Critics hail ‘Barbie’ as a crowd-pleasing feminist rallying cry

The reviews are rolling in for Barbie, and the overall sentiment so far is that the movie based on a toy has a whole lot more to say than you might expect, both in its visual dazzle and on an intellectual level.

Though many more reviews are sure to flood the site soon, review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes has crowned Barbie with a 94 percent based on 63 reviews so far. On Metacritic, the 39 reviews counted so far have generated a score of 81 and labeled as a “Metacritic Must See.”

The reviewer Mario Alegre with Próxima Tanda called Barbie an “incredible subversive feminist manifesto about the doll that for decades has been seen as a symbol of the very antithesis of that movement.”

Sophia Ciminello of AwardsWatch also acknowledged the film’s meta themes which focused on the doll’s “relationship to her constructed meaning” while hailing it as a universally appealing movie about “what it means to be alive.”

Barbie director Greta Gerwig was also singled out for constructing “a pink-soaked summer bash” that is sure to please crowds and a “creative extravaganza” by Jeff Nelson from Guy at the Movies. 

Devan Coggan of Entertainment Weekly signaled that Barbie is about the farthest thing from creatively bankrupt as you can get, thanks to “Gerwig’s care and attention to detail that gives Barbie an actual point of view.”

Barbie’s bold take on themes of “childhood and the patriarchy and feminism” resulted in a “better” movie than you would think, according to Arizona Republic’s Bill Goodykoontz.

RogerEbert.com’s Christy Lemire also praised Barbie for striking a balance between being “a gleeful escape and a battle cry.”

Barbie comes to theaters on Friday, July 21. Of course, so is Oppenheimer, as we’re certain you already know.