Summer ’23: How BARBENHEIMER Rose Above All The Flopbusters

I’m most likely the last person who writes about film to weigh in on BARBIE, Greta Gerwig’s billions-grossing fantasy comedy, but since the season is winding down, I thought I’d opine at how it, and its odd blockbuster bedfellow, OPPENHEIMER became a huge event, or even a movement this last summer at the cinema (or more aptly, the multiplex).

The build-up to the release date (July 21) for both films prompted many memes, fake trailers, and a lot of op-ed action to comically address the internet phenomenon that was dubbed BARBENHEIMER (it even has a Wikipedia page!), as it seemed everyone thought it was so hilarious that two such polar opposites were opening on the same day.

Christopher Nolan’s OPPENHEIMER was the true winner artistically as it’s a must-see-on-the-big-screen masterpiece (read my review), but while BARBIE was far from an essential work, it’s a fairly fun piece of satire. A radiant Margot Robbie, as “Stereotypical Barbie,” perfectly brings to life the first ever live-action version of the Mattel model doll, who lives in the surreal Barbieland, a largely pink, plastic world populated by discontinued Barbies - the identifying of which, like Video Girl Barbie, Barbie’s friend, Pregnant Midge; and Sugar Daddy Ken, is a running joke throughout the film (aided by Helen Mirren as “The Narrator” - another nice touch).

With both the charm of his sympathy, and his stupidity, Ryan Gosling’s Ken more than holds his own with Robbie’s Barbie, and may even get more laughs. The premise, which deals with Barbie beginning to become human, and journeying to the real world (present-day Los Angeles) to find the troubled little girl whose influence on her doll brought on Barbie’s existential crisis (something like that), is pretty basic fish-out-of-the-water stuff, but it moves along briskly gag to gag.

Will Ferrell, in a role that could be his character from THE LEGO MOVIE, but I bet that’s just wishful thinking, plays the Mattel CEO bad guy here with an all-male (not true in real life) Board of Directors. A mostly funny Ferrell’s loud bluster bounces around the lavish boardroom, another example of Sarah Greenwood’s excellent production design, that calls upon the War Room in DR. STRANGELOVE. That’s actually the second Kubrick reference on display as the movie opens with a hilarious parody of the apes at the dawn of time sequence at the start of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.

However, it did feel a bit padded with a chase sequence through a maze through corporate office cubicles before heading into more standard automobile activity that could’ve been cut completely, and not made a difference - especially as the movie is nearly 2 hours. Also, as funny as Gosling’s big number “I’m Just Ken” is, it felt uneven in that the movie seemed to decide to become a musical in its last third.

One of BARBIE’s most controversial moments comes in the form of a fiery America Ferrera as Gloria, a Mattel employee who unites with our heroine, and accompanies her back to Barbieland. Ferrera gives a speech, more like a rant, about the struggle of being a woman in a man’s world - sample line: “You have to answer for men’s bad behavior, which is insane, but if you point that out, you’re accused of complaining.”

Ferrera’s mouthful (which you can read in full here) is effectively edgy, yet heartfelt part of the film, but that didn’t stop many on the right to condemn BARBIE as a preachy, man-hating piece of left-wing propaganda. One such dickhead, conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, who called the film, “the most woke movie I’ve ever seen,” actually set a trashcan of Barbie toys on fire to make, uh, some point. If you’re glutton for punishment, you can watch Shapiro’s 43-minute review, which features him setting what looks like a few hundred dollars of Barbies ablaze.

An over-used expression these days by Shapiro, and many of the folks at Fox News, is “if you go woke, you go broke,” but the incredible success of BARBIE proves that to be B.S., just like just about every rule that anybody makes about going woke. Sure, it can be seen as just a silly spoof of a toy for little girls, but Gerwig, and co-writer (and her long-time partner) Noah Baumbach had some layers they wanted to playfully explore, and it makes for a movie that’s sure to be a repeated, and relished part of pop culture for a long, long time.

But while the double bill of BARBENHEIMER is the big hit of our hottest ever summer, there was another notable phenomenon, that being that this has been the era of the flopbuster. Sometimes, as the Urban Dictonary defines it, a flopbuster is a movie that was supposed to be a blockbuster but flopped at the box office, other times, it’s a terrible movie that still makes lots of money.

This summer was jammed packed with flopbusters including THE FLASH, INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY (read my review), HAUNTED MANSION (my review), and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: DEAD RECKONING PART I. As people were probably burned out, or felt burned, by Indy since his last, much lambasted adventure, or passed on Cruise’s latest mission while ignoring its acclaim, and turned their nose up at THE FLASH, like I did, despite it containing the return of Michael Keaton’s Batman, it seems obvious why audiences opted instead for the brainer/no-brainer combo that is BARBENHEIMER.

In the wake of the success of BARBIE, it was announced that Lena Dunham, of HBO’s Girls fame, was going to make a movie based on Mattel’s ‘90s mini-doll “Polly Pocket.” Actor/writer/director Randall Park had a great reaction to that:

“Barbie is this massive blockbuster, and the idea is: Make more movies about toys! No - make more movies by and about women!”

Now, is that really so woke an idea?

More later…

Majorly Problematic David O. Russell’s Mildly Problematic AMSTERDAM

Now playing at a multiplex or arthouse near you:

AMSTERDAM (Dir. David O. Russell, 2022)

To say that it started out so richly promising, but then got all screwy could go for this movie, and for David O. Russell’s entire filmmaking career. After making a minor splash back in the ‘90s with such offbeat comedies as SPANKING THE MONKEY, and FLIRTING WITH DISASTER, then making a breakthrough with THREE KINGS, Russell has built a reputation for abusive behavior on his sets.

 

Tales have run rampant of Russell head-butting George Clooney in a fight while shooting THREE KINGS, and verbally berating Lily Tomlin (calling her the C-word in a video you can still find on YouTube), and Amy Adams on I HEART HUCKABEES, and AMERICAN HUSTLE respectively. However, Christian Bale, Jennifer Lawrence, and even Tomlin herself have made more than one film with him so there’s that.

 

Then there’s the allegations of sexual assault involving his 19-year old trans niece, so, yeah, Russell has baggage, and he’s never been a favorite filmmaker of mine. But I’ve liked some of his films albeit in a fairly superficial way, as they are usually visually appealing, have fine casts, and zippy narratives. I haven’t felt that they’ve added up to vital cinematic statements, and I sure don’t see that in his latest offering, the so-called mystery comedy thriller, AMSTERDAM, which stars Bale, Margot Robbie, and John David Washington as a trio of World War I combat vets, who come together in 1933 to foil a fascist plot to overthrow the U.S. government.

 

Bale is undoubtedly the lead protagonist as he anchors nearly every scene as the crochety Dr. Burt Berendsen, a war veteran with a prosthetic eye. It’s another fully realized Bale character, and he’s a joy to watch fumbling through the film, whether lovelorn over his estranged wife Beatrice (Andrea Riseborough), or bantering with Washington as his best pal lawyer, Harold Woodsman, who glides through the movie’s snazzy set-pieces with his smooth, dapper demeanor.

 

Rounding out the triad that recalls the trios of hipster friends in obvious Russell touchstones as FrançoisTruffaut’s JULES AND JIM, and Jean-Luc Godard’s BAND OF OUTSIDERS, is Robbie, working those saucer eyes as nurse Valerie Voze, who Bale’s Burt, and Washington’s Howard first meet in 1918 WWI, and re-unite in Manhattan in 1933. 

The complex, or clunky (or both) plot mechanics, housed in a lot of talky exposition, involve the murders of General Bill Meekins (Ed Begley Jr.) and his daughter Liz (Taylor Swift), and a political scandal with a surprisingly invested Robert De Niro as General Gil Dillenbeck, who is based on real-life figure, Major General Smedley Butler, keying into the film’s opening declaration that “A lot of this actually happened.”

 

Russell has amassed a film full of stars as we’ve got a straight faced Chris Rock as another war buddy turned legal associate, an elegant Zoe Saldaña as a coroner /possible love interest for Burt, Michael Shannon, and Mike Myers as bird-watching spies (my favorite characters); and a wonderfully smarmy Rami Malek, and an an amusing uppity Anya Taylor-Joy as Valerie’s wealthy, snobby brother Tom, and his wife Libby. 

 

When the strands of the narrative, which is based on the 1934 “Business Plot,” a scheme hatched to overthrow the democratic government in place of a dictatorial regime, lead to a messy reveal that somehow doesn’t have its intended impact, the film’s capering falls short of the cleverness it’s straining for. 

Misguided moments abound, like a fantasized shooting of someone because they’re annoying gag, and a number of attempts at Coen brothers-style comic set-ups that don’t pay off, so the film falls short of a romp, but it still has a likable bounce to it as the camera of master cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki crisply bops around the nifty New York-period sets, courtesy of designers, Patricia Cuccia, and Erin Fite. 

 

I consider Russell’s AMSTERDAM to be only mildly problematic, because it’s a light endeavor thats ambition feels like an afterthought after all the polished stylings have gone through their paces. Much like AMERICAN HUSTLE, the film is style over substance, but it can be quite enjoyed on that surface level. Bale’s performance alone makes it worth seeing, and there are other considerable artistic merits such as its great visuals, so if you don’t try to dig too deep, or expect a mind-blowing history lesson, you’ll get a decent, but disposable time at the picture show.

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ONCE UPON A TIME...IN HOLLYWOOD: The Film Babble Blog Review

Now playing at an vintage cinema palace near you:

ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD
(Dir. Quentin Tarantino, 2019)

Quentin Tarantino’s ninth film as director contains all of the elements that moviegoers have come to expect: snappy hipster dialogue, an ultra cool soundtrack of both classic and obscure pop and soul songs, eye-popping cinematography, stylish editing, multiple shots of women’s feet, and, of course, reams of gory, in-your-face violence.

Except for a sequence in Italy, the film is mainly set in Los Angeles in the summer of 1969, in which actress Sharon Tate (the pregnant wife of filmmaker Roman Polanski), and three of her friends, were murdered by members of the Manson family.

But Tarantino’s largely concerns the friendship between the fictional cowboy star Rick Dalton (a moody Leonardo DiCaprio), and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (a smug Brad Pitt). Dalton was formerly the lead of a Western television series called Bounty Law, but has been reduced to playing guest star heavies on a bunch of various TV shows.

The film also follows Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) as she attends a screening of her next to last film, the Dean Martin comedy spy movie, THE WRECKING CREW, at the Bruin Theater. Meanwhile Booth picks up a hitchhiking hippy girl named Pussycat (Margaret Qualley), and takes her home to the Spaun Movie Ranch, where Charlie Manson, who doesn’t appear, and his hoard of followers reside. Booth is skeptical of the set-up as he used to work on the ranch and a visit with the ranch’s blind owner, George Ranch (Bruce Dern) doesn’t quell that.

Despite his doubting hesitation, Dalton, along with Booth travels to Italy to make several Spaghetti Westerns, and ends up marrying Italian actress Francesca Capucci (Lorenza Izzo).

When they return to Hollywood, the time of the murders approaches (times appear on the screen), and the killers approach in dark silhouettes that resemble the sinister shots of the four figures in the driveway in Jordan Peele’s US from earlier this year.

The climax is thrilling and funny in turns, but it might make the folks who found the instances of the intense, bloody, brutal action in THE HATEFUL EIGHT hard to stomach. It’s also an re-writing of history that recalls Tarantino’s sixth film, INGLORIOUS BASTERDS in its concept of wish fulfillment.

As usual, Tarantino has assembled an excellent ensemble that includes Al Pacino as producer/agent Marvin Schwarzs, Emile Hirsch as Jay Sebring, one of the victims of the murders; Timothy Olyphant as James Stacy, another Western actor; Dakota Fanning as Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, and Kurt Russell as stunt coordinator Randy (Russell also doubles as the film’s narrator). But ultimately it's the terrific DeCaprio and Pitt whose movie this is.

ONCE UPON A TIME…is very enjoyable in stretches, but it has too many sequences in which characters just hang out (like in JACKIE BROWN, Tarantino wants us to hang out with the characters), and it has a rambling nature in which some scenes just go on and on – like the Spahn Ranch scene, for instance.

This is far from Tarantino’s greatest work, but it’s way better than his worst (meaning that it’s way superior to DEATH PROOF). With movie posters, lobby cards, and glossies covering nearly every wall, and segments from fictitious films rendered in the grainy, gritty film stock of the ‘60s-‘70s, the auteur filmmaker’s latest shows off his love of movies. It celebrates the era in which the golden age of cinema gave way to the exploitation movies that Tarantino takes many cues from.

Its effect is mostly infectious, but it doesn’t have much to say beyond “look kids, I can still bring it as a badass basher.” That’s great and all, but it’s way too meandering to come anyway close to being a masterpiece.

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C’mon People, SUICIDE SQUAD Doesn’t Completely Suck!

Now playing at a multiplex near everyone:

SUICIDE SQUAD (Dir. David Ayer, 2016)

Upon leaving the screening for this film earlier this week, I wrote on my press comment card that it was “the best DC movie yet, but that’s not saying much.”

In the days since I’ve seen many variations on that line, so much so that it appears to be the consensus – go Google “better than BATMAN V SUPERMAN” and see what I mean.

Of course there are folks like this guy whose headline declares “Suicide Squad is worse than Batman v Superman. No, we didn't think it was possible either,” but I definitely enjoyed it a lot more than that monstrosity.

It’s not a great film for sure, but there are sections of it that work – the first 20 or so minutes, the set-up so to speak, hits the mark with slick, and funny intros to the main characters.

We meet the bleached white-skinned, blue and pink tipped blonde, bright red lipsticked, crazy sexy cool Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), the smooth, wise-cracking career hitman Deadshot (Will Smith); the fire-controlling ex-mobster El Diablo (Jay Hernandez); the reptilian cannibal Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) who’s the “Groot” of the group; and the Australian badass thief Boomerang (Jai Courtney), all behind bars for various crimes that we see in snazzy flashbacks.

Viola Davis plays Amanda Walker, a U.S. intelligence officer decides to assemble these dangerous supervillains (plus a late addition, Adam Beach as Slipknot) a into a black ops team for a top-secret mission that involves saving Midway City, which is basically Chicago, from the destructive forces of an ancient witch called Enchantress (Cara Delevingne).

The team is under the command of Joel Kinnaman (The Killing, House of Cards, the ROBOCOP reboot) as Col. Rick Flag, a character that dates back to the original “Suicide Squad” comics (I just read this online; I’ve never read the comic).

But I haven’t even gotten to the film’s juiciest element, Jared Leto as the Joker, whose look with his neon green hair and weird braces outraged fans when it first dropped online, but it worked well for me in the context of the movie’s aesthetics. Sadly, Leto’s Joker isn’t in much of the film, but he makes quite an impression – more so than Ben Affleck’s Batman cameo – and has electric chemistry with Robbie, whose Harley Quinn is the Joker’s girlfriend.

The movie gets messier as it goes on with the team trotting through Midway on their mission in a manner that recalls the similar scenarios of THE WARRIORS and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK but with less of their classic gusto.

I feel like I did last summer when I bitched that the Adam Sandler movie PIXELS wasn’t as terrible as critics were saying it was (mind you, I still thought it was bad) when I write that SUICIDE SQUAD doesn’t completely suck, but I’m just being honest when I say I didn’t hate it.

Unsurprisingly, the parts that I liked were the ones that were most like Marvel, especially when it came to having more humor than their previous movies (MAN OF STEEL and BATMAN V SUPERMAN were as humorless as you can get). DC has their work cut out for them if they want to compete with Marvel’s incredibly successful business model but there are moments here that show that it may be possible someday.

David Ayer, who wrote the screenplay, is definitely a better director than Zach Snyder, but SUICIDE SQUAD is such a mismatch of different styles – sometimes it feels like the NATURAL BORN KILLERS of superhero movies – that he seems like he’s in way over his head.

I’ll still say it’s worth seeing as a matinee for Robbie, who doesn’t steal the film as much as owns it right off the bat, and Smith, who gets the lion’s share of the film’s laughs. I guess my expectations were low enough that I found some enjoyment out of this very mixed bag. If you go in like that, maybe you will too.

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