Barbie reviews: What are critics saying about Greta Gerwig’s doll comedy?

The reviews are in: Barbie is one of the most hotly anticipated releases of 2023, but what is the critics’ overall reaction to Greta Gerwig’s take on the Mattel doll?

Starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, Barbie has opened to mostly rave reviews, but some did see it as capitalist fodder.

Donald Clarke writes in The Irish Times that there is “more to Barbie than an act of deceit”, calling it a “lurid assault” on the senses. Margot Robbie is “explosive throughout”, and Ken is played with “bodacious idiocy” by Ryan Gosling.

The New York Times says: “Gerwig does much within the material’s inherently commercial parameters, though it isn’t until the finale that you see the Barbie that could have been.”

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The movie is a “savvy, updated riff” on the Greek myth of Pygmalion, but “it’s the imaginations of the girls and women who play with the doll that give it something like life, a fitting shift for a movie that takes sisterhood as a starting point”.

The Guardian gives the “ragged doll comedy” three stars, describing it as a “good-natured but self-conscious movie”.

“Greta Gerwig loads plenty of food for thought into a hot pink pop fantasia, poking fun at patriarchy and corporate parent Mattel in her treatment of the iconic ‘girls can do anything’ doll,” writes Peter Debruge in Variety.

“Painfully funny” was the verdict of Empire’s Beth Webb. The film, she says, promises nostalgia, grandeur and a little darkness.

“The film delivers so much else ... while Barbie’s journey of self-discovery is often derailed by surreal skits and arch asides.”

The Financial Times says Barbie’s “zippy irreverence ... answers the question of what manner of movie happens when Gerwig and urbane co-writer Noah Baumbach get into bed not just with backers Warner Bros, but licensing toy giant Mattel”.

Margot Robbie and Gerwig pull off a “near-miraculous achievement”, according to Independent.co.uk. Clarisse Loughrey argues that “while it is impossible for any studio film to be truly subversive, this Mattel-approved comedy gets away with far more than you’d think was possible”.

However, Lovia Gyarkye of the Hollywood Reporter says of Gerwig: “It’s impressive how much the director, known for her shrewd and narratively precise dramas, has fit into a corporate movie.”

She says the “muddied politics and flat emotional landing” of the film “are signs that the picture ultimately serves a brand”. Ouch ...