A Movie Night

Barbie × Oppenheimer

I’m not a frequent cinema-goer. Not at all. The last film I watched at a movie theater was Dune, and the one before that, if my memory doesn’t betray me, was Mad Max released back in 2015 which now counts as a different era. And yet, the joint Barbie and Oppenheimer weekend was so thoroughly hyped I didn’t resist for a minute the urge to go and see those two with my own eyes.

Quite a few people have said they wouldn’t be able to entertain themselves watching Barbie after the overwhelming density of Oppenheimer. Probably there is some truth to that but I would say I might have wanted more time after Barbie if I could. Anyway, if you intend to do both in one evening, I still recommend watching Barbie first—not because Oppenheimer will leave you emotionally incapacitated (it didn’t do that to me) but rather because you may not want to watch anything after a 3-hour movie.

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Beware, as the following text might contain major spoilers!

Barbie

Immaculate picture. Fantastic homages to cinema masterpieces. You get immersed right when it starts, and there is not a moment for you to get bored. The perfect Barbie experience, if you think about it. You’re witnessing the best shot, every shot. The transition from Barbieland to reality is exquisite, too: it’s all dusty and dull in the real world but there’s also much more detail and life in everything.

I didn’t expect much besides what’s in the above paragraph. I didn’t expect any Real World either, to be honest—my understanding was that everything happened in Barbieland. So what went next was mindblowing! Once the shit got off the perfect doll’s life rails, it got darker and moodier and crazier—but all in a carefully curated way, hinting at people’s life crises but not making you outright depressed. Which I think is the best therapeutic approach: trigger a reaction that makes you question yourself but then shy away. Just play with the spectator and make an attempt at creating a safe playground for their spooky thoughts.

I think Barbie did just that.

What’s definitely not good about the movie is its careless marketing. From all the trailers it was not clear what you should have expected. As a result, crowds of 13-year-old girls are storming the movie theaters, only to get confused as hell with the plot that has no reference points in their lives. Occasional complicated dialogues baffle them even more. It’s definitely not a movie for children, and not because of what may be called SJW propaganda—which is surely featured in this movie.

Thanks to @TechnicallyRon for this image!

So, a word on wokeism. Ugh… Like. You can imagine. There are so many angry people now, blaming Barbie for being a thoroughly left-coded product. I saw something different though. I saw a brilliantly self-ironic perspective on the DEI discourse. Yes, what has been said explicitly might look jarring, but there are layers to it! In the end, it’s all about people finding their personal, individual identities. You don’t like that, too? Well, you should attack that specific point then, not straw man it because of what it looks like superficially. I, for one, do like when people are taken as individuals first. And I like when we are questioning ourselves.

I’m sure this movie will have affected many people, how they treat themselves, and what they are doing with their lives. I would put Barbie in the same category as another great movie—Everything, Everywhere, All At Once. It’s one of those deep existential meditations wrapped in the shape of silly-looking fiction with lots of stylized buffoonery. Speaking of which…

My favorite scene is the Dance of Kens. Here. I said that.

I don’t think there should be too many movies like this. Probably even another one in the next two years will be one too many. Yet this is definitely better than another epic action on how the evil AI wants to destroy all humans.

Yes, that was in the teaser section.

Oppenheimer

After early reactions on Twitter, I had greater expectations for this movie. Specifically, I thought the focus will be more on the research and engineering aspects of the Manhattan Project—but instead, politics was in the spotlight. Besides, I was having an impression from time to time that I was watching a documentary.

That’s unfortunate and, in my opinion, bad in a very specific way: Oppenheimer won’t inspire young people to be scientists or engineers, and we desperately need that inspiration. Nolan succeeded in showing a complicated and perplexed man’s life story, but he failed in showing a brilliant physicist and his inventions.

The movie’s raggedness is probably used to reflect Robert Oppenheimer’s convoluted character but even though I get the intention, those timeline jumps are pretty uncomfortable. On the other hand, I loved his early life scenes with the visions of physical principles haunting the young mind. Those shots sent goosebumps down my spine, and I’d want to see more of his thought process depicted like that—but alas, later on, that only gets replaced with visions of the bomb going off and people dying. I’d get that if it was the major point of the film but seemingly it is not.

I think what annoys me the most is that there is no central focus in the narrative. Another thing that struck me as completely unnecessary and even offputting is the sex scenes.

Jake Orthwein

pointed out those might serve as the illustration of how Eros and Thanatos were the counterforces in Oppenheimer’s life. Maybe. Even then, the way those scenes are inserted in the movie is ungraceful, inelegant.

Finally, the peak experience of the movie, the Trinity explosion, is diluted by all the long and dull interrogation and public process scenes that ensue. It’s likely historically accurate and everything, but what’s the point of the movie, again?

There is probably too much art in this art piece. It ends up contrived. Like in those occasional math rock compositions where everything is derived from some core principle but the result is barely listenable. Not that Oppenheimer is unwatchable, no. It’s still a beautiful movie. But it’s… conceptually unfocused? Lost while trying to interpret too much at once? I guess I just waited for something completely different.

Verdict

Barbie is definitely the highlight of the weekend for me. The more I think about these two movies, the more happy I am with Barbie and dissatisfied with Oppenheimer. An inspiring and rigorous movie about engineers and scientists is yet to be created.

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PS. While people may tell you or reply in polls that they liked Oppenheimer more than Barbie, the box office reports show a different picture. (Visit the links to see those.)