Barbenheimer...totally-not-a-review with spoilers

[cyberbrain]

Do you guys ever think about dying?

A week ago I saw Barbie and yesterday I saw Oppenheimer. I really liked both. I knew I'd like Oppenheimer because I'd been eagerly waiting for it since last year but Barbie turning out to be a good movie was a complete surprise.

I went to see Barbie with my mom; it was her initiative actually (or I would've waited for the movie to come out...online :3). We both liked it a lot,,,except I took issue with two jokes, but I'll elaborate on those in a bit.

When I initially heard about this movie—years ago when they were filming—I wasn't impressed nor excited and I thought it wouldn't be worth watching; I didn't think anyone could possibly come up with a good story. Then this year suddenly everyone was talking about how great it is and how it's a must-watch. And then my mom was like, "Let's go see it!" So I went and, well, wow!

To briefly explain the setting without spoiling too much: Barbies (and Kens...and the one single Allan, lmao) live in Barbie Land and every day is the best day ever until Sterotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) starts to think and experience weird stuff. She is told to go see Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), who tells her she has to go to the real world and fix stuff there.

The sets were amazing and so were the costumes. I loved Margot Robbie's performance, and Kate McKinnon's too...though after all the praise for Ryan Gosling I had raised my expectations high and wasn't that impressed.

I definitely recommend the movie and think that anyone could enjoy it,,,provided they can be open-minded about Barbie (and aren't a bigot who believe women shouldn't have rights, etc).

The jokes I didn't like were:
One: "Like someone who is weirdly into Zack Snyder's Justice League." ...as someone who actually is, big oof! I can maybe laugh about this one now that time has passed but it still sounds like a weird potshot.

Two, literally the last line of the movie, which is a joke but still gives away the ending: "I'm here to see my gynecologist." It's supposed to be a bit of spicy fun I guess but oh my god. If that's the joke it just seems immature to me. I guess I'm supposed to find it funny that Barbie is about to have an uncomfortable time at the OB-GYN's office? Not really something I find all that funny.

That said, the movie is great!

Okay, now onto Oppenheimer. We went with both my parents. It was just gonna be my dad and me initially but then my mom expressed a desire to come after hearing good reviews.

I expected it to be good and it was good. I don't have too much to say here. I'm not sure how true to reality it is and I'm not all that great at phsysics (not that the movie requires it) so I wouldn't know if something was egregiously wrong. Hearing that Oppenheimer wasn't as good at math as colleagues in the field wanted/expected him to be was nice for me personally, because I have math-related trauma.

There's one scene that really struck me.

Oppenheimer comes home in the evening to find his wife, Kitty, sitting in the kitchen, drinking, their baby crying offscreen. He shares some good news with her, she embraces him because she shares his happiness and then he says, "Shouldn't you go to him?"

"I've been going to him all fucking day."

And then he doesn't shame her or react negatively at all (which is what I'd expect to see in a movie), just takes the baby to (I had to look up who it was) a friend's house and asks him and his wife to take care of the baby. The wife takes the baby and doesn't shame and neither does the guy. "We're selfish, awful people," Oppenheimer says, clearly recognizing that he too is failing at being a parent at that moment.

"Selfish, awful people don't know they're selfish, awful people."

The movie uses a security clearance appeal hearing as a framing device, which I initially thought was strange but ended up liking. It does lend itself for some time skipping and back and forths, which gets confusing the moment you stop focusing...and I kept losing focus during the first half because of a couple of tween boys sat a few seats away from me with no one between us (no idea how or even why they got in lol).

I did hear some criticism for the film, which I won't repeat because I disagree. I think all the characters are depicted in a fair way and all the actors (so many big names, like *so many*) did a marvelous job. I was left with the impression that Oppenheimer felt the bomb was necessary to develop, so he didn't regret it but was still traumatized by it. Also, it seems that Oppenheimer wasn't a very good husband or father but I already knew that. It would've been interesting to see more of the side characters' lives, I admit, but I get why it wasn't done. The movie is already three hours long and the framing doesn't really allow it.

In conclusion, I liked this movie and also recommend it. This one, though...I'm not sure it's everyone's cup of tea for obvious reasons.

I was looking to have a good time with these movies and I did, so mission accomplished. Now to pick what movie I'll watch next...probably not at the cinema though. (It's very likely it might be Hypnotic with Ben Affleck, who I'm still into because I can't get over his Bruce Wayne.)

orz my tablet is refusing to do any spell-checking, so if I've eaten any letters or words, oopsie