Greta Gerwig is a fantastic director. She has proven herself again and again through amazing movies like Lady Bird and Little Women that she is able to weave important feminist messages within empowering stories about womanhood. 

However, her most recent attempt at a feminist narrative fell short. Instead of carefully balancing her trademark witty humor with an important story of womanhood and equality, Gerwig only managed to create a preachy, poorly delivered movie. 

Despite the movie’s many flat moments, that would all be forgiven if any of its jokes actually stuck. 

The entire film was full of silly and campy moments, but most of the purposeful jokes (especially the ones that were supposed to be relatable commentary on womanhood) made in the movie were not as funny as Gerwig wanted them to be. No Barbie, I do not need yet another stab at how gross cellulite is. 

The film was still very self-aware however, and bore the cross of making a movie about a plastic toy very well. Gerwig let Barbie be Barbie, with bright colorful sets (juxtaposed with the drab human world) and creative, over-the-top clothes. 

But when handling the more serious moments in the movie, they either came off as pretentious or a parody of feminist ideology. Barbie walked a thin line, attempting to come off with a strong message while still remaining lighthearted and funny. However, in several moments during the movie, Barbie stumbled.

Although the movie’s attempt at portraying the irony in fourth-wave feminism and the patriarchy by highlighting that neither fully achieve equality and often put down one gender over the other, in the end of the film it seems like nothing is changed.

Kens in Barbieland still act like the same Barbie-worshiping buffoons that they were in the beginning of the movie, despite going through the entire film expressing their desire for equality. 

Many of the messages in the movie were not remotely nuanced. In fact, most of the points the movie attempted to make were shown at face value and gave the viewer nothing to pick apart and piece together themselves. 

Gerwig has shown herself to be a masterful director and there were elements to the movie that made it a very enjoyable watch. However, her attempt at another feminist masterpiece is where it fell short. Despite being somewhat poorly executed, Barbie still demonstrates itself as a fun, insightful, movie. Just try not to read into it that much.