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MOVIE DISCUSSION: 

Melanie & Melvin have a blast talking about 2023's not-so-surprise hit, Barbie! From it's nonstop comedy to its sensible-yet-kind display of gender and social economics, Barbie has it all!

Topics:

• (PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 37-minutes further discussing DC's biggest flop, The Flash, and why the movie simply doesn't work on a plethora of levels. (PATREON EXCLUSIVE)
• Melanie liked Barbie, but she didn't connect with the movie like she expected. She wonders if it's because of the hype.
• Melvin really enjoyed Barbie and appreciated that the comedy never comes off as mean-spirited.
• Melanie greatly resonated with Barbie's introduction about the Barbie figure greatly changing the landscape of children's toys because that's exactly what it was like for her as a child.
• Contrasting the Barbie figure with the baby doll, there's simply so much more creativity permitted in a child's development when playing with Barbie than with a baby doll. It's incomparable.
• Melvin meditates on the proliferation of products based on products waxing poetic about existentialism, which feels especially strange but makes total sense in a post-post-post capitalist culture.
• Melvin rants about people who don't think men rule the world and asks them to name one female director from before 2018.
• Casting Ryan Gosling as Ken, and then having Ken be a character like this makes total sense when we observe how Ryan Gosling has become somewhat of an icon of the man-o-sphere.
• The third act of Barbie is undeniably frenetic, but it still works nonetheless.
• Daniel had texted Melvin and said a man at his theater was being extremely rude and cheering on the "playful misogyny" of the movie. Melanie and Melvin frustratingly process why anyone would choose to be so rude.
• Melvin, "You cannot believe sin exists and that the potential for sin exists and then not think that men, by their biological power, [would] then abuse it."

Recommendations:

• The Devil Wears Prada (2006) (Movie)
• Tragic Kingdom by No Doubt (1995) (Album)
• The Blob (1988) (Movie)

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