I'm gonna preface this by saying that I am gonna be critical of Ben Shapiro's take on Barbie -- but, not in the way that a lot of you probably expect.
Now, I'm gonna be focusing on Shapiro, because he's getting the attention. Still, the people who are telling us not to see Sound of Freedom because they don't like the personal views of some of the people involved with the movie are far worse.
I'll also point out that all of the dumb moments that Shapiro points to are really in the video. His takes may have been hyperbolic at times; but, in describing some of the dumb moments in the video, he might have actually been pulling punches a bit.
What we've seen in the last few months has been nothing new; but, the thing took some PCP or something and went on a rampage. That thing is people focusing on the politics to a point that they're not actually analyzing the movie.
The Sound of Freedom critics are worse here, because they're all philosophically aligned with the Hollywood brass.
They receive so little criticism that they feel comfortable reviewing a movie, which plenty of them didn't see, and make claims that make it seem that they think that being against child rape makes you radically right-wing.
Shapiro did clearly actually see Barbie, that makes him better than anybody who wrote negative reviews of Sound of Freedom for The Guardian.
Still, all of this is why I would prefer it if people who make their money off of political commentary would cool their jets when it comes to reviewing movies.
Barbie is a bad movie. It's not a bad movie because I disagree with some of what it seems to have to say. It's a bad movie because it doesn't agree with itself. It's not like Barbie was dealing with a subject of moral complexity that was meant to leave audiences fighting about who was right or wrong. I think that the goal was to preach to us. But, you don't have to dislike what the movie is saying to acknowledge that it's poorly written and executed.
I'm a libertarian; so, I'm used to being in the minority regarding opinions wherever I go. It's just as hard to find a libertarian-minded movie that isn't hot garbage as it is for conservatives. When I do manage to find a movie like The Lives of Others, which does have a message that works with my values, and is also a great fucking movie, I'll give it an extra half a star or whatever because the message was good.
Still, I'm not gonna pretend that the Atlas Shrugged movies were great because I mostly agree with what they were saying. They were bad movies. They were poorly made.
I think that, on the flip side of all of this, critics who are coming from the legacy media are so unused to seeing movies coming from libertarian or conservative perspectives, that they feel attacked whenever anything comes from another perspective. People with my worldview wouldn't be able to enjoy movies if we only judged them on the basis of politics or expressed worldviews.
I am Cuba is blatant communist propaganda, and it's one of my favorite movies -- not because I agree with the message; but, because of the brilliance of the actual filmmaking.
What I don't think Shapiro gets is that, even though his political opinions have made him incredibly rich, his movie reviews hurt everyone who is viewed as being to the right of AOC. It's also a simple fix.
Don't bitch about the Barbie video taking a jab at the Citizens United Decision. Point out that it makes no fucking sense in the context of the video. Why would this perfect, ideal world, in which none of the people in power disagree, even have this discussion? Why would literally nobody in the room be in favor of the Citizens United Decision, and look defeated while everybody else is celebrating? Most people have bought into the fake narrative about that court decision.
Don't make your review about the movie having the same dumb perspective on the issue as most of the audience. Point to the fact that, from a moviemaking perspective, the scene makes no sense.
Why not raise simple questions like, "If the Barbies are physically altered by how their real-world dolls are being treated, why isn't that happening to the Kens?"
If the Barbies are all brilliant, strong, and independent, how did the Kens manage to brainwash all of them into subservient ditzes in less than a day? This isn't a politically charged question. It's just a large part of the story that makes zero logical sense.
The movie is infected with logical problems that border on characters being short and tall, and smart and dumb at the same time.
The problem with the video isn't that it has the wrong political ideas. The problem with the video is that it feels like a C student in middle school wrote the script, and nobody gave her notes before throwing millions of dollars at it.
The problem with the video is that it's not a good movie. It's not that it has the wrong political perspective.