Barbie (2023)

Second time around seeing it so I got to now focus on the script, themes, and overall messages more than just soaking everything all in on the first time.
I'm really hoping studios take the right notes away from this success(which, with Mattel announcing a movie slate of all their past toys it already seems like they aren't). It's not the fact that it's a "movie about Barbie". The movie is good because it was written by an extremely talented screenwriting couple, put in the hands of an incredibly talented director, and the movie was allowed to say what it wanted, even if that includes bashing the company behind the project itself.
In order for a movie based around some seemingly absurd source material to actually be good, it has to be a movie that deals with themes which are globally applicable and highly personal which happen to be told through the lens of some silly concept. It's not a Barbie movie; it's a movie about feminism, the patriarchy, the dynamic of romantic relationships, self-conscious living, personal identity, etc. which is told through the lens of barbie
Imagine another director with the source material - actually you don't have to; look at how many garbage movies come out because they play on a beloved brand or franchise but assume that the love for the brand will be enough to make a good movie. It doesn't work like that. The movie has to be good regardless of the product it's exploring
I always think of E.T. as an example of this. Imagine a run of the mill Netflix movie director with this movie; it would have been a god-awful movie about some boy who meets an alien. Instead, since it deals with family, coping with grief and loss, the struggles of social life when growing up, and friendship, and HAPPENS to be telling the story of a boy who meets an alien, the movie is phenomenal. I mean it's also Spielberg but that's besides the point.
Tell universal stories which happen to revolve around something random - it doesn't work the other way around
Also, this movie is just so funny and well-directed that that also helps.
Had to give it 5 stars on the second time around.
Oh and I'm a huge sucker for montages about the beauty of what it means to be a human being. Reminded me of the ending scene in the Giver - spoilers