Barbie (2023) ****

 

On on hand, it's surprising it took so long for someone to make a live-action Barbie movie. After all, every other intellectual property has had its big-screen moment, in a Hollywood that seems willing to do anything to avoid coming up with an original idea. On the other hand, it's amazing that “Barbie” got made, given how fraught the road to production was. Here you have a brand with world-wide recognition, loved by many, but also hated by many. The modern-day Barbie collection includes dolls with different skin colors and different body types, but the original Barbie design, still the biggest seller, is the epitome of western beauty standards: tall, thin, blonde, busty, and white. This drives some people absolutely crazy. The modern collection includes Barbies who are doctors, scientists, and even President, but the brand has a history that includes a sugar-daddy Ken and a teenage Skipper doll whose boobs grew when you raised her arm. Any post-”Me, Too” story about Barbie would have to address the controversies and criticisms of the dolls, and it's hard to imagine the toy company Mattel would be excited to see their brand criticized. There have been a number of failed attempts over the years to get a Barbie movie off the ground, but writer-director Greta Gerwig and her husband and co-writer Noah Baumbach managed to make theirs fly.

Margot Robbie plays “stereotypical Barbie,” the white, busty one. She lives with all the other Barbies (Black, Asian, President Barbie, etc.) in the imaginary world of Barbie-land, where every day is perfect. When the Barbies aren't running the Supreme Court or doing brain surgery, they are having fabulous dance parties followed by girls-night sleepovers. Barbie-land isn't only populated by Barbies. There's also Ken (tall, blond, played by Ryan Reynolds). Along with all the other versions of Ken, stereotypical Ken spends his days trying to get Barbie's attention. In Barbie-land, where Barbie has all the power, Ken is really just an extension of Barbie.

Everything is going swimmingly until Barbie starts to have an existential crisis. She sets out on a journey to the real world to find the troubled girl who is playing with her and creating all the confusion. Ken hitches a ride to reality, where his mind is blown by a world in which men don't always have to play second fiddle.

It's a pretty damned clever movie! Barbie's journey is an existential odyssey, which goes down easy on account of all the humor. Meanwhile, Ken's story flips the script on The Patriarchy, providing a warning on the risks of oppressing part of your population, as well as commentary on the wrong ways to achieve equality. The tightly-woven story is helped by an excellent cast, including Kate Mckinnon, Issa Rae, and, of course, Robbie and Reynolds. Did I mention it has a great soundtrack, including the Indigo Girls' “Closer to Fine”? Whether you love or hate Barbie dolls, you'll find something to love in the “Barbie” movie.

4 stars out of 5

Hustle & Flow (2005) ***

 

Going to a few film festivals over the years, I have noticed that movies seem a lot better when you see them in that environment. I saw “Hustle & Flow” when it premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, and it seemed like the best movie ever. Watching it again all these years later, in the comfort of my own home, it's a pretty good movie, but not nearly as epic as I thought it was at Sundance.

Terrence Howard plays Djay, the least glamorous pimp in the history of pimps. Working the sweltering Memphis streets with a stable of 3 women, one of whom is pregnant, he struggles to pay the rent on a crappy house and keep gas in a beat-up car without air conditioning. Experiencing a mid-life crisis in his 30's, Djay rediscovers his talent for rapping. With the help of his women and a couple of friends (Anthony Anderson, DJ Qualls), he sets out to make a demo tape that will hopefully change his life.

Sounds a lot like 2002's “8 Mile,” doesn't it? “Hustle & Flow” is just too derivative to be considered a great movie. It also is just very typical of the kind of stories Hollywood loves to tell. Hollywood artists have a tendency to tell stories about their fellow artists, and this film continues a tradition that suggests that the only way out of poverty is to succeed as a musician, an actor, or maybe an athlete. Would “Hustle & Flow” have been as engaging if Djay had gone to night school to study dentistry? Probably not, but his poor, Memphis neighborhood could probably use a dentist a lot more than another rapper.

The redeeming factor here is the music. The songs Djay and his friends produce are pretty catchy, and one of them, “It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” (by Three6 Mafia) won an Oscar. Also, Terrence Howard has enough charisma to smooth over a lot of cinematic flaws in a film, and Taraji P. Henderson and Taryn Manning also give memorable performances. “Hustle & Flow” isn't the greatest, but at the end of the day, its strengths outweigh its weaknesses to make for a reasonably-entertaining film.

3 stars out of 5