The Couch Critic
The Couch Critic is your laid-back guide to movies and TV shows that deserve your attention—or maybe don’t. Nathan dives deep into storytelling, character development, and cinematic style with a sharp eye and a wry sense of humor. Whether it’s a blockbuster hit, a hidden gem, or a cult classic, Nathan’s relatable approach ensures every episode feels like a cozy chat with a friend who just happens to love film. Perfect for casual watchers and cinephiles alike, The Couch Critic brings thoughtful critique without the fluff. Grab your favorite snack, settle in, and let Nathan guide you through the world of screen entertainment.
The Couch Critic
Taking on Barbie (100th Episode!)
Can you stomach the mixed bag that is the recent Barbie movie? We tackled this roller coaster on our milestone 100th episode, with our special guest Judson stepping in for Katy. We peel back the layers of this surprisingly children-marketed grown-up film, dissecting the misplaced humor, the explicit language, and the surprisingly deep messaging. But it's not all gloom and doom - we delve into the standout performances from Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, and give props to the movie's strong writing.
We share our reflections and anticipation for the 101st episode, and Judson wraps up his thoughts on the Barbie movie with a succinct one-liner. It's a celebration of our journey, a critique of a controversial film, and a preview of what's to come. So buckle up and join us on this cinematic adventure!
One's a movie buff, one watches movies, just enough. Together, fun will be had by all. This is Nadie and Katie at the Movies. Hello everyone, and welcome to a brand new episode of Nadie and Katie at the Movies. This is our 100th episode and Katie's not here, so it makes me kind of sad to have a 100th episode of Nadie and Katie at the Movies without Katie, but that's okay. I found a replacement, judson Yep, that's right.
Speaker 1:That guy who's been on a couple episodes before dragged me to go see the abomination that is Asteroid City and he agreed to come on this show. You know two dudes talking about the Barbie movie. That's right. We're going to be talking about Barbie on our 100th episode because it came out the same day as Oppenheimer, so I really should have done a Barbenheimer episode reviewing both movies, but I didn't. So here we are. Before I give my thoughts, we got to do the synopsis. So Barbie has Barbie suffering a crisis that leads her to question her world and her existence. Barbie stars Margot Robbie, ryan Gosling, issa Rae, kate McKinnon and America Ferrera, and a lot of bunch of other people, a lot of people in this movie, so it would take forever to name them all, so let's just get right into it. Judson, what did you think of the Barbie movie?
Speaker 2:Well, thank you so much for asking on your celebratory 100th episode and I'm glad to be joining you today. Going into this, I was thinking, okay, this is going to be a fun time because Greta Gerwig is a director I like I really liked Lady Bird and Little Women and so I'm like, oh, she's a great writer and director and I'm going to have a fun time with this. Also, ryan Gosling just hamming it up Like this is just going to be a fun time. Also, coming off of previous Mattel movies, it seems very product placement heavy and also the power of IP, and what we're doing is just a lot of like we're just throwing stuff out there because people know what it is. And so I knew this was going to be a fun time, but I wasn't sure how much it was going to like like stick with me and get its hooks into me.
Speaker 2:And I will tell you that I was like insanely surprised. Like I won't say that this movie is for everyone, but for the people that it's for, it is for and it's. It brought such a smile to my face, knowing that anybody else this would have been just another product placement and a fun time, but I'm so glad that the choices that were made, the risks that we're taking were to tell a story, and so for that friend alone, I applauded. I absolutely had a blast with it, and I know that if you logged into Facebook there might be some controversy and I'm sure you'll talk a little more about that with your feelings, but I wasn't like offended or affected in that way. I try to be empathetic towards in all respects of my life, and so I realized that I can't understand some problems that were discussed in the movie, but I still appreciate it and it didn't, you know, it didn't feel like I was alienated in any way.
Speaker 2:This is ridiculously funny. That alone I had such a great time with. So I was pleasantly, pleasantly surprised with this. What about you home, dog?
Speaker 1:Well, like you, I thought I was getting into a fun time. The trailers made it look like it was just going to be super cheesy, super fun. I will say that it's not what I thought it was going to be and, in the same realm, it's exactly what I thought it was going to be. My biggest hang up for this movie isn't so much the message that was basically throughout the entire film. It never led up with what the message was. My biggest gripe with it is it was advertised as a kid's movie. It never even hinted the deeper meaning behind it, which I understand thoroughly that that was the marketing reasoning, but it's a PG-13 movie. It has a lot of sexual innuendo in it, a lot of language that I myself would not want. My, I mean, she's three, but I would not want my kids to listen to and I saw nothing but mothers bringing their kids to go see this movie. And it is not a kids movie. It's not.
Speaker 1:I saw people online saying, oh, it's a fun time for everyone of all ages. I'm like, no, it's not. It has heavy messaging in it. It has heavy, like I said, sexual innuendos in it. It has very distinct words that are being used that I would not think a person would want their children listening to. So that's my biggest hangup. It's not even the message itself. I just don't like how it was marketed, and that is the reason why it's been doing so well, because it's marketed a certain way and people are gonna take their children to it. So this movie is probably gonna make a billion dollars, and it's mostly because of how it was marketed, not because of the movie itself. In my opinion, judson, if you had to summarize your likes in about two to three likes for this film, what would they be and why?
Speaker 2:A big standout. I might have mentioned it earlier already, but just the writing overall is just like so strong. To your point I will say like, yeah, it is definitely not for everyone and again, to the people it's for it is for. Yeah, marketing is a totally different beast into its own. I won't spend too much time talking about it. It's like, ideally you're thinking of like the Lego movie kind of, for a kids movie with Legos is insanely popular kids toy. Same thing with Barbie insanely popular Barbie toy. And you kind of wish there was a little more middle ground to get all audiences. However, it's so hard to tell because, yeah, it is definitely not a kids movie through and through. So it's kind of hard to be like what is the target audience? How old do we have to be? Going back to like Shrek and Shrek 2, even that we're like really heavy on that. This is a kids movie marketed. But then you sit in you're like yo, what's that one bad guy's name? You know like stuff like that. Sorry.
Speaker 2:Going back to the likes, the two to three likes, yeah, the writing overall is really, really strong and I am always a sucker for this is kind of like 1A, but I guess this will be part two of the likes, but the conversation they talk about humanity and being alive, I wasn't expecting and those story beats like hit me and I was. It caught me off guard and that's, and I really appreciated what they did with that. Finally, the cast, like through and through, especially highlights, like Margot Robbie is perfect in this. Ryan Gosling is incredible on this and I think we knew that already. Michael Cera oh my gosh, even America Ferrera, like there is not we'll talk a little more in the dislikes but even the Will Ferrell executive group like it's hard for me to count that as a dislike Like the writing, the story beat and the cast, the way that everything pulls it off together, the direction, like all of that is just, it's just such a fun time to me.
Speaker 1:So I'm glad I let you go first because I think we're gonna have a good conversation. But starting with my first, like I thought this movie had a lot of funny moments in it. I did get what I was expecting, with Ryan Gosling as Ken, which is funny because a lot of people before this movie came out were very critical of him being cast as Ken because they thought he was too old to be Ken. I thought he was hilarious. It took me back to Toy Story 3 when Michael Keaton played Ken and just very overly flamboyant, just over the top, and I think Ryan Gosling brought that to his character as well, but obviously gave him some depth, which is something I also liked about it. I liked that they didn't go places that I thought they were going to go. I'm just gonna go out and say what I thought they were gonna do. I thought they were gonna make Ken gay. That's what I thought they were going to do. I thought that's the direction they were gonna go in. You know me, judson, and most of our listeners know me by now. I had to give a big sigh of relief because they didn't have a check the box moment, even though they technically did, because they cast a trans woman as one of the Barbies, but we're just gonna go right past that. So the humor at times was a big like for me. Also, like you said, margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, I think, were cast perfectly as Barbie and Ken. I just the cheesiness was just so much fun. I couldn't help but laugh at the I'm Ken song. They made this movie a lot of fun and for that I give them my thanks.
Speaker 1:So let's get to our dislikes. I'll start with my dislikes first. Okay, I said this in my quick reaction review video. If you watched it on our YouTube channel, you can go and watch that and then listen to this episode. I don't like movies. You're not gonna like what I'm about to say. I don't like movies that are overly preachy.
Speaker 1:I felt that the message that was being presented was very clear in like the first half of the film. I understood what they were saying and I'm not even saying I disagree with it. I felt like they just kept going with it and I felt that it was just. It got to a point where I was rolling my eyes because they just kept going with the message and again, I'm not saying I don't agree with it to a certain extent and I will say, because people are saying, oh well, don't take it too seriously because it's satire, I wouldn't take it too seriously if I didn't actually know people like people online, people writing about this movie, that didn't actually have the mindset 100% of what this message was trying to portray, I would be able to say, okay, it's satire, I'm not gonna take it too seriously. But there are people out there that actually fully believe 100% what is being told in this movie Not a lighthearted mindset, but full on what is being portrayed.
Speaker 1:And so for that I thought I wish I had more fun moments, because that was another thing for me. I felt like there would be like a really fun, funny, laugh out loud moment and then it would be cut super quick by something super serious. And I'm not saying there shouldn't have been anything serious in this movie. I just felt like there wasn't a good balance for me. There wasn't a good balance of funny and serious. It was a lot of heavy handed seriousness with a dash of fun.
Speaker 1:That's my first dislike. My second dislike is the humor. Now, my like was humor. My dislike was also humor. I felt like there were moments that they tried too hard to be funny and this kind of piggybacks.
Speaker 1:With my third dislike you said that you didn't mind Will Ferrell. Will Ferrell's character was not needed at all. I don't think they needed a CEO, a male CEO. I think again we got the point that they think in the real world Mattel is run by all men, which is not true at all, which I guess is the satirical part of it. Will Ferrell can be funny. I don't think he was funny in this.
Speaker 1:I thought what they were trying to do and I don't know if you picked up on this Jetson. Just by the way he ran and the way how dumb he was, I seriously thought they were going to unveil that at one point he was a Kim. Just because the way he portrayed the character I mean and it's not my fault for thinking that, because it's just the way I interpreted his acting choices I thought the way he was running with his arms like a kindle and the way he was just dumb, which is what they were portraying the Kins as I just thought that that's where they were going. Obviously they didn't, and so I just didn't think his character was needed at all. What are your dislikes for the Barbie movie Jetson?
Speaker 2:First and foremost the fact that the movie ended that's such an unfortunate thing Like let's just keep on. The audio list is you can't see it, but he's rolling his eyes right now To that point. The Will Ferrell thing I know I was talking a little bit about it before. I don't know how much of a dislike it is, but I think I might, technically would consider the Will Ferrell executive thing as a dislike because it's kind of piggybacking off of your thing. But it's like we see the distinction between Barbie world and the real world and how Barbie world is cartoonish and fun and everything is like not realistic at all and it's like that way they can make those kinds of like picking fun at what the real world is supposed to be like and stuff. And then we go to the real world and it's like all serious, dark and grim, misogyny and stuff. And then we see Will Ferrell and the executives in the real world but they are playing it very cartoonish, even them going back into the Barbie world. That's a whole different story. But like there is kind of that line of real world to Barbie world and they kind of throw it a little out of balance of the tone because they're in the real world but they're playing it like that. So I can kind of see your theory about the Ken stuff because he pammed it up so much. Why it was a little bit of my like. What I was saying before is that it's refreshing because I have not been. I love Will Ferrell from Step Brothers, from Talladega Nights and from the Lego Movie. Some other projects he's been a part of I have not been a fan of, and so to see him like land some comedy and make me laugh was like pretty refreshing. Like there's a line near the end where he's talking about tickling and that got me, that got me. So good. But it still would be a dislike just because of like the tonal setting and yeah, you're right, it is pretty expository or like gratuitous, like we don't, it's not needed. I will say it's welcome for the extra laughs and stuff, but it's not needed, it doesn't push things forward. And so, yeah, I totally understand that.
Speaker 2:Another dislike there might be some. Maybe this is because I'm a little nostalgia fan, but there's a part of me that was expecting a little more like Barbie callbacks, like the animated movies that they did back in the day. There's a lot like there's a Barbie car that they didn't use, or it's like a Hummer not the one that they actually used, but like I don't know. I didn't grow up on Barbies. Obviously I was a little Lego boy and Hot Wheels boy but there was so much to pull from and I'm glad that they didn't make it nostalgia bait. But I noticed that people were coming out of it being like, oh man, they needed the puffle from the Nutcracker or whatever, I don't know.
Speaker 2:And finally, to your point about the preachy and heavy handedness is kind of like I can see it, I can understand. I personally saw many, many stories being told, many themes and lessons being told and I know there's the one main thing, but I didn't feel as alienated to it because that main story didn't specifically like it didn't affect me personally, because I'm a man and there are things that I can't understand. I'm not a Barbie, I'm a Ken. You know what I mean. But there still is a story to be told for a Ken and for other people and so, like I said before, this movie still isn't for everybody. I don't think there's that much satire Like it's not a full on parody. I don't think this movie is a full on parody, satire. It picks fun a lot at itself, which I'm, by the way. We haven't talked about that, but like, how did this movie get made and how did Mattel let these writers bash Mattel like they did? Because they were calling Mattel out for some choisey observations? And I'll let you talk about that.
Speaker 1:But yeah, you're not gonna like my reasoning. I think and Mattel has actually said they're 100% behind this movie because they wanna do a Mattel cinematic universe now. But also I will say this you know a lot of companies nowadays you're not gonna like what I'm about to say. It's a little thing I like to call virtue signaling and I know you're not gonna like what I'm gonna say. A lot of listeners probably won't like what I'm saying right now. I see it as a sign of virtue signaling, which is why I posted on Facebook the other day and some people commented why would they? I think you were one of those people. I said, oh, is Mattel gonna discontinue Barbie now?
Speaker 1:Because they kind of, in a way, they kind of poo-pooed on why Barbie was made and then they kind of redeemed themselves a little bit. I'll say that they redeemed themselves by having Rhea Perlman come in and play the original creator of Barbie, which I thought was one of the highlights of the film, and I think that should be the biggest takeaway from this movie, message-wise. You know how mothers, she says mothers stand still so their daughters can see how far they've come. Mothers have to sacrifice so much for their children and that's the main message. She created this doll for her daughter so other women can see what they can become. And then the movie kind of says, well, barbie didn't do a really good job with that. Like that was the entire main message of Barbie gave women an unattainable goal to go towards for whatever, and that's why I think the balance it was just weird. I didn't know what message they were trying to portray and that's why I liked the Rhea Perlman scenes and that's why I liked you know, what they did with the Kins.
Speaker 2:I think that there's no way they can stop Barbie. It's because this has been a staple for toys. It's been one of the most popular toy lines for decades now, and especially since this is the first live action Barbie movie and we're very big on Mattel starting their universe. We knew that from a movie in the past. You know what I mean Wink, wink, nod, nod. But I think they're even talking about too. They might have it confirmed already. I don't know, it might be just be.
Speaker 2:You know Facebook fake news, because they do that. You know they do that all the time and especially with the strikes going on. There's not really much you can have discussions and talks about with the marketing that they put before this and the marketing they're going to put after this and also this year alone. No spoilers, but the way they ended the John John Wick four was like oh perfect, they split, let's put a little bow on it, perfect. But you and I know well enough to know that that the amount of cheddar they made in the box office, that's not happening and I just know the next one's there's going to be another one and it's going to uproot what I loved about the way that they bow. They're going to unbow it and it's going to make me sad and I feel like, with all these popular IPs turning into franchises, it's kind of hard to bow it up.
Speaker 2:We're getting a Saul 10, how many times did that series end? Futureama, how many times did that show in? So yeah, I don't foresee this then discontinue in Barbie or any form of fashion. In fact, I think it's opposite. You see, how much pink, did you see that these past few weeks?
Speaker 1:I'm not saying that I think they're not going to make another Barbie movie. I'm saying Mattel as a company, because of the message that they were trying to portray for half of the film. Are they going to what? Are they going to discontinue making Barbie dolls? The answer is no because, again, I think it's a tad bit of virtue signaling. But let's move on from that because I don't want to make listeners ain't more angry at me. Actually, I will say this just two more things and then we'll rate this thing. I think two things that they could do is, instead of doing a straight sequel to Barbie, they could do a spin-off. People have mentioned a possible spin-off that they could do with Ken, because they kind of leave it open. Ken has to go find himself. Who is he without Barbie? Da-da-da-da, I don't know. Spin-off, whatever. And then you got Mattel making 50 million movies of their other stuff. There's even I heard that there's going to be an Uno movie. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:So, but I will say it was refreshing that this movie was not a sequel, was not a reboot, was his own thing, even though you kind of can't say that anymore, because now they're going to make a cinematic universe, and does that mean that this Barbie is going to tie into that? Is that what they mean by cinematic universe, or is it just going to be a cinematic universe of Mattel properties not connected to each other? I don't know. We'll see.
Speaker 2:I at some point, like when she first went to the human world and that's not a spoiler, because it's on the trailer I thought this was going to be Elf, and I might have talked about already when I was talking about Will Ferrell. But I'm like, is this just going to be Elf? With a Barbie coat of paint on it, with a little pink on it? You know where she changes the real world. And it's another refresher of like, oh, thank God, when they go back they're like, oh, breath of fresh air, you know. So, yeah, I'm really glad because it was dancing on that fine line.
Speaker 1:but I actually went to Minded. If she ended up changing the real world, I wouldn't have minded it. I wouldn't have minded it at all. I think it is time to give our ratings so Barbie one out of six stars. I'm going to give the Barbie movie four out of six. Judson, what would you like to give the Barbie movie?
Speaker 2:My friend Nadie, or, as I should say, Ken. This is a good five out of six mojo-dojo casa houses, If I do say so myself. Five out of six horses, if you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:And there you have it, folks. That is the Barbie movie. That is the 100th episode of Nadie, and I can't even finish because she's not here. Nadie at the movies featuring Judson. So our next episode is our 101 episode, and that is Oppenheimer. I don't know why I'm saying it like that, because he wasn't German, was he? I don't know, I don't remember. So that is going to be our next episode. It's a three hour Christopher Nolan extravaganza, so we'll see what I have to say, and maybe Judson will join us for that one too. I don't know. Katie, might you know, flake on me for the next episode. I can say that because she's not here. This has been Nadie and Katie at the movies. Judson, I'm going to give you the honors of saying something that could sum up the Barbie movie.
Speaker 2:Perfect, give me one second so long. Thank you.
