NEW YORK — Life in plastic may be fantastic but the tedious ideology-driven comedy "Barbie" (Warner Bros.) is not. Although genuinely objectionable elements are relatively few, moreover, this is distinctly not a movie for the age group to which the figurine of the title is primarily marketed.
Margot Robbie plays the famous Mattel doll that first arrived on store shelves back in 1959. Together with her sidekick Ken (Ryan Gosling), Barbie inhabits a pink-hued feminist paradise where the president, the nine justices of the Supreme Court and all Nobel Prize winners are women.
Troubled and bewildered by hitherto alien thoughts of death as well as by a sudden physical imperfection -- a patch of cellulite on her leg -- our heroine consults one of her many alter egos, Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon). The problem, it seems, is that whoever is currently playing with Standard Barbie is sad and her sorrow is affecting her toy.
So it's time to journey to the real world to meet the cause of the difficulty and, presumably, cheer her up sufficiently to restore the status quo. Ken stows away in the back seat of Barbie's car and thus gets to share in the adventure.
Arriving in Los Angeles, Barbie discovers the tribulations -- and Ken the joys -- of patriarchy. Barbie also learns to her surprise that, far from being revered as a symbol of female empowerment, she's reviled as the embodiment of women's subjugation.
Ken manages to return to Barbie Land first and proceeds to imbue it with male dominance. Thus, by the time Barbie gets back to her natural setting, it's not only been tainted by warped values but turned topsy-turvy.
Barbie will need the cooperation of all her many eponymous iterations to avert cultural and political disaster. Fortunately, she'll also have the help of Gloria (America Ferrera) and Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt), a mother-and-daughter duo from the realm of human beings.
As scripted by director Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, the picture bemoans the plight of women while blithely stereotyping men as selfish, childish and aggressive. With the rivalry of the sexes raging, little of the humor (Will Ferrell plays the dizzy CEO of Mattel) and less of the sentiment (Rhea Perlman plays the wise granny who co-founded the company) works.
Despite all the controversy that continues to swirl around her, Barbie has undeniably proved a long-lasting source of enjoyment for youngsters. Her namesake movie, by contrast, is too closely focused on its own agenda to provide older viewers with much entertainment and too freewheeling to be acceptable for little kids.
The film contains stylized physical violence, a few instances each of mild swearing and crass talk, mature wordplay and brief sexual and anatomical humor. The OSV News classification is A-II – adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 – parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
— John Mulderig, OSV News. John Mulderig is media reviewer for OSV News. Follow him on Twitter @JohnMulderig1.
Local author applies wisdom from St. Francis de Sales to the lives of modern Catholics in ‘The Devout Life’
Devotion is a central theme in Deacon Matthew Newsome’s life. He is especially devoted to his wife and their seven children, his ministry, and God. It’s also a key component of his writing, a decades-long endeavor now experiencing a fresh flowering with the publishing of his first book, “The Devout Life: A Modern Guide to Practical Holiness with St. Francis de Sales” to be released June 20 by Sophia Institute Press.
“I’m very excited by it,” he said. “Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always wanted to be a published author.”
Deacon Newsome writes a regular column for the Catholic News Herald, and his articles have appeared in other Catholic publications including The Deacon, This Rock (now Catholic Answers Magazine) and Envoy. He is the Catholic campus minister at Western Carolina University, and his home parish is St. Mary Mother of God in Sylva.
As an adult convert to the Catholic faith, he said he never would have guessed his first book would be about St. Francis de Sales, a 17th-century bishop he credits with being 300 years ahead of the Universal Call to Holiness promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1964.
In “An Introduction to the Devout Life,” first published in 1609, St. Francis de Sales gives practical advice to attain holiness in ways that fit the lives of laypeople. Deacon Newsome’s book takes the saint’s teachings from this spiritual classic and applies them to Catholics in the 21st century.
“St. Francis de Sales has a lot of wisdom, and how many people aren’t reading it because they don’t think that they can pick up and read a 400-year-old book by a French bishop?” Deacon Newsome said.
Like the original, the book is organized in five sections that Deacon Newsome likens to the Parable of the Sower. The book starts by helping readers “prepare the soil of their hearts” and progresses through the planting, growing and tending of their spiritual gardens with practical advice for incorporating prayer into their daily lives and growing in virtues. Each chapter is short and accessible with discussion questions at the end.
“The person who is going to benefit from this book the most is someone who is already a committed Catholic,” Deacon Newsome said. “They’re going to Mass.
They’re committed to the faith, but they’re looking for the next step. They might not be satisfied with just being a Sunday Catholic.”
The inspiration for Deacon Newsome’s book on the saintly French bishop surfaced four years ago as he and his wife Joannie were seeking to increase their own holiness. They were looking for a devotional book to read after their evening prayers. Deacon Newsome recommended “An Introduction to the Devout Life,” and they started reading it together for the first time.
“St. Francis de Sales was most famous for his down-to-earth homilies that explained the complexities of the Christian faith in simple ways the people of his age could understand,” Deacon Newsome said, “and that came through in his writing as well.”
As they went through the book, Deacon Newsome said he did a fair amount of translating in the sense of culture and context. That’s when Joannie suggested that he write a book so he could help others understand the teachings more thoroughly as well. A prolific reader who has taught grammar and writing to their homeschooled children for years, she also worked with her husband to refine the manuscript and write the discussion questions.
“My wife is the best editor I know,” Deacon Newsome said, noting they worked in tandem throughout the writing process.
Authoring an update to a spiritual classic is a notable first foray into book publishing for anyone, but the seeds of “The Devout Life” were planted long ago.
“For the past 15 years I’ve been working in campus ministry helping young adults understand and appropriate the faith and put it into practice,” Deacon Newsome said. “I’ve worked as part of our lay ministry program. I’ve engaged in catechist training. My whole vocation, my whole work is helping people to understand these things, but it’s very humbling to think that I could update a saint because I am not a saint.”
If you’re looking for your next read, consider taking one step closer to ‘The Devout Life’ with Deacon Newsome.
— Annie Ferguson
TO ORDER: www.sophiainstitute.com/product/the-devout-life