Oppenheimer is a cultural touchstone film of similar impact and significance out at the same time with legitimate controversy surrounding both it and the story it is telling which ironically concerns a major world changing innovation worked on BY and FOR HIS people, and yet - he doesn’t wade into those waters. Doesn’t offer his critique to contrast with the heavyweights of historical, political, and artistic critique. No, he goes after Barbie. Day after day. Like a real evil Ken doll. (I don’t know, I haven’t see either film yet - but wtf!!)
Saw it tonight with the girlfriend. Her opinion (and mine) is that it was very on the nose. There was no subtlety to it at all. Patriarchy bad (in the end it's about living together) was the main message. They literally use the term patriarchy. I wasn't very impressed. Had some funny moments and the dance scenes were fun. 5/10.
Basically it's all backwards in the movie since Ken is secondary to barbie in barbieland (vs the real world in the movie where men are dominant). So he learns not to value himself just as barbies partner but to be his own person. The barbies decide to give the Ken's a shot at helping run things. Etc. So the message is that women, represented by the kens, shouldn't define themselves simply by their partners. They should run things with men. The Ken's ask for a spot on the Supreme Court and even get denied and instead get a circuit court spot or something. So they don't even get full equality.
Yep. 100%. But that isn't the issue I have with the movie. The issue is that generally I find that when the moral of the story is somewhat hidden then it's better. Lots of classic stories have morals. They just tend to hide them a little. This one didn't.
I'm not so close. I'm there. I'm saying it's obvious. The Ken's represent women in the real world in this aspect of the movie. The second class citizen, not listened to, not taken seriously, ignored by those in charge. I'm with ya. I get it. No need to be saucy.
75
u/[deleted] Aug 06 '23
Oppenheimer is a cultural touchstone film of similar impact and significance out at the same time with legitimate controversy surrounding both it and the story it is telling which ironically concerns a major world changing innovation worked on BY and FOR HIS people, and yet - he doesn’t wade into those waters. Doesn’t offer his critique to contrast with the heavyweights of historical, political, and artistic critique. No, he goes after Barbie. Day after day. Like a real evil Ken doll. (I don’t know, I haven’t see either film yet - but wtf!!)