“Barbie” Review Round-Up: Stellar Performances in a Soulful, Bananas, & Ambitious Summer Splash

Writer/director Greta Gerwig said, in no uncertain terms, that the idea of making Barbie terrified her. This is precisely why she felt she had to do it. Here’s how she described her motivation on Dua Lipa’s podcast At Your Service: “It was something that was exciting because it was terrifying. It felt like vertigo, starting to write it, like: ‘Where do you even begin, and what would be the story?’ And I think it was that feeling I had, knowing that it would be really interesting terror. Usually, that’s where the best stuff is, where you’re like, ‘I am terrified of that.’ Anything where you’re like, ‘This could be a career-ender — then you’re like, ‘I should probably do it.’”

She did it, and now that the review embargo has lifted, critics are finally revealing what they think. It turns out that facing your fears and following that ‘really interesting terror’ is a great way to make a surprising, satisfying, wild summer film.

“The director wields the iconic doll like a broadsword in Barbie,” writes Tribune News Service‘s Katie Walsh, “cleaving through culture with gleeful spirit and savage humor.”

In Barbie, our titular, iconic doll (played by Margot Robbie) has an existential crisis that leads her to question her reality and ultimately leave Barbie Land alongside Ken (Ryan Gosling). It’s a fateful decision that will teach these two seemingly perfect beings what the real world is like, warts and all. So many warts, in fact, a far cry from the monotonous perfection of the fantasy life they left behind.

Let’s take a brief tour of the Barbie reviews. The film opens wide on July 21.

Barbie’s whole reason for being is that she never changes, but her movie gives her a believable hero’s journey while having plenty of fun, writes @davidlsims: https://t.co/7PAy5NORJS

— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) July 18, 2023

💖 #BarbieMovie 💖
My review @TribuneAgency https://t.co/tNQBVDlzzv pic.twitter.com/ckzDRkVivI

— Katie Walsh (@katiewalshstx) July 18, 2023

Thanks to Gerwig’s imagination, this “Barbie” is far from plastic. It’s fantastic. #Barbie https://t.co/UoKRww8KVR

— TheWrap (@TheWrap) July 18, 2023

Loved Greta Gerwig’s #Barbie. And thought about the quote “Women… They have minds and they have souls, as well as hearts. And they’ve got ambition, and they’ve got talent, as well as beauty” during it often. It’s hilarious. It also made me cry. My review: https://t.co/p8QOikyQ7l

— Tomris Laffly (@TomiLaffly) July 18, 2023

On the delightful Mattelian neorealism of Greta Gerwig’s BARBIE: https://t.co/Uttt1lWg8U

— Justin Chang (@JustinCChang) July 18, 2023

BARBIE is borderline fucking miraculous – a deeply weird and hysterical & heartfelt studio movie partially about how capitalism tries to separate the creation from its creator. which not to be all “this is the movie we need right now” but *cough* *cough* https://t.co/Uz3UBNbmop

— Clarisse Loughrey (@clarisselou) July 18, 2023

‘Barbie’ review: Colorful comedy paints the whole world pink https://t.co/oX5fRhWAvd

— The Detroit News (@detroitnews) July 18, 2023

“Barbie” is the candy-colored treat that can’t be beat.https://t.co/qSoXQooIZE

— Richard Roeper (@RichardERoeper) July 18, 2023

Greta Gerwig’s dazzling #Barbie succeeds as both a gleeful escape and a battle cry (via @christylemire) https://t.co/djdt2jG3Sn

— RogerEbert.com (@ebertvoices) July 18, 2023

I went way over wordcount and STILL couldn’t fit in all my feelings about Barbie – incredible that a film can say this much about femininity/feminism while still being loads of fun 💞https://t.co/0LSgT4EHSE

— Alice Saville (@RaddingtonB) July 19, 2023

Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are delightful in this imaginative and — mostly — entertaining comedy about the world’s most famous doll having an existential crisis, writes Mick LaSalle. https://t.co/HlBzs4nEEt

— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) July 19, 2023

Greta Gerwig is drawn to stories of women who are the strong centre of the storms that surround them, from “Lady Bird” to “Little Women” to — yes — “Barbie.” https://t.co/Q88pH4MfMu

— Toronto Star (@TorontoStar) July 17, 2023

MOVIE REVIEW: The doll that changed the world faces the world she changed in this fizzy meta-comedy. https://t.co/U1HrNczWYZ @Barbie

— Austin Chronicle (@AustinChronicle) July 19, 2023

Review: Is the famous Mattel doll a contradictory cultural touchstone or just a fun, nostalgic toy? The answer is yes, says Greta Gerwig in “Barbie,” wherein the director has a psychedelically, if occasionally uneven, good time trying to have it all ways. https://t.co/NYfQhNJRvZ

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 18, 2023

BARBIE is the platonic ideal of the IP movie — yes, it’s a glitzy commercial to sell toys, but it’s also the kind of moving coming-of-age movie that only Greta Gerwig can make. Lightweight, but heart’s in the right place. Ryan Gosling steals. My review: https://t.co/S4ugRuWUVI

— Hoai-Tran Bui (@htranbui) July 19, 2023

For more on Barbie, check out these stories:

The Brilliant “Barbie” Marketing Team Secretly Created an Actual Barbie DreamHouse

Things Get Real for Margot Robbie’s Iconic Doll in Official “Barbie” Trailer

“Barbie” Trailer Reveals Margot Robbie in Greta Gerwig’s Live-Action Look at Mattel’s Iconic Doll

Featured image: Caption: (L-r) MARGOT ROBBIE as Barbie and RYAN GOSLING as Ken and in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “BARBIE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. (PRESS KIT). Photo Credit: Atsushi Nishijima