Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-review by Prof. Popinjay

MILD SPOILERS MAYBE

I liked the opening.
I liked the narrator’s voice.
I liked the set design of Barbie world.
I liked all the different Barbies.
I liked all the different Kens.
I liked Skipper
I liked Allan.
I liked Midge.
I liked Beach.
I want to Beach.
I liked the dance.
I liked the first act.
I liked weird Barbie
I liked their rollerblades.
I like Barbie and Ken’s neon rollerblading outfits.
I want Barbie and Ken’s neon rollerblading outfits.
I liked that the “fictional character comes to the real world” formula was more than just a “fish out of water” scenario but actually has a profound effect on both Barbie and Ken.
I like people’s reaction to Ken and Barbie in the real world.
I liked how the real world was sometimes a parody of itself.
I liked how Ken is suddenly obsessed with horses for some reason.
I liked how the little girl “destroyed” Barbie.
I liked Ken’s Mojo Dojo Casa House.
I want a Ken’s Mojo Dojo Casa House. Both the toy version and one I can live in.
I liked Ken’s fur coat.
I liked Barbie’s existential crisis.
I liked Allan beating the crap out of all the Ken’s in the background.
I liked the second act.
I liked the coup staged by the Barbies to take back Barbie world.
I liked the war between the two factions of Kens.
I liked that Ken’s favorite song exemplified how he felt he was being treated in the beginning.
I liked Ken’s existential crisis.
I liked Ryan Gosling’s acting in that scene.
I liked Margot Robbie’s acting in that scene.
I liked that it’s not Barbie and Ken.
I liked that it’s Barbie and it’s Ken.
I liked the third act.
I liked that Rhea Pearlman played Ruth Handler.
I liked that Barbie didn’t want to be all the things that was expected of her.
I liked that she wanted to do her own thing.
I liked that Ken realized he needed identity apart from Barbie.
I liked the epilogue.

I love that this film wasn’t anything close to what the naysayers were saying.
I love that my take away was that no one should be oppressed by anyone else.
I love that my take away is that everyone is valid and no one has to be defined by someone else’s narrow-minded preconceived expectations.
I love that Ken really just wanted to appreciate horses.

I adore the part when Barbie is watching real life all around her with all its joys and sorrows and she turns to the elderly lady next to her. The elderly lady is very elderly, maybe not pretty anymore by most people’s standards. Maybe Barbie was referring to her specifically or maybe she was referring to real life humans as a whole. It doesn’t matter. She says to the elderly lady:

“You’re so beautiful.”

I adore the elderly lady’s response.

But I won’t spoil that for you.

I love that I cried.

Hey person reading this!

You are so beautiful!