The Grandstander: Doing the Barbenheimer

Monday, July 24, 2023

Doing the Barbenheimer

Within a twenty-four hour period over Sunday and Monday, I took in the two most hyped movies of 2023, Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" and Christopher Nolen's "Oppenheimer." I didn't do it in one calendar day, but, yes, I did The Barbenheimer.

Barbie

When I first heard that there was to be a movie based on Barbie, the Mattel baby doll, I had little interest in seeing it until I heard that the movie was to be directed (and written) by Greta Gerwig. After her two previous films, "Lady Bird" and "Little Women", I figure that anything to which Gerwig attaches herself is worth seeing. Okay, the fact that Margot Robbie would be playing Barbie might also have been a big selling point for this one.

As the movie opens, we see Barbie awaken in Barbie Land. In Barbie Land, Barbies can be anything that they want to be - an astronaut, President, a Supreme Court Justice, a doctor, a lawyer, a scientist, absolutely anything. Kens, on the other hand, are merely vapid creatures who want nothing more than to spend time on the beach, and, of course, serve the needs of the various Barbies, in an asexual way, of course.

Through some rip in the continuum between Barbie Land and the Real World, Robbie's Barbie finds herself thinking thoughts of death, having flat feet, and, worst of all, getting cellulite. To fix this, Barbie needs to journey to the Real World and find the little girl who is playing with her. Yes, "Barbie" could be called another multi-verse movie. Ken, played by Ryan Gosling, stows away for the trip. In the Real World, of course, Barbie discovers that while it's possible that women can be anything that they want to be, it isn't all that easy to do so in what is still a man's world. And Ken discovers that it's not so bad if men get the chance to run things, a concept that he brings back with him to Barbie Land with disastrous results.

Don't ask me to explain how all this worked in the movie, but do go see it and enjoy it. The movie has a lot of laughs, is beautiful to look at in all of it's pink-ified splendor, and the acting is terrific with Robbie and Gosling and in significant supporting roles, Kate McKinnon, America Ferrera, Will Farrell, and Michael Cera.

I did think that the movie's message got a bit tied up in knots towards the end, but that's a minor quibble on my part. The movie also delivers a terrific final line. It might not rank up there with "Nobody's perfect", "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn", or "Louis, I think that this might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship", but it's a real zinger nonetheless.

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

Oppenheimer

Without question, the most highly anticipated movie thus far in 2023 has been Christopher Nolen's "Oppenheimer", the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist tapped to lead the Manhattan Project during WW II and develop the atomic bomb before the Germans (and the Russians) can.

This movie has a three hour running time. Too long for a movie? In most cases, yes, but not here. Every minute of this movie is integral to the story being told. I never looked at my watch once while watching this one. The movie is told from couple of points of view, one part in black and white, but most of the movie in color. That took a bit to get used to in keeping track of the story, but you catch on fairly quickly. Me, I love the use of black and white in this one.

All elements of mid-twentieth century America can be seen in Oppenheimer's story. From the heroic war effort of the Americans working on the project to the Communist witch hunts of the McCarthy Era. It is one terrific story, and Nolan's movie making skills are on full display in this fabulous movie. Even one of the most cliched items in any movie - a countdown clock - is anything but a cliche in this one. And when the test bomb is fired in the New Mexico desert? Well, I won't give a spoiler here, but it's a Wow Moment.

A salute to all of the actors in this one, mainly Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer, but also the always terrific Emily Blunt as his wife Kitty, Matt Damon as Army General Leslie Groves, and a hardly recognizable Robert Downey Jr as Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Lewis Strauss. There are a multitude of other actors in this one who you will recognize like Kenneth Branagh, Rami Malek, and Florence Pugh. There is also a brief screen appearance by Gary Oldman as President Harry S Truman. Oldman has now played, among other people, Harry Truman, Winston Churchill, and Lee Harvey Oswald. What a resume.

I predict that there will be a slew of Oscar animations for the one. Best Picture, of course, and Nolan for both Director and Screenplay, and acting nominations for Murphy, Blunt, Downey, and, possibly, Damon. I also hope that it gets some nomination or other for Costuming, if for no other reason that the very cool hat that Murphy/Oppenheimer wore (I want one!):