The Greatest Mystery This Summer

 

...is why the hell is this mess of a movie getting all the attention...and box office...that it is?  I'm completely mystified.   And I was interested enough to find out what all the talk was about.

Still mystified.   

Oh, it's fun to look at, especially if you like the color pink.  But, at the heart of this film from director-writer Greta Gerwig, is a message,  And what should be entertaining turns out to be a meat tenderized continually pounding your forehead.

All the ingredients of a complete waste of time.

So, in Barbieland, everybody is named Barbie and Ken with perfect looks and vapid personalities.  But, somebody is messing with the formula and allows Ken and the other men to become the rulers and patriarchs.  You see, women are downtrodden and men are evil.  Suddenly, you begin to wonder if the screenplay was written by Rachel Maddown.

There is nothing worse than a movie that screams "look at me, I'm clever" when it actually isn't.  I had friends who raved to me how funny this movie was.   I laughed out loud three times.  I now have fewer friends on my Christmas card list.   

Still completely mystified at what they were watching.  And what I actually saw.  

Could it be that humor and satire has become so dumbed down that all of our comedic filters no longer work?   Given the ecstatic reviews "Barbie" got, I wonder if our overall perception of a good movie is gone.   Is this a lingering side effect of COVID?  Are too many people listening to what Joy Behar has to say?

Personally, I could have made a much funnier movie here.   I mean, the comedie possibilities of GI-Joe on a weekend bender finding Barbie on Tinder are too many to imagine.   That's where I would have taken this film.  

But, no.  In 2023, you need a message.  And be damned if you don't have one.

Yep, still completely mystified.

LEN'S RATING:  No stars.

Dinner last night:   Proscuitto and peach sandwich from Mendocino Farms.