A Barbenheimer boy in a Barbenheimer world

Oppenheimer is the latest Christopher Nolan epic.

It tells the story of J Robert Oppenheimer, the man responsible for the successful development of the atomic bomb during the Second World War.

Barbie is the latest epic (yes) from Greta Gerwig. It tells the story of Barbie, the Mattel doll, as she finds herself journeying to the real world.

Now to the casual observer, it would seem that these two films have next-to-nothing in common other than the fact they are both being shown at cinemas near you. It would appear that outside of a recap of films released in 2023, they would have no reason to share an article. But there is one thing. In April of 2022, it was announced that Barbie would share the release date that had already been allotted to Oppenheimer. Just like that, a fuse was lit.

The entertainment value (seemingly inherent) to two films with such dissonant premises, inspiration, and colour palettes premiering on the same day gave birth to Barbenheimer, an internet meme which spawned a plethora of fan art, trailer mashups, and marketing gags. But on top of all that, the only question that mattered, “Which one are you seeing?”

"I think it's great. I mean, I'll be going to see Barbie. I can't wait to see it,” Cillian Murphy, the actor tasked with bringing Oppenheimer to life in Nolan’s film, shared in an interview with IGN. “I think it's just great for the industry and for audiences that we have two amazing films by amazing filmmakers coming out the same day. Could spend a whole day in the cinema, what's better than that?"

What’s better? Not much I’m happy to say.

Now to say I spent “the whole day” at the cinema is a bit of a misnomer. The first ticket was for the 5pm, IMAX showing of Oppenheimer on Queen St. Not to say the day leading up to that time wasn’t brimming with anticipation, as I visited several shops with one of my flatmates, as we put together our outfits for the evening, managing to snag the last two “Barbie” shirts at the St Lukes Kmart.

After we managed to find a rare spot of free parking in the CBD (no, I won’t tell you where), my friends and I (in our Oppenheimer hats and coats, and our Barbie shirts) made our way to the cinema for Christopher Nolan’s latest masterpiece.

Oppenheimer

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Based on American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin, Oppenheimer follows the life of J Robert Oppenheimer from his time as a student at the University of Cambridge, through to his teaching of quantum physics, his social brushes with the Communist Party, all the way to the development of “the gadget” and what came next for its infamous creator.

With every film he makes, Nolan seems to become more and more ambitious, both in terms of the stories he tells and the techniques he uses. In a way, this film almost feels like an exercise in scarcity (and yes, that does equate with its three-hour runtime).

The pace constantly has the story moving, with no scene daring to risk outstaying its welcome, to a degree that you would be forgiven if it took you a moment to recall the roles of certain characters when they reappear in latter parts of Oppenheimer’s story.

Despite its invention dominating the marketing campaign, the development of “the gadget” is only two thirds of the film’s runtime, with the remainder focusing on what happened next, not to the world, but to the man, as Oppenheimer’s activities prior to the Second World War make him the perfect target for an America quickly drowning in paranoia.

These jaunts into McCarthyism however, never end up going too far off the central idea of the film; the intrinsic and absolute threat of the power that Oppenheimer has released upon the world.

Speaking of the man, Cillian Murphy shines in the titular role, delivering a performance that makes the extra price of an IMAX ticket well worth. But Murphy doesn’t deliver the only extraordinary performance. Due to the number of characters and pace of the story, there are certainly few who get anywhere near as much development as Oppenheimer.

Coming in second however, is politician Lewis Strauss (portrayed by Robert Downey Jr). Nolan’s fascination with separate timelines in storytelling is on display through this character, as the film jumps between the development and consequences of “the gadget”, and a Senate confirmation hearing for Strauss, providing a framework for him to relay his own relationship to Oppenheimer.

Oppenheimer delivers what we have come to expect from Nolan. An engaging script, phenomenal visuals, and multi-hour exploration into complex themes. However, being what we’ve come to expect, doesn’t make his work any less effective.

Once the credits began to roll, we hastened out of the theatre. We had one hour (plenty of time) to get to New Lynn for a 9pm session of Barbie. Once we arrived, we discarded our Oppenheimer-related clothing aspects and went full Barbie. We’d barely had time to comprehend the bleak reality brought to the forefront of our minds by Oppenheimer before we were blown away in an eruption of pastels, laughs and tears.

Barbie

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Everything is perfect in Barbieland. Through working together and supporting each other, the Barbies have developed a utopia, and the Kens…well the Kens are there too. However, Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) has begun to experience flat feet, cold showers, and uncontrollable thoughts of death, and learns that there is only one place she can discover the cause of her malfunctions.

So, with her Ken (Ryan Gosling) in tow, Barbie must travel to the real world, where she learns just how much of impact (or lack thereof) the Barbies have had, and Ken learns about a little something called the patriarchy.

Remember when The Lego Movie was first announced in 2011? Everybody scoffed, “it’ll be a shameless cash grab”, “they’re just looking to make a quick buck with a name that’ll have all the parents taking their kids”.

Then in 2014 the film was released and surpassed all expectations. With her previous film, 2019’s Little Women, looking to be the definitive retelling of the story for years to come, expectations were certainly high when Greta Gerwig was announced as Barbie’s director, co-writing with her husband, Noah Baumbach. I think it is more than fair to say the result has, like The Lego Movie before it, surpassed any and all expectations.

Now, while writing and directing are all well and good, words are nothing without an actor to speak them, and what a pair of actors they picked to lead this cast. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are clearly having the time of their lives in their roles, delivering lines that I don’t think many actors could pull off quite as well as they manage.

Robbie simply radiates as the unstoppable and uncompromising Barbie, while Gosling portrays the cavernous expanse between Ken’s ears with unparalleled skill.

Barbie manages to celebrate one of the most well-known products of commercialism, while at the same time lampooning the system that produced it and the societal norms that contradict it. It is also a story of self-discovery for both its protagonists and its antagonists.

It does all this while being a hilarious and heartwarming experience that you won’t want to end. I’m not sure we’ll ever see another film quite like it.

And so, after another two hours in the theatre, we emerged changed people. We had partaken in “Barbenheimer”.

It will be fascinating to see what this means for the future of Hollywood marketing. Will studios work hard to try to replicate the results of Barbenheimer by pairing other tonally dissonant projects by release date? Or was this truly a once in a lifetime event?

No one much cared back in 2008 when Nolan’s The Dark Knight was released on the same day as Mamma Mia!, but it’s worth noting the internet was quite a different beast 15 years ago. However, on the horizon we have a new Saw movie releasing on the same day as the second Paw Patrol movie. Saw Patrol anyone?