CINEMA

What can you say about Barbie? I mean really – what can you say?

I was at a screening of Oppenheimer on the weekend at the Palace Cinema in Ballina.

It was concurrently disturbing, good, riveting and beautifully shot. It so full of stunning performances and I cried through one third of it (that’s an hour of crying). The sound design was incredible; the story was very intense and exciting but, for me, Oppenheimer was mostly disturbing.

I walked out of the darkened cinema – dabbing at my eyes and dragging myself from the 20th back to the 21st century, and was met by a wall of pink on pink – and squealing, hyper-excited, dreamy-eyed Barbie fans – and their daughters. Hundreds of female humans and a few token ‘Kens’, squishing to get to the door. Needless to say, the 2023 Barbie is not just a movie, it’s a phenomenon, and an experience, and a frenzy, with many cinemas offering the opportunity for viewers to have their own Barbie experience inside a plastic box. To be honest, I haven’t seen it yet and I think the wafting of all-pervasive strawberry body spray might be just too much for my brain to cope with – I’ll wait to see who gets the streaming rights…

In the meantime – The Echo spoke to a Gen X-er who grew up with her very own Barbie. Let’s call her my sister Rachel.

‘Rachel’ went to the Palace Cinema in Byron on Monday for her 50-something-year-old Barbie fix. She said: ‘Barbie was fantastic! I think the film was very inspirational for girls young and old’.

‘While there were some really fun moments, there were some very poignant and thought-provoking scenes. Margot Robbie, America Ferrera and all the Barbies were fantastic. Go Barbie! And go Ruth Handler for creating a doll that has created so many memories for children big and small.’

Barbie is on at both the Ballina and Palace cinemas. Also, go and see Oppenheimer. Take tissues.