HoldenIsHere wrote: ↑January 26th, 2024, 2:53 pm
I only saw 3 movies released in 2023, but I liked them all:
BARBIE
WONKA
THE LITTLE MERMAID
I loved BARBIE!
I also saw PETER PAN & WENDY (and liked it), but I don't know if it had a theatrical release or was released only on Disney+.
I want to see KILERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, but I know it will be a difficult watch because of the subject manner.
"Barbie" was awesome. I had pre-purchased tickets and saw it on opening night. I loved the production design. Finally a colorful, fun film that actually had real sets. I read an entire article about the production design and they actually had the physical versions of the different Barbie Dreamhouses presented in the film. They measured the toy and measured Barbie. The production designers wanted to replicate the experience of playing with Barbie and her dream house. While Barbie obviously fits in the dreamhouse, she is comically so out of scale to the furniture and things in the house. Using their measurements, the production designers figured out that Barbie was xx% larger than the items in the dream house, so they built the sets to scale using that measurement. I also loved that Barbie had the fake food, fake water, and all that stuff to replicate the toys. It was so much fun. The scene with the Kens singing Matchbox Twenty's "Push" was hysterical--especially since the song is about singer Rob Thomas' experience in an emotionally abusive relationship. I loved the whole Barbie Land vs Ken Land and Ken's Mojo Dojo Casa House thing. If I had a criticism, I would say it is America Ferrara's big monologue. I loved the idea behind it, but I felt that it was a little heavy handed. I was also disturbed by the fact that Ferrara is the same age as me and has a teenage daughter, and then even more distressed by my realizing that that is not unbelievable. LOL. But that is neither here nor there. I also loved Michael Cera as Allan. His first entrance, "Hi, I'm Allan. I'm Ken's Buddy, I fit all his clothes," then later his awkward dancing at the Barbie party. I do wish that Aqua's "Barbie Girl" was more heavily featured, as I was the 13 year old in 1997 who unapologetically loved that song (I still love it now. I'll sing along with it if it comes on the 90s station on the radio). "Barbie" was the perfect, fun summer film.
I've seen a few of Greta Gerwig's films now, "Lady Bird," "Little Women," and now "Barbie." Gerwig is a year older than me and that might be why I find her films and characters relatable. "Lady Bird" features a main character who is graduating from high school in 2003 (actually a year after me). Gerwig, having presumably graduated high school the year before me, depicted her and my high school years very well. The clothes, the aesthetic of the film, everything. I loved it. Even "Barbie" contains little things from the 90s that I remember--I actually had one of the dolls that is in the "Weird Barbie's" house. I loved her adaptation of "Little Women." My only complaint is Florence Pugh playing Amy from child to adult. She looked absolutely ridiculous in the classroom scene with an obviously adult Pugh playing 12-year old Amy in a classroom full of her 12-year old "peers." I think they should have either cast a younger actress to play Amy during the childhood scenes, or should have cast older actresses to also play 12-year olds to sit in a classroom with Pugh.
