Since I've reviewed Oppenheimer I might as well go the whole hog and review the other biggest summer blockbuster, Barbie.

I would say that, overall, the movie was much better and way more entertaining than a toy franchise movie has any right to be. Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach managed to make quite a lot out of what they'd been given to work with. It's hard to praise the acting especially because the material was so light, but I did Ryan Gosling's performance as Ken to be particularly funny, almost as if he was sending himself up. The design and production values were outstanding.

Nor am I bothered by the accusations that the movie is woke. I consider myself woke, and proud of it (I find that the people who use it as a derogatory term can never agree on what it means). So the image accompanying this blog reflects that.

One of my problems is that it falls between two stools. Yes women have it hard, yes we live in a patriarchal world, and kudos to the movie for conveying that message in mainstream entertainment. The problem is that, since the movie is a crowd please, it has to pull its punches regarding men; there's nothing wrong with them, in fact they are really nice. This blunts the message. The movie could have been a bit edgier in that respect, even at the risk of making Piers Morgan even more angry (which would be a good thing, especially if it caused him health complications).

And, of course, the reason the movie has to be a crowd please is that in the end, not withstanding Gerwig's and Baumbach's own enlightened views and their inventive powers, the move is still, first and foremost, a product placement movie. Therein lies the real problem.