by Jackson Schneider ’24
September 26, 2023
The opinions expressed here are strictly those of the writer and do not reflect the views of University School of Nashville or the Peabody Press.
Two groundbreaking movies hit theaters on July 21. Barbie and Oppenheimer were both huge blockbusters with totally different plots and tones.
Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig, is about the toy as she goes into the human world. During her journey, Barbie deals with the real-world effects of misogyny as she tries to fix her existential crisis and save her fantastical home—Barbieland—from the Kens.
Oppenheimer, directed by Christopher Nolan, is about the scientist J. Robert Oppenhimer, who led the Manhattan Project and was mostly responsible for the creation of the atomic bomb and the start of the nuclear arms race. Oppenheimer details his life leading up to the start of the project, during the project, and the effect of the nuclear bomb on his life. A lot of controversy came out of these two movies, as people debated and argued about which movie was better all over the internet and social media.
Most USN students’ consensus on Barbie is that they enjoyed the underlying message of being who you want to be, along with the softer and lighter tone of the movie compared to Oppenheimer.
“I really enjoyed Barbie, and I really enjoyed how it was funny, but gave a meaningful message,” Ainsley Moore ‘24 said. It seemed like Barbie’s message—and how it was portrayed— also gave it a strong appeal. Its star-studded cast, headlined by Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, helped the movie gain support as well.
A detractor to Oppenheimer was the length of the movie; the three-hour run time was too much for some people, especially with so much dialogue relative to other three-hour films. However the people who loved Oppenheimer really, really loved it.
“Despite the length and pace of the movie I thought Oppenheimer was the most enthralling movie of the year, as Cillan Murphy put together a perfect performance,” said Jack Loss ‘24.
Oppenheimer fans clearly had a devout love for this film. Some even said this was among their favorite movies of all time, which fans of Barbie never said about the movie. It seems like Oppenheimer has much more of a cult following from movie lovers, while Barbie was a movie more aimed to the casual movie fan’s eye.
Although they were both very well-made and relayed their messages very well, I have to give my vote to Oppenheimer. While some people were not able to handle the three hours, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. The way the movie was able to build on itself by switching from three different periods of time was very well-executed. It also had a very underrated sound track which was paired along with some fantastic cinematography.
I was not as much a fan of Barbie because I felt at certain points, its dialogue was just crying and not really fun. It felt like some of the jokes were forced—as if the writers were just throwing stuff at a wall and seeing what landed. There were some great jokes in the movie that had me laughing out loud, but it did not really outweigh the missed jokes, in my opinion.
I also felt that the movie was rushed at times, especially the part when Ken traveled to the human world. He felt very static in that part of the movie, and once he saw what the human world was like, he immediately left to tell the other Kens about what he had seen instead of taking the time to explore it further.
I enjoyed many parts of the movie, though—I felt like the message of being who you wanted to be was portrayed really well with Barbie’s story arc and her eventual independence. I also liked how the discrepancies between the Barbie world and the human world were portrayed; it was interesting when Barbie was very confused about the role men played in the human world, and how she realized how oppressive it is. However, my favorite part of the movie was the dynamic between Ryan Gosling’s Ken and Margot Robbie’s Barbie; their scenes together were the best and funniest parts of the movie.
Both movies were very good and they deserve all the credit in the world. There is no wrong choice when picking between these two movies so just enjoy both.
