Can Everyone Take a Deep Breath About the Barbie Movie

The Mattel blockbuster won big at the box office and was universally adored. Is it really such a tragedy that it got "snubbed" by the Academy?

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Here are some recent headlines:

“For ‘Barbie’ Fans Online, a Bitterly Ironic Oscar Snub” (The New York Times)

“Oscars Expert Says Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig's Barbie Snubs 'Will Be Remembered for a Long Time' (Exclusive)” (People)

“‘Barbie’ Oscars Snubs For Greta Gerwig & Margot Robbie Generate Hollywood Reactions” (milquetoast enough that it can only come from Deadline)

“Hoda & Jenna are fired up about ‘Barbie’ Oscar snubs” (Jenna, of Today with Hoda & Jenna, should reserve some of that “fired up” energy for her dad)

There’s a war on, but people are getting bored of it, so all we heard about in the wake of the Oscar nominations this week was how women everywhere were slighted because Barbie director Greta Gerwig and Barbie star Margot Robbie got snubbed.

But the movie wasn’t shut out, which, in the mind of its fans, added insult to injury: Ryan Gosling, who plays the toxically masculine Ken, was tapped for supporting actor, and America Ferrera, whose cringing monologue about what it’s like to Be A Woman passed into the meme realm, was nominated for supporting actress. The movie was also nominated for Best Picture, which, come on. Even Gerwig didn’t go totally unrecognized, picking up, along with Noah Baumbach, a nod for adapted screenplay. Overall, the movie netted eight total nominations, which you’d be forgiven for assuming might be enough.

Apparently, you’d be wrong! This is just like the plot of Barbie! (the movie, not the intellectual property owned by Mattel, which according to The Hollywood Reporter “has a meaningful economic participation in the Warner Bros. film,” whatever that means), the internet cried in unison.

And, fittingly, the loser of the century had to weigh in.

Twitter

Gosling, for his part, had to put out a statement saying that while he was “honored” by his nom, “There is no Barbie movie without Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, the two people most responsible for this history-making, globally-celebrated film.” Ferrera also said it was a “disappointment,” calling the movie “a brilliant, beautiful, world-building, unexpected achievement that happened to also be a global, cultural and box office phenomenon.”

Therein lies my point: Can’t all those undeniable wins be enough? Why must Barbie’s defenders also demand recognition by the Academy for a movie that, while kind of fun, was really just not that good?