Skip to main content
Barbie backdrop
Barbie poster

Barbie

“She's everything. He's just Ken.”

6.9
2023
1h 54m
ComedyAdventure
Director: Greta Gerwig

Overview

Barbie and Ken are having the time of their lives in the colorful and seemingly perfect world of Barbie Land. However, when they get a chance to go to the real world, they soon discover the joys and perils of living among humans.

Trailer

Just Ken Exclusive Official

Cast

Reviews

AI-generated review
Plastic Gods and Human Tears

To dismiss Greta Gerwig’s *Barbie* as a corporate conquest is to misunderstand the subversive nature of the Trojan horse she has constructed. It is a film that wears the hot-pink armor of a toy commercial to smuggle in a treatise on the terrifying, beautiful burden of having a soul. Following the raw, autobiographical ache of *Lady Bird* and the structural warmth of *Little Women*, Gerwig’s pivot to a billion-dollar IP initially seemed like a surrender. Instead, she utilized the rigid plastic of Mattel’s empire to ask a question that haunts her entire filmography: What does it mean to grow up and realize the world was not made for you?

The visual language of *Barbie* is a triumph of artificiality. Gerwig and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto do not simply film a set; they photograph a memory of play. Barbieland is a suffocating Eden of "Dreamhouses" with no walls, a place where privacy is nonexistent and water is a solid, motionless decal. The lighting is relentlessly high-key, a manic over-brightness that suggests a world where shadows—and by extension, doubt—are forbidden. This deliberate synthetic aesthetic makes the intrusion of reality feel violent. When Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) enter the Real World, the film’s texture shifts. The colors become muddy, the camera movements less precise. The contrast creates a sensory shock, forcing the audience to feel the "fall from grace" not just narratively, but viscera.

At the heart of this candy-colored spectacle lies a profound existential crisis, anchored by a performance of remarkable vulnerability from Margot Robbie. She plays Barbie not as a vacuous symbol, but as a being attaining consciousness in real-time. The film’s emotional anchor is not the viral monologue delivered by America Ferrera—though potent—but a quieter, almost silent scene at a bus stop. Barbie, fresh to the chaotic cruelty of Los Angeles, encounters an elderly woman. In a blockbuster landscape that usually erases aging, Barbie looks at her wrinkled face and simply says, "You’re beautiful." It is a moment of pure, unadulterated humanism. It is the moment the doll stops being an object to be looked at and becomes a subject capable of looking back with empathy.

Simultaneously, the film treats Ken not as a villain, but as a tragic figure of undefined purpose. Ryan Gosling’s performance is a masterclass in physical comedy masking deep insecurity. His journey into the "patriarchy" is less a power grab and more a desperate attempt to fill a void. If Barbie fights for the right to be complex, Ken fights for the right to simply *be*, separate from the gaze of his counterpart. The "Mojo Dojo Casa House" is not just a joke about bachelor pads; it is a heartbreaking monument to a man who has no idea who he is, trying to perform masculinity because he lacks an identity.

Ultimately, *Barbie* is a rejection of the very perfection its protagonist was built to represent. It argues that to be human is to be uncomfortable, to age, to have cellulite, and to know death. Gerwig takes a symbol of unattainable standards and uses it to validate the messy, unglamorous reality of existing. It is a film that invites us to step out of the box, even if the world outside is terrified and grey, simply because that is where the life is.

Clips (10)

Barbie Meets Sasha & Her Friends

Barbie & Ken Take A Trip to the Real World

Impossible to be a Woman

It's Barbie and Ken

Barbie & Ruth Have A Heart to Heart

Ryan Gosling Performs "I'm Just Ken"

Gloria Wakes Up The Barbies

Ten Minute Preview

America Ferrera's Iconic Barbie Speech

Ryan Gosling’s “I’m Just Ken” in American Sign Language

Featurettes (19)

“This Is Actually Tidy for Us!” — Barbie’s Designers Show Off Their Workspace

'Barbie’s Most Famous Set Was Ugly By Design

Margot Robbie hasn't watched Barbie since the premiere | EE BAFTA Film Awards 2024

The Making of the World of Barbie

Ryan Gosling and America Ferrera on Barbie | BFI in conversation

'Barbie' | Scene at The Academy

The Cast of Barbie On Director Greta Gerwig

Margot Robbie & the Cast of Barbie Play This Or That

Margot Robbie & the Cast of Barbie Get To Know Me

Official IMAX® Interview

THANK YOU to all of the beautiful Barbies and Kens who helped get this pink party started! 🤩🎀💞

The Kens

Greta Gerwig explains how Carole Lombard and Katharine Hepburn inspired "Barbie’"

Greta's Vision

The Album x Movie

Welcome to Kenada! 💖

European Premiere

Best Day Ever

The Cast of ‘Barbie’ on Greta Gerwig’s Vision, ‘Big Ken Energy’, and Favorite Outfits

Behind the Scenes (10)

Bringing Barbie to the Big Screen

Musical Make-Believe: Disco Party

Musical Make-Believe: Ken's Ballet

Musical Make-Believe: Doing War

Becoming Barbie

Welcome to Barbie Land

It's a Weird World

All-Star Barbie Party

The Score

Transportation

LN
Latest Netflix

Discover the latest movies and series available on Netflix. Updated daily with trending content.

About

  • AI Policy
  • This is a fan-made discovery platform.
  • Netflix is a registered trademark of Netflix, Inc.

© 2026 Latest Netflix. All rights reserved.