Greta Gerwig is a relatively well-known director. She makes movies your favorite barista has probably seen a few times. Largely interesting films that have mostly gone under the radar. Her latest effort, though, has flipped all that with Barbie making waves in pop culture.
But there’s a looming question in the few weeks before the release. How will this movie actually debut? Will it be a smash hit, or is it destined to fall into obscurity? Despite the massive PR buzz surrounding this, there’s still a fair bit of evidence this film might be largely overhyped.
Her Past Movies
An artist is seldom appreciated in their own time. In so many cases, people only fall in love with an artist after they’ve passed on or their works have been out of the public eye for a while. Such is the case with everything Gerwig has done so far. Her best work is, funny enough, one that few people paid attention to. That movie is Lady Bird.
Now sure, on the surface, this looks like something of a generic coming-of-age story, but it doesn’t take the easy path as it could. Instead of just hitting the easy beats, there’s a very well-written story here with compelling characters who feel like real people you’ve known in your life. What did all this effort amount to, though? A mostly forgotten movie and five Oscar snubs.
Then you have her version of Little Women, which took home a single Oscar for Costume Design, which is, unjustly, something of a participation award, sadly. It takes a rather bold director to decide on an adaptation of a story that’s been adapted about 13 times already. To look at that and go, “Yeah, I have something to add here.” takes a special person who wants to blaze their own path. It feels more passion project than an easy new hit, which is characteristic of her directing style. If her past is to be a prediction of her future, though, this will go largely unnoticed.
Greta isn’t really the director you get if you want your movie to have everyone’s undivided attention. Her films tend to be overlooked as they appear rather ordinary on the surface. That right there is her secret, though, and this film will likely have that same attribute. Her movies are quirky and don’t quite fit into an easy mold you may think of. In many ways, it speaks to the superb marketability that the name Barbie still has that it’s gotten this massive.
This is going to be something of an offbeat comedy movie. Everything shown off so far has been rather odd or tonally different from what you might expect. Who would have guessed that Barbie would be making a Matrix-style decision about whether or not she wants to wake up to reality for a moment?
Nothing about this screams easily digestible piece of marketing designed to sell more Barbie products, similar to the Super Mario Brothers Movie that didn’t take any risks and was insanely successful because of it. Now here comes Barbie, which seems to resemble Rick and Morty’s 4th wall breaking more than being an easy shut-your-brain-off style comedy.
Compare this style of humor to the very popular Bridesmaids with the showstopper food poisoning scene that really got people talking. Funny? Of course! But also a lot more accessible than jokes about existentialism. For a movie to experience that same widespread success, meta-humor can be a difficult sell despite its recent popularity.
It can also backfire horribly with something like She-Hulk just getting absolutely trashed by MCU fans for being annoyingly meta, even though the character herself is written with 4th wall breaks in mind. It’s not a foolproof approach and can easily divide audiences into two camps, which may happen here.
Limited Audience
This is going to be a movie aimed at a pretty limited audience of 20-30 something girls and their boyfriends who won’t be seeing Oppenheimer with all their decidedly single male compatriots. It’s not really a movie aimed at little girls, as was already established. It’s not really a movie for the entire family to enjoy, well, at least not from the marketing.
Part of what makes comic book movies so successful is that they include something for almost everyone, with women taking the driver’s seat in several big new releases. So you have to consider how many people this film will drag in when much of your target demographic thinks Barbie needs to be drastically changed for reasons of body positivity and unrealistic standards presented to women. One might also ask, are girls even playing with Barbie dolls these days?
But none of what’s been listed so far are truly negative aspects meant to take away from the film. On the contrary, this all is really great news for the film. Adding all that up, it’s taking risks and unwilling to be understood by all audiences. It appears to be a film that wants a unique identity that fits in perfectly with Greta’s larger catalog. It all adds up for a classic that will probably not be understood at first. If people can move beyond the product itself and be prepared for something outside the box, this movie may very well become an underrated classic.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
