Movies to Stream: 'Barbie' & other existential crises

An alien's morbid awakening pairs perfectly with Greta Gerwig's toy story

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The holiday season is enough to make anyone existential.

I’ve sometimes imagined a darker version of the Christmas movie Jingle All the Way where Arnold Schwarzenegger descends fully into madness, unable to tell toy from human and hellbent on destroying them all.

(I’m recovering from a cold, these are the kinds of things that come to me on Nyquil)

Back to existentialism…

Do you guys ever think about dying? The famous toy in one of this year’s runaway box office hits sure does!

In the spirit of the season and that doll, this week we are going to contemplate our mortality, but in a (mostly) fun way.

(Unless otherwise noted, all movies are available to rent from Apple, Amazon, etc. in addition to the listed streaming services. But if you watch them and like them, I’d consider buying physical copies 😃)

Double Feature: Barbie (2023) and Under the Skin (2013)

Both films are streaming on Max. Under the Skin is also streaming for free on Kanopy.

I love that Greta Gerwig is starting to become a household name, at least in the way that directors can become household names. (Which is, they really can’t anymore).

That said, Barbie was fun! Barbie was moving!

Barbie was much better than a Mattel rubber-stamped movie about its flagship doll has any right to be. The legacy of Barbie and the push and pull between the corporatized female empowerment fantasy and the unrealistic beauty standards and misogyny critiques are surprising and welcome inclusions here, but are less interesting to me than the formally daring ways Gerwig bridges the gap between the real world and the play one where our main characters reside.

The rules of her fantasy land have the spontaneous joy of playing with toys baked in, something that’s complicated when the main Barbie (Margot Robbie) starts to feel off. She and the main Ken (Ryan Gosling) must travel to the real world to find Barbie’s human owner and make things right. Robbie and Gosling are fantastic here, as are the rest of the many, many supporting Barbies, Kens, Allans (well, just one Allan), and humans.

But it’s Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s script, and her gorgeous rendering of Barbieland, that makes this blockbuster a memorable spectacle.

Now, I must confess that Under the Skin was not my first choice for this week’s double feature.

I was going to pick Alex Proyas’ Dark City, a neo-noir dollhouse that I think would be very fun to watch with Barbie. It’s not currently streaming on any major services, but it is available to rent or buy digitally if you feel so inclined.

Under the Skin is a very strong runner-up, though. The third feature from Jonathan Glazer stars Scarlett Johansson as an unnamed alien entity sent to Earth to harvest men. (She’s everything, they’re just men!)

Along the way, she brushes up against her own identity for what seems like the first time. Filmed in Scotland with a mix of rigorous formalism and improvised man-on-the-street encounters, Under the Skin is an abstract, haunting experience that feels slightly different every time I revisit it.

Other Movie Recommendations

Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995)

When did you first contemplate death?

Middle school? Middle school.

Welcome to the Dollhouse is a biting portrait of that anguished period filtered through the experience of 12-year-old Dawn Wiener (Heather Matarazzo). Dawn is a decidedly unpopular New Jersey seventh-grader plagued by bullies and misunderstood by her family.

“Why do you hate me?” Dawn asks another student at one point. “Because you’re ugly,” they reply.

This film was the breakout second feature from writer/director Todd Solondz, whose withering, morbid sense of humor is perfectly suited to this outcast tale. His vision of middle school is unflinchingly vulgar and cruel, though Matarazzo helps ground it in a kind of warped humanity.

(Also, it must be said that the character Dawn would grow up to be played by none other than Greta Gerwig in Solondz’s underrated episodic film Wiener-Dog from 2016).

Streaming for free with ads on Tubi.

Cries and Whispers (1972)

An “existential wail of a drama,” Ingmar Bergman’s film centers on a dying woman, her two sisters, and their maid. The latter three take turns caring for the bedridden woman, all the while contemplating religion, adultery, and other topics we all relish the opportunity to discuss at length with our loved ones.

Bergman developed this story in “hermetic isolation,” and it shows in these immaculate yet stifling interiors. Much of the film takes place in a mansion coated in red; its crimson walls and carpets are offset by its central characters draped in white, one of them stuck in an excruciating purgatory waiting for a merciful death.

Streaming on Max and The Criterion Channel.

The Wind Rises (2013)

The Wind Rises was meant to be Hayo Miyazaki’s last film. Then just this month, he exited retirement and dropped a new film, The Boy and the Heron. (I reviewed it earlier this week).

While I loved his latest, I think The Wind Rises remains the legendary animator and Studio Ghibli co-founder’s greatest achievement. It is a haunting look at the life of Jiro Horikoshi, an engineer in early 20th century Japan who turned to designing planes after nearsightedness prevented him from becoming a pilot.

When his designs are used by Japan during World War II, Horikoshi’s passion for creation clashes with his apprehension to create tools used for death and destruction. The Wind Rises spends a good deal of time in Horkoshi’s head, showing soaring dream encounters he has with one of his biggest inspirations, the Italian aircraft designer Giovanni Battista Caproni, as well as nightmares about what his creations do.

His is a life punctuated by tragedy, and even the solace he tries to take in following his passion is corrupted.

Streaming on Max.

I hope you enjoyed this colorful dive into despair. Next week, I’ll be recommending another new release while trying to weave in some holiday-themed stuff as well.

Like I said earlier, this column is typically for paid subscribers, but in the spirit of Christmas or whatever, this week’s is free! Please consider subscribing (at a very discounted rate!) to get access to future columns and to support my writing 🎅