“Barbie” might be a multimillion-dollar corporate product based on a ridiculously lucrative multimedia property, but it’s also an earnest love letter to cinema history.
Of course, that’s nothing new for co-writer and director Greta Gerwig.
A quick glimpse at the multi-hyphenate’s filmography will reveal she’s never shied away from openly acknowledging her influences.
“Frances Ha,” the 2012 dramedy Gerwig starred in and co-wrote with the film’s director and her “Barbie” co-writer/real-life partner, Noah Baumbach, overtly tips its hat to the French New Wave, as does Gerwig’s semi-autobiographical directorial debut, “Lady Bird” (her answer to Francois Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows“).When it comes to “Barbie,” there’s no missing the references to “The Wizard of Oz” and Gene Kelly musicals like “An American in Paris,” nor the deliberate parallels between the red pill/blue pill scene from “The Matrix” and Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) consulting Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) about her sudden existential crisis.
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