She’s everything. He’s just Death, the “destroyer of worlds”. Do they need any other introduction? Barbenheimer, Atomic Blonde, whatever you want to call it, there was an undeniably explosive impact when Barbie and Oppenheimer were unleashed upon theaters this summer. As a cultural moment, it spawned double features, fashion trends, and countless memes.
Even before their release dates, Barbie and Oppenheimer were consistently in the news, including sparking controversy over maps of the South China Sea, creating discussions about the gender wage gap when casting actors, and even causing a worldwide shortage of pink paint. On the surface, it seems like the question to be asking is, ‘Why Barbenheimer?’. Why these two movies now? They weren’t two sides of a war moving towards mutually assured destruction. Instead, the public decided that they were perfectly matched partners, dancing the night away.
In my opinion, Barbenheimer is more than just the atomic wasteland next to the Dreamhouse. Both movies deal with the existential themes that are created by the implications of a world changing invasion. Both movies are passion projects from well-respected writer-directors with clear, recognizable styles. Both movies have an amazing set and wardrobe, and expansive star-studded casts. Most importantly, both movies have this living, breathing passion behind them for filmmaking as a craft, and this can be felt in every second of both the movies. So, the real question I propose we ask instead is, ‘What does Barbenheimer mean to us?’.
Well, I know what Barbenheimer means to me. Hands down, it was one of the best movie watching experiences I’ve had this year! I usually watch movies in one of two ways: by myself in the dark, or—if it’s a real masterpiece like Castle Freak or Space Truckers—by myself in the dark, yelling at the screen, and laughing at my own jokes. In reality, going to the theater with my friends to see Barbenheimer this summer was incredibly special.
So on game day, I suited up in my best pink threads and marched towards the nearly 6-hour-long behemoth I was about to tackle. My friends and I started with Oppenheimer, a tactical decision made because, by all accounts, no one wanted to leave the fun hangout with friends on a sour note (pondering the horrors of war). As soon as the movie started I was hit with two realizations: one, this was going to be a brilliant movie and two, this was the most Nolan that Christopher Nolan the writer/director has ever Nolaned. By that I mean it has gripping sound design, beautiful shots with natural lighting, timeline confusion, famous or upcoming actors in glorified cameos (Shout-out to Jack Quaid and his bongos) and Cillian Murphy in incredibly well-cut suits. If you put this movie in a line-up of other releases this year and said ‘pick out the Nolan movie’, it would be like putting Michael Myers in a police line-up and saying ‘pick out the killer’.
After taking a break to refuel, we were met with waves of pink flooding the lobby of the theater. Everyone was fully dressed to the nines to see one movie: Barbie. Getting into the theater and seeing all the female-presenting people waiting to watch the movie gave me a flashback to the last time I was in a similar situation. In middle school, all the girls in my class were taken to the gym to watch a documentary about ‘female empowerment’, which was just really brutal stories about girls being catty to each other. When we got back, we found out that the boys had gotten to spend the entire period playing video games. Barbie takes this viewpoint and promptly kicks it out of the Dreamhouse.
Is it the perfect movie on feminism? No. Barbie is like Bernie Sanders running in an election. It’s there to start a conversation. Despite the immaculate sets, perfect costume designs, and brilliant wielding of Mattel Lore (I see you, Magic Earring Ken), the part of Barbie that I enjoyed the most was the positive atmosphere in the theater. There were so many different people watching and enjoying the movie. When America Ferrera gave a speech about how hard it is to be a woman, the entire theater started clapping- something I’ve never ever experienced before.
I’m worried that movie execs will take the wrong message from Barbenheimer. Studios are already trying to replicate this success by releasing the horror film Saw 10 and the children’s film Paw Patrol, and marketing them as ‘Saw Patrol’. But what they fail to understand is that you can’t force meaning into movies - the truth is, people make the movies meaningful.