In 2021, exacerbated by ongoing COVID supply chain issues, the paint manufacturer Rosco ran out of pink paint. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times last year, Lauren Proud, Rosco's vice president of global marketing, confirmed that the remaining stock they had was purchased primarily by one source, the then-in-production film "Barbie."
Watching the film's opening moments, it's immediately clear what became of Rosco's paint stock. BarbieLand is awash in bright pink, a sprawling vista of mid-century Dream Houses and bungalows that look freshly pulled off a toy store shelf. It's vibrant, it's tactile, and – most notably – it's real.
In a Hollywood packed to the gills with CGI sprawl, "Barbie's" plastic fantastic world is nearly completely composed of real, artfully constructed film sets. This is in part what made "Barbie" a genuine pop culture phenomenon in the summer of 2023. The film – playing for free at an outdoor screening outside the Water Tower Recreation Center on Friday, Aug. 16 – makes the big-budget blockbuster feel personal and heartfelt.
"Barbie" director Greta Gerwig is certainly no stranger to finding the personal and the heartfelt in her filmography. One of Gerwig's unique gifts as a writer-director is her ability to make the personal universal. This feat is one thing in a film like 2017's "Lady Bird," her semi-autobiographical film about a girl coming of age in early 2000s California, but it's quite another in adapted work. With 2019's "Little Women," Gerwig brought her personal identification with Jo March and her sisters to bear, making for an adaptation that captures the timeless appeal of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel.
So too with "Barbie," where the rules of adaptation are not as strict. In her direction and writing, Gerwig puts so much of her experience of womanhood, its joys and its anguishes, into play. When Gloria (America Ferrera) delivers her show-stopping monologue toward the end of the film, it connects because it is heartfelt and informed by real life.
Gerwig and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto bring this same sense of the personal to the visual language of the film. More than most popcorn fare of the last few years, "Barbie" cinematography and design pops. From the archly artificial travel montage, to the plastic "water" on the beach to a scene-stealing Ken dance battle, "Barbie" homages older films in turn. Its vibrant pink landscape feels like the through-the-looking-glass opposite of the gothic spires of the Tim Burton Batman movies. From crowd favorites like "Grease" to more esoteric films like Francis Ford Coppola's musical boondoggle "One from the Heart," "Barbie" teems with visual references that provide the film with visual richness and flavor.
"Barbie" succeeds in multiplexes crowded with franchises and reboots of old classics not because it adapts something familiar, but because it has a distinct vision. Beyond its star-studded cast and eye-popping visuals, "Barbie" feels like the work of an artist with something to say. As producers scramble to find the Next Big Trend in the wake of "Barbie's" success, the real answer is clear: personal stories, inventively told.
Presented by the Chestnut Hill Community Association, the free screening of "Barbie" is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 16. Wearing pink is strongly encouraged, as is a picnic. Stop by the Market at the Fareway prior to the screening for 20% off their takeout order at select restaurants by saying "Movies Under the Stars" when ordering.
For a full list of participating vendors, visit chestnuthill.org.
