FEATURE:
Atomic Blonde to a New Rapture
IN THIS PHOTO: Barbie’s acclaimed and excceptional director and co-writer (with Noah Baumbach), Greta Gerwig/PHOTO CREDIT: Dan Jackson via QUEUE
Why Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie Need to Work Together Again Soon
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THERE is going to be….
IMAGE CREDIT: Warner Bros.
love and reaction to the Barbie film for many weeks to come. When it was released on Friday (21st), the reviews were hugely positive. I saw on social media so many photos of people dressed in pink going to see the film! Everyone was raving about various aspects of the film. It is a shame that there were some misguided, snotty and dismissive reviews of the film! Those who embraced it and were not of the opinion writer-director Greta Gerwig was attacking all men and selling her soul in the process recognised it for what Barbie is: one of the most accomplished, original and fantastical comedies ever written. There is so much heart and touching moments in a film with plenty of colour (not just pinks) and craziness. It is that blend and balance of heightened silliness and grounded and serious. A film that reframes and redefines Barbie. A feminist film for sure - but never one that either attacks all men or has any agenda of that sort. I am going to bring in a review soon but, before then, I predict that the monster box office so far – Greta Gerwig achieved the record at the weekend of being the highest-grossing female director for an opening weekend (if that sentence makes sense?! – will translate to awards. For costumes, Gerwig’s direction, and possibly Margot Robbie’s stunning and applauded role as Barbie. A film that was so hyped and had this great build-up actually surpassed expectation. Going up against Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer (which has taken less at the box office but has slightly better reviews), Barbie is undoubtably not only the film of the summer. It highlights the fact that Greta Gerwig is one of the greatest directors and writers of her generation. I saw Barbie yesterday (24th), and it is life-changing. I have made decisions and set new goals solely on that single viewing! I will go and see it again very soon. As I predicted, it is one of the funniest comedies for many years. In fact, as a comedy film, it rivals some of the best of all time. It was a moving, emotional and incredible experience seeing these amazingly imaginative and awe-inspiring scenes mixing with the more emotional and tender.
IN THIS PHOTO: Margot Robbie shot for Vogue in May 2023/PHOTO CREDIT: Ethan James Green
Female directors are not often written about – when was the last time there was a special feature and long article joining together innovative women directors?! -, and they are not regularly recognised by award shows. In a year where there have been a few wonderful comedies written and/or directed by women – including Joy Ride and the forthcoming Bottoms -, Barbie’s success and instant legacy will inspire the current and next generation of female directors. What amazes me – in addition to the whole cast and crew – is that partnership between Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig. Robbie’s production company, LuckyChap Entertainment secured the rights to make a Barbie film, whereupon Robbie asked Gerwig to write I think. Then, during writing, Gerwig knew that she had to direct it. And do it her way. Robbie’s performance might just be the best of her career! A film that has brought unlimited joy and positive conversation, I will move on to outlining why Gerwig and Robbie need to work together again soon – and maybe a few other films together. Most reviews for Barbie have been four or five-star. Bar the odd bum summary, many have recognised the truth and brilliance of Barbie. This is what Mark Kermode said in his review for The Guardian:
“After a heavily trailered 2001-parody opening, we move to a pastel pink haven in which, “thanks to Barbie, all problems of feminism and equal rights have been solved”. This is Barbieland – a fantasy world in which big-haired dolls can be anything (lawyers, doctors, physicists, presidents), thereby inspiring equivalent feminine achievement out there in the “real world”. (“We fixed everything so all women in the real world are happy and powerful!”)
Like a dreamy version of the nightmarish Being John Malkovich, everyone here is Barbie. Except the men, who are just Ken. Or Allan (a hapless Michael Cera). But mainly just Ken – an appendage without an appendage. At the centre of all this self-referential fluff is producer-star Margot Robbie’s “Stereotypical Barbie” – a role so perfect that when Helen Mirren’s narrator makes a sardonic gag about the casting, no one minds. So it comes as a surprise when this habitually smiley creature finds herself haunted by thoughts of sadness, anxiety and death. Worse still, she develops flat feet and (whisper it!) cellulite – two horsemen of the Barbie apocalypse.
A visit to Kate McKinnon’s “Weird Barbie” (“she was played with too hard”) reveals that a wormhole has opened between this world and the next. Now, like Amy Adams in Enchanted, our fairytale heroine must take a ride to reality, accompanied by Stowaway Ken (Ryan Gosling), who promptly discovers The Patriarchy, in which men (and horses) are in charge!
Meanwhile at Mattel HQ, Will Ferrell is reprising his Lego Movie role as the adult quasher of childish dreams, demanding that Barbie get “back in the box”. But by now, Barbie has met gothy teen Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt), who tells her that “you’ve been making women feel bad about themselves since you were invented”, adding; “You set the feminist movement back 50 years, you fascist!” Far from saving the world, Barbie seems to have helped create a dystopia in which “men look at me like an object” and “everyone hates women!”.
There’s something of the rebellious spirit of Todd Haynes’s 1988 cult classic Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story about Gerwig’s deceptively upbeat blockbuster. Haynes’s zero-budget underground masterpiece (which has never had an official release) used increasingly disfigured Barbie dolls to tell the tragic story of a talented musician whose life was overshadowed by anorexia. Yet in Gerwig’s multiplex-friendly spectacular, this spectre of unrealisable expectation is slyly reconfigured into a weirdly liberating parable about being whatever (size, profession, attitude) you want to be – whether Ken and The Patriarchy like it or not.
There are jokes about the red pill from The Matrix, the snow globe from Citizen Kane, the male “meaning” of Coppola’s The Godfather, and fanboyish emotional overinvestment in Zack Snyder’s director’s cut of Justice League. Yet Barbie is never anything less than inclusive – meaning that young(ish) fans raised on such animated staples as Barbie in the Nutcracker and Barbie of Swan Lake will find as much to cheer about as wizened old critics looking for smart film references. Like her terrific 2019 adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, Gerwig’s latest has no intention of ditching its source material’s core audience, even while allowing those with more snooty cinephile tastes to excuse their enjoyment of her film by comparing it with canonical works.
IN THIS PHOTO: Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie attend CinemaCon in Las Vegas to promote Barbie during the Warner Bros. presentation at Caesars Palace on 25th April, 2023/PHOTO CREDIT: Greg Doherty/WireImnage
A smart script, co-written with Noah Baumbach, reminds us of Mattel’s constant attempts to reinvent their product (Earring Magic Ken;Palm Beach Sugar Daddy; inflatable breasts Skipper – yes, really) and their embarrassed discontinuation of models that incurred consumer/retailer ire. It all culminates in an entertainingly feisty dismantling of male power (“He took your home; he brainwashed your friends; he wants to control the government”), pepped up by Gosling’s deliciously vacuous apex-Ken performance and carried shoulder-high by Robbie, without whom this audacious flim-flam could well have fallen flat on its face. A moving cameo by Rhea Perlman as the creator of all this madness lends a touch of heartfelt pathos. But it’s Robbie and Gerwig (along with the production designers and songwriters) who make this fizz, ensuring that everything is awesome, even when it isn’t”.
I am thrilled with all the success and adulation Barbie has received so far. As I say, conversations, buzz and general excitement will continue for a long time to go. After the box office has levelled a bit, there is going to be talk around award inclusion for Barbie. I don’t think many interviewers have asked Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie what they are doing next – or they may have been asked to stick to a brief and focus on this film. This is the first time Geriwig and Robbie have worked closely together on a film. Robbie’s foresight and intelligence to secure the rights to make a Barbie film. Her acknowledgment and appreciation of Greta Gerwig’s wonderful writing and direction meant this perfect match. Robbie’s lead turn and production brilliance – including guiding a wonderful and captivating promotional campaign – and Gerwig’s direction and writing (she co-wrote the script with her partner Noah Baumbach) has led to this modern-day classic. It makes me wonder whether, a) Gerwig and Robbie will work together and, b) what that project might be in terms of genre/scope and themes etc. I will put on ice (for now, at least!), a picture that I keep plotting and pitching. It is one that almost has to come to the big screen.
As this is a music blog, I instantly thought about two relevant biopics I have spoken about before but have never come to light. Both would involve iconic blonde protagonist. Some might say that, so close to Barbie, this is some sort of hair-coloured theme or lazy step. The two worlds and dynamics of the films are vastly different. Because we have not really had a massive music biopic this year, it makes me think that we are due one. Madonna was planning a biopic of her life – which she was going to direct -, but that got scrapped because of various script issues. I think that Fleetwood Mac are a band that have not been represented in film too much (or at all). I am thinking about the period where they recorded Rumours. That 1977 masterpiece represented a turbulent time for the band. With relationships within the band (romantic and collegial) breaking down and the tension and excess in and out of the studio reaching never-shredding highs, it is inexplicable how the band made such a cohesive, stress-free-sounding and spectacular album. Not to instantly cast Margot Robbie in the role of Stevie Nicks, but I do something of Nicks in Robbie. I know that Robbie has said the '60s is an era she’d like to explore. She loves the film Easy Rider, so she wants to do something late-'70s-based too.
I think that a film set during that recording would be amazing. The recent series, Daisy Jones & The Six, I feel is loosely based around Fleetwood Mac and that time around 1976 or 1977. Regardless, there is plenty of promise and potential when it comes to bringing the story of Rumours to the big screen. Greta Gerwig is probably looking at bigger-budget films after Barbie smashed the box office, but her comedic and dramatic writing skills and phenomenal directing chops would add so much to a Fleetwood Mac biopic. Same goes for Margot Robbie’s production and acting. If not a star in the film, she would definitely be an exceptional peripheral character. I have always through that Robbie would make a natural and wonderful director. A biopic that is important yet not as nerve-wracking as a film like Barbie would definitely give her a chance to add yet skill to her résumé – one which is among the most impressive in Hollywood! I am also thinking that a second biopic is in order. One that I am more determined than any to get made is about Blondie. Whether it has Debbie Harry very much at the front or is more about the band’s early life and their breakthrough success with 1978’s Parallel Lines, I am not too sure. One of the world’s greatest bands has not been properly brought to life for cinema. One might say that many artists due a biopic have not had one made. It is the fact that, as I have said repeatedly, Debbie Harry is keen on the idea and Blondie are still current makes it a perfect moment. Even though Margot Robbie is taller than Debbie Harry, (by two and a half inches), she would do a fantastic job portraying her. Maybe Harry would favour someone else in the role – I have suggested Paramore’s Hayley Williams as a perfect fit -, but this woman and band definitely warrant a biopic.
If Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie did not want to go down the music biopic route, you definitely can see them – and would warmly urge – working together again. Maybe a tense thriller, period film (thinking more 1960s and 1970s than way before that), comedy or big-budget action film, they would once more strike gold! I don’t feel (and hope) that this is a one-off. Because Margot Robbie wanted to bring Barbie to the big screen and Greta Gerwig was the perfect fit. Then, after that, they will go their own way and work on different projects for years. Of course, both are working on new stuff or at least know their next project. I doubt we will see them pair up for a little while at least. The huge affection both have received because of what they have achieved proves that the world has enormous respect for the visionary writer and director and Margot Robbie’s wonderful and vast acting talent and her genius as a producer. Selfishly, I would like something music-based from them. Comedy would be another avenue because, as I planned one that I very much had Robbie and Gerwig in mind for (but obvious that will never happen), they could at least produce, direct, write and star in a similar idea. Now is not a perfect time to look at new projects. With actors and writers united in Hollywood striking and asking for change, I guess one of the last things Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie will be thinking about is a new film. When things are resolved and an agreement has been reached in Hollywood, many will look with interest to see how Gerwig and Robbie follow Barbie. One thing is for sure: as they are so perfect and natural together on Barbie (and look warm and comfortable in each other’s company during promotion), it absolutely…
CAN’T be their last pairing.