Barbenheimer: A Cultural Event

Derek Laganelli

NOTE: This article was originally a journal entry from our Summer 2023 Diary, hence it’s brevity.

Barbenheimer weekend has officially come & gone, and man, what a whirlwind it was! Now that the dust has settled a bit and I’ve had some time to collect my thoughts, I figured I had better write a little something. Future me would have been really mad if I didn’t…you’re welcome, me!

Before we get into my little, mini-reviews of each film, I thought I’d touch on the whole idea of this unlikely movie pairing becoming a cultural event. Plenty of films in the past have had their time to shine, growing past the theater and bursting their way into the cultural zeitgeist. Think The Exorcist causing people to faint & run out of the theater, or Terminator 2 and how it was the topic of conversation & spoofing for years after its release. That’s power.

In the age of social media, we still get these cultural events, but it seems more often than not that they’re fabricated - a direct result of a top-tier marketing team with a massive budget at their disposal. Not to say that we don’t still get genuine cultural moments (the Summer of Pokemon Go, comes to mind), but it’s now harder to determine which ones are real, and which ones are funded by Reed Hastings. I’m happy to report that Barbenheimer is one of the genuine ones.

What started out as a few memes on Twitter quickly ballooned into something much bigger and more genuine than either movie studio could have ever cooked up, and that’s rad as hell. Sold out screenings of each movie a month in advance, a parking lot full of people dressed head to toe in pink…this was all something that you couldn’t do with an ad budget, and it was something incredible to be a part of.

Anyways, on with the show!

OPPENHEIMER

On Saturday night I took a trip down to the IMAX in the Providence Place Mall. I found out that it was something like one of 30 IMAX theaters in the whole country equipped to show this monster of a flick on 70 MM film, and I knew I’d end up kicking myself if I settled for anything less. I was right! I’ve seen plenty of movies in IMAX before, I’ve seen plenty of movies at this IMAX theater before, but I haven’t seen any of them take advantage of the theater & it’s screen the way Oppenheimer did. Everything was simply massive, and totally engrossing as a result…totally mind blowing!

Overall, I’m pleased to report that much like the Wolf of Wall Street, Oppenheimer is one of those 3 hour movies that doesn’t feel like it’s that long. The pacing was tight & the story was engrossing, and all of the performances were top tier. Cillian Murphy & RDJ nailed it, but my favorite of the bunch was whoever was playing Albert Einstein. I’m not even going to bother looking up which actor played him. No, I’m just going to pretend that was the actual Einstein playing his silly little self. Tossing stuff into the lake at geese, just taking silly little strolls through the woods. Yep, that’s what I’m choosing to take away from this movie.

No but really, it’s so good and made me question humanity as a whole. So, A+ in my book.

BARBIE

By all accounts, Barbie shouldn’t have worked for me. I had no business in being as hyped for this damn movie as I was, but it turns out the hype was real!! There’s so much I could say about Barbie, but I bet it’s already been said much more eloquently by a million other people on the internet by now. So here are three things I loved instead:

Alan. If there is absolutely one thing to take away from this movie, it’s Michael Cera’s incredible turn as Ken’s forgettable companion. In this movie, it turns out he’s anything but! Alan is a complete scene stealer every time he makes an appearance. But is that really shocking coming from Michael Cera?
Ken’s Dance Off. I have gone on record many times before about how I am just not a musical/dance guy. Like, 95% of the time, they don’t work for me. This scene is among that ever elusive 5%! Ryan Gosling was just absolutely working his ass off in this one, and it translated well to someone like me. I really loved how tongue & cheek it was with the whole riffing on Grease bit, and boy, can that Mr. Gosling sing. Good for them!
The Real World. More specifically, the lack of time they spent in the real world. I always get worried with fish out of water movies like this. They always seem to start off on the right foot, and after the first 15 minutes, the character leaves home and ends up in another stereotypical real world, facing the very real challenges that come with it. Some of these are done well, mind you, but the last thing I wanted to see was Barbie trying to figure out how TurboTax works. Luckily Greta Gerwig thought this through, and made sure that we spent most of our time in Barbieland. Thank you!

Anywho, those are my two mini-reviews for Oppenheimer & Barbie, respectively. If you get the chance, you really should get out and see both. I’m sure Barbenheimer is going to be a cultural phenomenon that we’ll all be answering questions about twenty years from now, so why not be a part of it?