Barbie

With a star-studded cast list and elaborate marketing plan, it is easy to say that Barbie was the most anticipated movie of the summer. The movie featured actors Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken, and many other famous celebrities from Dua Lipa, to John Cena, to Issa Rae and more. The movie had the highest opening weekend box office sales of all movies released in 2023, sitting at $155 million.

In the movie, Barbie goes on a journey of self-discovery as she becomes “broken”, her feet becoming flat, cellulite on her thighs, and becoming depressed, travelling from Barbieland to the human world to meet Mattel and her owner to fix things. At the same time, Ken tries to find his role in life other than “Barbie’s boyfriend” and ends up discovering the patriarchy whilst in the human world with Barbie, converting Barbieland into a patriarchal society. Barbie works to revert Barbieland to the female-dominated society it was before, all while helping Ken recognize his worth beyond being Barbie’s boyfriend.

Overall the movie held a simple plot, with little complexities and plot twists. It made sense as it seemed the movie was more about selling the message of women’s empowerment and discovering oneself, as it put heavy emphasis on its disapproval of the patriarchy and highlighted Barbie and Ken’s self-discovery journeys.

Despite the simplicity and fun manner of the movie, at times it was a difficult watch due to the amount of cringe inside it. Many of the character’s actions felt unnatural and stupid, leading to the audience feeling heavy second-hand embarrassment. However, it can be argued that in some way, the cringe and unnaturalness is exactly what Barbie is, slightly cringe and unnatural, but throughout the movie, she steps outside of the box and becomes more than the “stereotypical barbie”, and almost more human in some way.

More iconic than the movie itself would be the marketing that went into the movie. Overall, the film spent a whopping $700 million on marketing, involving lots of partnerships with at least 100 brands to create limited edition products, from brands such as Crocs to Burger King to Forever 21. And the marketing paid off, as the movie had the most successful opening weekend of all movies in 2023.

If you are looking for something fun and light-hearted to watch, but still holding a message, Barbie is definitely a movie you would want to try.

Oppenheimer

Also released July 21, 2023, Oppenheimer was also a highly anticipated movie, directed by Christopher Nolan, known for incorporating complex storytelling into his films such as Dunkirk and Inception. Although not as successful in the box office as the Barbie movie, it still lies within the top 10 highest opening weekend box office sales of 2023 and has higher ratings with an impressive Rotten Tomatoes score of 94%.

Oppenheimer follows the life of the father of the atomic bomb and his journey to create the bomb and how it affected his life for years afterward. The movie realistically portrays Oppenheimer and does not romanticize his life and the bomb by putting decent emphasis on the both moral dilemmas he faced in creating it and his poor personality in some ways. He was shown as someone who did not wish to cause death, someone who was a genius, but also someone who was constantly caught up in affairs and eccentric to the point of hurting those around him. The movie ends bittersweet, a fitting and truthful end to someone who has created one of the greatest weapons in the world.

The film is a more confusing watch, requiring the audience to think as it combines non-linear timelines to tell a full story, skipping around parts of Robert J. Oppenheimer’s ( played by Cillian Murphy) life. It often jumps between a younger him in the process of creating the bomb, to a later him, facing the repercussions of being the creator of the atomic bomb. Moreover, the film also switches to black and white when told from the perspective of Oppenheimer’s enemy, Lewis Strauss (played by Robert Downey Jr.).

One noteworthy aspect of the film was the cinematography behind it. Nolan is known to be very specific about how his films are captured and shown, and Oppenheimer is no exception. The entire film was shot in IMAX with full 18k resolution, with only select theatres having the technology to display the film in its original quality. Furthermore, no CGI was used in the movie at all, all scenes, from the atoms to the atomic bomb explosion testing were all created by combining various techniques to create the desired look.

Overall, the more complex plot and exploration of mature concepts make the movie more suitable for an older audience, in contrary to Barbie, but for history-lovers looking for a movie with complex and deep meaning to pick apart, Oppenheimer is a must-watch.