John Carpenter Doesn’t Understand Barbie

At least Carpenter’s misreading of «Barbie» doesn’t seem to be in bad faith — unlike some other takes — but it does betray a fundamental misunderstanding of Greta Gerwig’s film. The director, who wrote the film alongside her partner Noah Baumbach, was handed the keys to Mattel’s kingdom. Aided by her star (and the movie’s executive producer) Margot Robbie, Gerwig made a searing, sly, and subversive movie based on a toy.

The film really comes down to America Ferrera’s show-stopping monologue at the film’s end. As she says, being a woman is a constant, irritating, painful, and ridiculous contradiction. You have to be everything but also shrink yourself into nothing in so many ways. When Barbie starts to fully see the push and pull of what it means to be a human woman, she’s appalled and then intrigued. She realizes she can’t live her perfect life as a doll anymore. Gerwig and Baumbach’s point is that, ultimately, nobody can achieve perfection. If you think that you have, it’s a hollow achievement. Barbie only grows throughout the movie, completing her journey by, yes, visiting a gynecologist (a frankly perfect encapsulation of the irritations of womanhood).

Sure, it’s okay that John Carpenter didn’t quite get «Barbie.» It’s not for him. But a lot of people felt seen and heard by «Barbie,» though — and that’s what’s important.