The Beauty of Barbenheimer
A combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and a surge in streaming platform content has made life very difficult for cinemas in recent times. Why venture out, find a parking spot, queue for snacks and sit with strangers in the dark when you can watch whatever you like from the comfort of home, right?
But convenience can come at a cost. Our at-home screens and digital devices have been dominated by superheroes, seasons and remakes of late, and fatigue is starting to set in. Franchises have ballooned so much that even die-hard fans are finding it hard to keep engaged, let alone keep up. This bombardment of unimaginative content has left many lovers of cinema bored.
Enter the Barbenheimer phenomenon.
Dubbed Barbenheimer due to the dual release date (July 20th here in Australia) of Warner Bros. and Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’ and Universal Pictures and Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’, these films have been smashing it at the box office, persuading people to return to their local cinemas in droves.
Sure, a saturation of ads, interviews, trailers and exclusive clips have had something to do with their success so far, but it’s mostly been fuelled by a desire for fresh stories and a contagious case of FOMO.
The notion that both movies are best experienced in the cinema surfaced organically with the hype, and a healthy dose of cross-promotion from the creatives of both sides has been yet another driver for record ticket sales.
Nolan is known for his large-scale epics of practical effects, big sights and even bigger sounds, so it was only natural that ‘Oppenheimer’ was going to be promoted as a must-see on the big screen.
Veteran Nolan collaborator Cillian Murphy (who plays J. Robert Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic bomb”) is mesmerising is his first, proper leading role in Hollywood, and is backed by an all-star ensemble cast that includes Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett and Kenneth Branagh. And Ludwig Goransaon’s suspenseful score acts like a character of its own.
Although most of us knew a bit about The Manhattan Project, the Trinity test and the subsequent (and horrific) bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, very few of us knew about the man behind the story.
‘Oppenheimer’ is an explosive, 3-hour look at his early life, his work and relationships, his obsession with quantum physics and his eventual role as the face of the Atomic Age. It’s about the biggest, global gamble to date (the bomb was either going to exacerbate all wars, end all wars or end the world), and it plays out in typical Nolan fashion with staggering IMAX camera visuals, going from the dusty desert vistas of Los Alamos, to the black and white colour gradings of claustrophobic courtrooms.
Gerwig on the other hand, is best known for acting in mumblecore movies and directing arthouse style, female-led films like ‘Little Women’ and ‘Lady Bird’.
‘Barbie’ is her first turn at a blockbuster, with an ensemble cast that is yes, mostly women, but has some stellar supporting male actors in the mix. With a picture-perfect Margot Robbie at the helm, ‘Barbie’ follows the titular Mattel doll’s journey from Barbieland into the real world, where she is confronted with an existence that is wildly different to her own.
Hilarity (and some heartfelt moments) ensue, with Ryan Gosling stealing every scene he’s in as her peroxide blonde, lovesick sidekick Ken, plus some fun supporting performances from the likes of America Ferrera, Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon, Michael Cera, Will Ferrell, Simu Liu and Kingsley Ben-Adir.
Gerwig’s plastic fantastic, feminist world gives off serious summer vacay vibes, all technicolor blue skies, hot pink dreamhouses, glittery dancefloors and sunny beaches - with a super catchy soundtrack to boot!
With one movie about a bomb and the other about a bombshell, on the surface, it looked like they were going to appeal to two very different types of moviegoers. But we couldn’t have been more wrong, and hallelujah for that!
People have turned Barbenheimer into an event, getting big groups together, dressing up and booking back-to-back screenings. There’s even merch and memes, but more importantly, there’s hope. Hope that Hollywood still has more to offer than CGI, stunts and sequels.
In their first three days in the theatre, Barbenheimer generated a whopping $244.5 million dollars combined. If that’s not the definition of going off with a bang, I don’t know what is…
‘Oppenheimer’ 4/5 stars. ‘Barbie’ 4.5/5 stars.
