THE BARBENHEIMER REVIEW

Well would you look at that? A party I didn’t miss. Yes, last weekend, I, like millions of others across the UK and US, experienced Barbenheimer. On Saturday the 22^nd of July 2023, I saw Oppenheimer in the morning and Barbie in the evening.

I’m going to review both films in this post so don’t expect any in-depth analysis. I won’t be breaking them down to their characters and themes, I’ll be just talking about each film as a whole. At the end I will compare the two, which I know many will deem as unfair but just know I won’t label one as better than the other. I think it’s fun to compare them to see in what areas one fails and the other succeeds.

Let’s not waste any time, here’s my take on Oppenheimer.

Oppenheimer

This is a tough one. I could never call Oppenheimer bad, inadequate or incompetent but I am really struggling to call it anything greater than ‘good.’

This could be due to my lack of knowledge of J. Robert Oppenheimer but while I admire how the film is made, emotionally and intellectually it does very little for me.

It did a few things for me intellectually; it taught me a lot about Robert Oppenheimer obviously. Before watching the film I would never have called Oppenheimer a martyr for the bomb but I believed he regretted his part in its creation. Now I’m not sure if Oppenheimer is a martyr or if that’s just what he wanted people to believe.

The film is a character study similar to Citizen Kane in that it shows you the man from the perspective of multiple individuals, specifically via their hearings.  

Intercut with glimpses of Oppenheimer’s political and extramarital affairs is his work on the Manhattan Project and of course the Trinity test. These sequences of him working with his fellow scientists while appeasing his military superiors were the most engaging for me. Probably because they had the most conflict, there are plenty of tense moments in the hearing scenes but anything involving a bomb is typically more exciting than a person being questioned in a room.

I would absolutely recommend Oppenheimer but I must warn you that if the only thing you know about the American physicist is that he invented nuclear weapons, you will get lost. The film is 3 hours long and concerns so much more than an explosion. I would definitely watch it again. With what I know now in addition to a bit more research, I think I would get a lot more out of a second viewing.

This will almost certainly change once I watch it again but for now, I give Oppenheimer a good 8 out of 10.

Now for something pink.

Barbie

If it wasn’t for the Barbenheimer phenomenon I wouldn’t have seen this film. I make no secret of my fussiness over comedies. Few have made me laugh but many have made me grind my teeth. If Barbie is the only comedy I see this year than I am totally ok with that because, believe me, Barbie is very, very funny.

The film takes the Barbie brand and gives it the Enchanted treatment, showing it as it is, warts and all, and then dragging it into the real world, exposing even more warts.

It’s a satire similar to the Deadpool films in that it’s not subtle in the slightest. The satire is so unsubtle in fact, calling it a satire would be inaccurate. Parody or ‘spoof’ would be more appropriate.

Unlike Oppenheimer I do have some genuine criticisms of Barbie. Similar to other high-concept comedies, Barbie has a handful of jokes that violate its story’s logic. A good example is when Barbie (Margot Robbie) goes to Mattel and confronts the CEO (Will Farrell). At one point Barbie has to escape the building and the way she achieves this, in the real world, sort of breaks the urgency of the situation.

If you’re a zoomer or late millennial with liberal or left-leaning prejudices Barbie will speak to you. It does not shroud its stances on patriarchy, consumerism or feminism with metaphors, all of those terms are stated flat out in the dialogue. It makes its point in the most obvious but charming fashion.

It’s not as well written as Oppenheimer but I found what it had to say about the Barbie symbol to be a lot more poignant than Oppenheimer’s mere account of the life of the American physicist.

The film argues that there’s essentially nothing wrong with what the Barbie brand aspires to, it’s just not accurate when compared to the modern world, which, in an age where ethical media consumption is being debated more and more frequently, is very refreshing.

It’s not for everyone but even if you have a slight understanding of the Barbie brand like I do, there are jokes and observations that you will relate to.

I give Barbie a fun 7 out of 10.

As I said before, I will not say one is better than the other but I’m amazed to say that I found the themes of Barbie, far from one of the most well-written films, more relatable and thought-provoking than those of Oppenheimer, which is not just well-written but exceptionally well-made.

This could make sense as we are more likely to feel the effects of patriarchy and consumerism than those of an atom bomb. Walking away with this bizarre and unexpected observation shows the magic of Barbenheimer I think and makes it a phenomenon worth remembering.