The Barbie (2023) movie took last summer by storm and earned an astonishing $1.446 million worldwide at the box office, making it the highest-grossing film of 2023 and the 14th highest-grossing film of all time. I wouldn’t think director Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie who produced and starred in the movie would be unhappy about a thing.
But they are.
First of all, Ken’s (Ryan Gosling) song “I’m Just Ken” won Best Song at the Critics Choice Awards…but Eilish and Finneas’ song “What Was I Made For?” didn’t. It did win the the Best Original Song at the Golden Globes. I guess that wasn’t enough because the fans of the movie didn’t want Ken to win anything at all.
In fact, ‘I’m Just Ken’ Booed During Oscars Nomination Announcement. The latter probably had something to do with Greta Gerwig not receiving a nomination for a Best Director and Margot Robbie not receiving a nomination for Best Actress for “Barbie”.
“Barbie” did get nominated for Best Picture, and America Ferrera was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, but get this. Ryan Gosling was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for the film (who would have been nominated for Best Actor for “Barbie”, but maybe because it’s “Barbie”, there is no “Best Actor,” only sloppy seconds).
The general response is that the Oscars are sexist and deliberately snubbed Gerwig and Robbie.
Gosling is very supportive of Gerwig and Robbie, which is understandable, but not enough to turn down his nomination until Gerwig and Robbie are also nominated.
I had an odd thought as I was reading all this news (and angst) this morning. What if what Gerwig tried to the with the movie backfired? Sure, she has said repeatedly that “Barbie” is not anti-male. It is anti-matriarchy (female dominated Barbieland) and anti-patriarchy (the rest of the world). Never mind that if you admit that all men benefit from the patriarchy, then no man can be seen as innocent.
But what if Gerwig made Ken too well (and what if Gosling totally nailed the role)? While the entire movie was supposed to be about Barbie in particular and feminism in general, what if scene-stealing Gosling portrayed a very likeable, very sympathetic, and very victimized Ken? What if he took the audience right out from under Barbie/Robbie?
As Gosling said “There is no Ken without Barbie,” and that’s the point. At the end of the movie (I’m getting this from reviews and summaries, I’ve never seen the movie), Barbie tells Ken he can’t make her his entire reason for existing. He needs to go out and find a reason for himself.
That seems to be cool enough and in fact he decides to be “Kenough.” But then Barbie leaves for the “real world” with Ken still stuck in matriarchal “Barbieland,” his only companions the rather effeminize Kens.
There is no Ken without Barbie and Barbie left him. So there is no Ken, period.
What if, everything put together, audiences and maybe even various awards shows, decided Ken was the runaway hit of the “Barbie” movie. This almost tempts me to see the film, except I don’t want to spend money on a movie that arguably thinks I’m a worthless dweeb just because I’m male.
I think the reason Gosling/Ken is getting so much attention is that the writers, actor, and director inadvertently made Ken into a “ten.”
Too bad, Gerwig and Robbie (who produced the movie as well). Ken wins. What a shock.
Addendum: What if the whole controversy is a scam to draw more viewers to the Oscars 2024 and more attention to the Barbie movie?
Morning Meditations 
Ahh, well. One person booed, and whichever Twitter people did whatever they did in response to that as Twitter does whatever Twitter does.
(I noticed another Newsweek title, from the Newsweek article to which you linked, of people complaining about Obama’s list of favorite movies from the year too; no listing of Barbie to be noted. I agree with him to that extent, which is not to say I didn’t have some laughs of enjoyment watching the film… concurrently having least favorite portions nevertheless and noticing spots that were a bit blah. In my opinion, a feature-length doesn’t need to fit into best of the year to have some worth.)
Billie and Finneas won an award, well-deservedly, and the singer said working on that song was therapeutic to her. I doubt Billie Eilish or her brother will be joining in the mini din. I guess I’ll keep my ear out for it.
Ryan was fun in the movie. Honestly, I’m not into ballads generally, nor anything approaching a power ballad. It’s fine with me that Gosling won something for the song, though, as it was part of the whole role. It seems to me he actually sang it and didn’t simply lip sync.
Margo was fairly perfect for her role. (She also has a strong stage presence in general and perky attitude.) As I have never been motivated by the Barbie universe specifically, I did however find the history of it (for example that a female could buy a house in hindsight) as well as portrayed implications thought-provoking; in regard to the whole ongoing thing, partly in that the survey was sort of a critique of cultural byproducts for women thinking they should live up to something unique or wowwy in contrast to being only the wife (if not an old maid) and not enough to matter before in contemplation of even mattering now either.
It probably didn’t help her chances that dying crossed her mind and lips. Anyway, Margot Robbie was a solid anchoring figure for the doll concept and beyond. I would need to carefully compare stretches of the other people per category if I wanted to judge whether or not the right ones got dominated for all the right subjects. I’m not going to. Still, I don’t perceive the part (nor any parts in Barbie) to have been very demanding in terms of acting. Perhaps I don’t know.
The lead actress is receiving accolades in other ways. Not aware what to say about Greta Gerwig per directing, except that her outcome is likewise not shabby. I haven’t seen the two ladies crabbing anywhere… and do suspect the supposed controversy is mainly silly. But celebrity stuff (the whole industry) has to run on buzz. So that part is real enough on its own and probably part of the acting profession. Plus, having statements like Gosling’s can illustrate being classy of character.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/barbie-why-margot-robbies-greta-gerwigs-oscar-snubs-are-riling-up-the-internet-201617629.html
Have Robbie or Gerwig reacted?
Not yet.
Follow-up: The Variety article to which you linked shows all kinds of people who were “snubbed” — just meaning not making it to the limited slots — in one production after another and including men as snubbed too. Of course, it always has to occur unless most everything was poorly done so that there would be more surprises so to speak than there could be snubs.
Turns out I happened upon Jake Tapper applying himself to this topic (under pop culture) at the end of his show, today… at the same time I was reading that above undergirding article from Variety. Gerwig was nominated for screen writing, he said on “The Lead with …”. As was someone along with her in that endeavor, according to Vanity, a Noah who Jake didn’t mention.
He says Margot Robbie was nominated for producing (while he did a small-print-type full disclosure of “produced by our parent company Warner Brothers Discovery” under his breath — not at the same moment that he named her nomination as a producer — and ended by saying they hoped the whole product would win more than one award, more than “just Ken” while best supporting actress is another possibility). My bet, no acting award is amongst their biggest concerns. I surmise they want screenwriting and especially producing (not only a lady thing) or best picture.
There’s campaigning going on. If they point out what they’re not getting or don’t care about, they can push elsewhere. The they is corporate interests.
The newscaster had a comparison to Barbra Streisand not being nominated for directing in 1992. The host of the Academy Awards at that time had put together a good rhyme to sing: shelf and self.
https://variety.com/2024/film/awards/best-picture-women-directors-oscars-history-1235880035/