This summer’s guilty pleasure is so much more. BARBIE is an irreverent, raucous, touching, over-the-top, complex, multi-faceted masterpiece, deserving of Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director AND Best Original Screenplay. There, I've said it.

It's the screenplay Oscar I’m rooting for most. While Greta Gerwig's directing is glorious (and who can deny the movie's slickness and meteoric box office results?), it's the script that she co-penned with writer/director/husband Noah Baumbach that speaks truth to power and blesses Barbie with her quirky twists, irony and priceless dialogue. Look no further than arming Barbie with Birkenstocks and the Indigo Girl's 80s anthem 'Closer To Fine' for her soul-searching in the real world.

The genius of the script is a what elevates Barbie to a film d'auteur, and why The Guardian's review 'Has Barbie killed the Indie Director?' is simplistic, highbrow clickbait, not worthy of the publication. I’d humbly suggest The Guardian consider the alternate angle: 'Has Barbie Killed the Bad Film Critics?'

Greta Gerwig and executive producer Margot Robbie stuck to their creative guns throughout. Margot Robbie conceived of the project, brought Greta onboard and then charmed Mattel and Warner Bros to preserve every degree of its acidity. In Greta Gerwig's words, 'the story being what it is, it feels unbelievable that it's been made'. I couldn't agree more. Barbie’s subversiveness and bravery keep it rooted in the indie world.

My only criticism of the script (spoiler alert) would be its reliance on voter suppression to restore the natural order in Barbieland. But then again, the scene also blesses us with Ryan Gosling’s rendition of ‘I’m Just Ken’, so all’s forgiven.

Fun fact: Greta Gerwig and husband Noah Baumbach have each been nominated twice for screenplay Oscars. Were they to deservedly win for the Barbie script, it'd be third time lucky for both. But I'd settle for a nomination, and nothing less.

NOTE 12/2023: Since writing this the 2024 Golden Globe nominations were just announced. Besides leading the pack in nominations, Barbie was indeed nominated for Best Film, Best Director (comedy) and Best Screenplay. Justice has been served, for now.

NOTE 01/2024: The Oscar nominations were just announced, with two glaring omissions. Firstly, Greta Gerwig's masterful directing went unrecognised, best explained by Kyle Buchanan at the NYT for having four things going against it: Barbie being a big studio movie, a comedy, about a doll and Greta being a woman. To note is that 587 academy members vote for the Best Director nominations. While only a quarter of them are women, the votes come in from a respectable 93 countries. Perhaps this was another point against it’s Best Director nomination, given that it’s kitsch, pop-art and continual USA-specific references played best for an anglo audience. Who knows.
Secondly, Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach were nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay rather than for the Original Screenplay category, simply because Barbie is based on pre-existing characters from the Mattel doll line. Absolutely ridiculous, but not without Academy precedent. Judd Apatow summed it up best on Twitter: 'It’s insulting to the writers to say they were working off of existing material. There was no existing material or story. There was a clear box.'