives as a tall Black man who loves superheros, and a not as quite as tall blond white woman who just stepped off her own moving sidewalk. They munch on topics from the movie including why Kenergy was introduced at all; would this movie have grossed over a billion dollars had the Ken story not been explored?; could Irrepressible Thoughts Of Death Barbie have carried it on her own?; the background of the co-creator and star Margot Robbie and writers Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach; more exploration of Gloria’s (America Ferrera) character; and why Barbie wanted to see the gynecologist as soon as she decided to feel feelings and gain anatomy like a vagina in the Real World.
Additionally, these topics (and more) are covered:
Why was this movie all about Ken?
In the “I’m Just Ken” song, was it okay that he was singing about his “blond fragility?” Was that a spoof off the now trending term “white fragility” and if so, does that weaken the term “white fragility?” Why or why not?
Why did the writer Greta Gerwig, who is known for her quietly fierce and poetic style of female centered character studies, insist that her life partner Noah Baumbach, known for an absurdist style compared to Wes Anderson and Woody Allen, co-write the movie?
Would the movie have grossed over a billion dollars, placing Greta Gerwig as the first female director to have solo directed a movie, if Kenergy had not taken over? Could Irrepressible Thoughts of Death Barbie have carried it?
But was it refreshing and necessary to see male vulnerability and explore unrealistic expectations?
What happened to Gloria’s (America Ferrera) Irrepressible Thoughts of Death Death Barbie?
Why wasn’t Gloria financially rewarded for her high grossing concept of Ordinary Barbie?
Why did Gloria propose Ordinary Barbie to the CEO instead of the darker Barbies she was drawing?
Why was Barbie dressed down wearing pale yellow and flat hair by the end?
Why was going to the gynecologist the first thing Barbie did in the real world? Was it because she now had a real vagina and feelings and wanted to feel and explore them?