I am become death - so come on Barbie, let's go party!
Like so many movie buffs and general people of culture did this summer, I too went to see Oppenheimer (2023) and Barbie (2023) in the cinema, on the same day, as a double feature, just like the Lord intended. For those who don't know, the amusing nature of two such large-scale and much-hyped blockbusters of such different genres+energies being released at the same time has become a much-joked-about trend, one that people have dubbed 'Barbenheimer' and the internet just had a blast with it.
I finally saw both films with my girlfriend this Monday, so here are my top 10 insights into the Barbenheimer double feature!
10. The memes are pure gold
As I mentioned, the internet has really been having a ball with the combination of Barbie and Oppenheimer. It started already half a year ago, when someone pointed out how funny it is that the two possibly most-hyped movies of the year are hitting the theaters on the same weekend, and that they are so different from each other by nature. As the double premiere drew closer, there were all sorts of shenanigans to be found online - people posting their preferred viewing orders and plans for the day, et cetera. Of course, the studios marketing these films were happy to jump on the hype train and monetize the phenomenon with a bunch of double feature marketing, but I'd like to think that it started off with people just finding amusement in the little things.
So, yeah, a quick Google search will give you an idea on some of the funniest tweets and memes that people have come up with concerning this unlikely pairing. My favorite might be when someone posted a picture of the Barbie dream mansion that had been re-created in lifesize form to promote the film, and someone had commented: "The Oppenheimer marketing team now has the chance to do the funniest thing imaginable".
9. Addressing the controversy
In the last few weeks, there has been conversation about the Barbie+Oppenheimer pairing and people making light about it, as people in Japan haven't all been thrilled about it for understandable reasons. The controversy was especially sparked by a Warner Bros. poster that admittedly wasn't done in very good taste, as the mushroom cloud from the atomic bomb is combined with the happily pink colors of Barbie, to promote the double feature with humorous intentions that backfired. As much as I've been aboard the 'Barbenheimer' hype train, I of course understand why the Japanese people might see westerners laughingly combining imagery of a tragedy that affected their country so deeply with imagery of fun-time pink-color aesthetics as offensive.
The main reason why I'm still personally okay with enjoying and hyping up the double feature is that once you see Oppenheimer, it becomes clear that even though it's an UK/US produced film, it does not one bit romanticize Oppenheimer or his work, but rather takes its heavy subject matter extremely seriously. Also, I don't see the point of all the 'Barbenheimer' jokes to be making light of the atomic bomb, but rather taking it into account and making dark humor about such a respectably dark film being a big deal at the same time as such a colorful and fun film. Still, I wanted to address the controversy and these are obviously just my opinions - as a pacifist, I have sympathy for anyone who takes the issue so seriously that they don't find the movie pairing funny, and as an American, I'm definitely in no position to tell the Japanese people what to think about this.
8. A thankful movie theater industry
The long-term effects of Covid, combined with the rise of streaming services and the rise of movie ticket prices due to inflation, have been a major hazard for cinemas worldwide. As someone who greatly appreciates the movie theater experience, this has been a worrying phenomenon to follow, and it's been sad to see how movie theaters appear to be emptier and emptier each year.
Therefore, it felt absolutely heartwarming to see how the power of Barbie, the power of Oppenheimer, and the power of the hype around this combination got people to go to theaters in record amounts. I can only imagine how deeply grateful the movie theater industry is to the Barbenheimer phenomenon, for filling up their seats after a rough couple of years.
7. The power of both films complemented one another
Oppenheimer is a damn powerful film. As good biopic should, it focuses on showing what happened more than telling people what to think: every point-of-view in the 'bomb or not to bomb' conversation, from the most idealistic "science shouldn't be utilized to design weapons of mass destruction" viewpoints to the most militaristic "we obviously had no choice but to do this" viewpoints is introduced, so that every viewer can think for themselves who they agree with. But in the end, while I appreciate the complexities and nuances of the situation, it's hard to imagine anyone watching the film and not coming up with the takeaway "damn, this whole endless cycle of nuclear arms races is a pretty shitty thing for humanity". I was worried that the film would do the Hollywood thing of being sort-of critical-of-war but not strongly enough because of American interests, but I was thankfully proved wrong, as Oppenheimer is all grim facts and zero propaganda, and this really spoke to my pacifist soul.
Barbie, on the other hand? Also an extremely powerful film. Obviously, it's powerful in a very different way, but powerful all the same - where Oppenheimer spoke to the pacifist in me, Barbie spoke to the feminist in me. I recommend Barbie to all men, as we all have stuff we could and should learn from it - I'd also recommend it to all women because every woman I know who saw the movie has had only good things to say about it, so I'm guessing it's a no-brainer for a good movie experience. But, yeah, amidst all of the zany aesthetics and silly humor, the film has a lot of important stuff to say, regarding gender roles, the patriarchy and the expectations and pressures that women have to face.
For some viewers, viewing these films on the same day might not be ideal, as their different types of being powerful might diminish the impact for one another. This wasn't the case for me, thankfully; in some weird way, Oppenheimer's grim and serious power and Barbie's nuanced and clever yet also delightfully in-your-face power complemented each other in a wonderful fashion. Both films made me think about a great deal of deep subjects and left a lot to be processed, but that just sort of was the theme of the day. Going to sleep that night, I had about a million thoughts running through my head, regarding bombs and arms races and humanity's inherent obsession for violence, but also regarding women's rights and the subtle ways in which the patriarchy continues to influence our society and what I could try to do as a man to break the cycle and help make things better - but all of this just made the day more memorable and unique.
6. Oppenheimer first & Barbie second: a good order
The ideal viewing order for this double feature of the century has been discussed and debated online, and there's certainly an argument to be made for both. One friend of mine recommended Barbie first and Oppenheimer second, because Oppenheimer's ending is so bleak and thought-provoking that watching anything right after that would feel like a weird fever dream. I see that point, but then again: if there's one film in the world that might be even better when feeling like a weird fever dream, I reckon it's Greta Gerwig's delightfully stylized, deliriously humorous and fantastically otherworldly larger-than-life take on Mattel's iconic doll.
Another reason for me personally preferring Oppenheimer first and Barbie second is that whenever I do a double feature, I always tend to prefer to watch the darker movie first and the lighter one second (me and my brother have had some great nights of watching a gripping Oscar-winning drama followed by a ridiculously stupid comedy). Of course, both of the Barbenheimer films deal with heavy themes and hit very hard and I don't want to downplay Barbie's significance one bit - but when thinking viewing orders, I'd say that the dialogue-heavy 3-hour zero-humor biopic drama is grim in a more draining way than the semi-short film that makes its points while having loads of fun and with flying colors.
So, our viewing order was pretty ideal. My girlfriend and I drank strong shots of espresso, and went to see Oppenheimer. With just over half an hour of time between the movies, we hit a local pub and enjoyed appropriately fresh and colorful raspberry mojitos, and then saw Barbie. We then went for de-toxing post-movie drinks in one of my favorite bars, to unpack and discuss various thoughts caused by both films.
5. Which film was better? (That's not the point)
"Who is the greatest of our time, Messi or Ronaldo?" has been the biggest debate in football/soccer culture for the last one and a half decades. And while I'll always be team Messi, I do respect the often-repeated point of "comparison isn't the point, just enjoy them both", that someone always brings up whenever the debate online gets too toxic. And I think that's pretty much my answer, at least for the time being, if someone asks me if I liked Oppenheimer or Barbie more.
Of course, eventually I'll have to decide which one I liked more overall, for my 'Top 10 movies of 2023' post at the end of the year (of the ones I've seen so far, these two are a country mile ahead of any others, and will very likely end up as my top 2, in one order or another, as both are so exceptional). But even though I will end up forming such an opinion, in an "if you had to say, gun to your head" fashion, I will stand by my view that "which is better" is very much not the point, as both films are so awesome.
And yes, currently I honestly can't decide which was the better film. The critical reception to both has been mostly very positive - even more so for Oppenheimer, but sexism certainly has a large role to play in the negative side of Barbie's reception. I've also heard quite a few people say that "Barbie isn't all that good as movie despite the message being good", but I have to say that I thoroughly disagree with that, and think that the people saying that have the view that a movie has to be like a conventional and typical Oscar-winning drama in order to be "good as a movie".
Yes, Barbie is silly and zany, but that doesn't make it less of a masterpiece - Greta Gerwig's writing and directing is razor-sharp, the acting performances are perfect for what the film was going for, and the film's deeply creative, unique and revolutionary style has all the makings of a future classic - "unforgettable" is one of the best things that art can be, after all. So, while Oppenheimer might be a more conventional kind of "good movie", I see the greatness of these two as a tight, neck-to-neck race. Just enjoy them both, man.
4. The greatness of cinema as an art form
Imagine a person who has never seen a single movie in their life, and wants to know what all the fuss is about with this form of art. If tasked with showcasing the beauty of cinema to this person with just two movies, you couldn't do much better than Oppenheimer and Barbie They are two very extremes of the same phenomenon: how great cinema can be at its most powerful. Oppenheimer is great cinema in the more down-to-earth fashion: a fascinating true story is brought to the big screen through a grim script based on gripping facts and events, and viewers can experience a glimpse into our history through the lens of cinema. Barbie, on the other hand, is truths about life reflected through fiction, with the script utilizing humor and color and warmth and whimsy to make its points, with parts of the film being feel-good escapism while others are hard-hitting facts of life, and all of it is clever and unique, memorable and deeply imaginative.
And more than anything, this is thanks to the fact that Barbenheimer was brought to us by two of Hollywood's finest filmmakers. Christopher Nolan is as influential and game-changing as they come, having shaped modern Hollywood with future classics like Inception, The Dark Knight and Dunkirk - while Greta Gerwig is a major force of nature and a feminist icon, having burst onto the scene with Lady Bird and Little Women as well as various interviews that prove her to be a genius whose brains operate on a different plain than us mere mortals. Like the one where she discussed why she wanted to make a Barbie movie, and blew everyone's mind with a point of society's inherent sexism dating back to the Bible (first, there was Adam, and then Eve was created for him), and that the Barbie mythos is the closest that we have to a reverse of that (first, there was Barbie, and Ken was created afterwards around this concept).
So, yeah - Barbenheimer is as big of a deal as it is because there are two top tier masterminds of filmmaking behind these films.
3. The men offended by Barbie are just the funniest/saddest idiots out there
As I mentioned earlier, the reception to Barbie has been mostly very positive. But the film has its share of haters, and they seem to exclusively be a very specific kind of person - grown men, with such laughably fragile masculinity, that a movie about f**king Barbie and girl power got under their skin. I mean, really. Most grown men would either recognize that this isn't the film for them, or then would see the film with an open mind and hopefully get something out of it - but some men apparently paid to go see the film about the famous girl doll, and were thoroughly upset that it didn't comply with their patriarchal worldview.
Chief among these voices is Ben Shapiro, a conservative commentator who me and my friend once dubbed "Evil Veikko Hoffman", because he has videos like "My ranking of all Star Wars movies!" and "Making a tier list of all U.S. Presidents", but they're riddled with horrible political takes. Shapiro uploaded a 43-minute rant about Barbie, and I wanted to watch it out of morbid curiosity but had to stop less than 10 minutes into it because the stupidity of fragile masculinity started to hurt my brain. Men with a healthy relationship to their masculinity will see that the film isn't "anti-men" like the Ben Shapiros of the world claim, but that it is empowering for men as well as for women; the central message is for everyone to be content as their true selves, not needing to feel like they need to fit into a certain mold.
2. Jesus Christ, that ending
Endings have always been a forte for Christopher Nolan, with the final scenes of Inception, Dark Knight Rises and The Prestige all being among my all-time favorite movie endings. Yet he may have outdone all of his previous endings with Oppenheimer, as the final scene in this film left me beyond speechless. The final line of dialogue is the best, most heart-stopping note possible to leave such a film on, and Cillian Murphy could win an Oscar for his facial expression in that moment alone. Honestly, is you ask me, the final line is up there with Casablanca and Back to the Future in the category of the very greatest final lines in cinema.
1. Some final thoughts on Barbie
A good friend of mine saw Barbie before me, and I mentioned to her that I'm going to see it with my girlfriend. She gave me a great piece of advice: "Once the film is over, ask her what it was all about, and listen to what she has to say, instead of starting off with your own thoughts and trying to mansplain the film to her". I will relay this same advice to any other men going to see the film in female company.
As much as I loved the film and recommend it to my fellow dudes, I definitely reckon that we can't fully appreciate the experience on quite the same level as women - I've heard so many female friends describe how profoundly the film resonated with them, how it made them feel so seen and heard. My favorite part of the movie experience just might've been occasionally glancing at my girlfriend, seeing how she was just beaming with excitement and joy (or in tears, depending on which part of the movie we're talking about), and seeing what a special thing it was for her.
Thank you for reading! Tune in next week for a big one - my 200th post! I shall celebrate this milestone with a deeply narcissistic, patting-myself-on-the-back walk down memory lane: My top 20 favorite posts from the 'Top 10 Movies with Veikko Hoffman' blog over the years.
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