My Take on Barbenheimer

I wasn't into Barbies or most dolls when I was a girl; I preferred books and stuffed animals. I'm also not into military history the way my husband and son are. Nevertheless, I knew we would be seeing Oppenheimer as a family (especially since I'm the one with the AMC app and account). Once I became aware of the Barbenheimer phenomenon, I decided I wanted to be a part of it. Since my husband works on Saturdays, we normally go to the movies Saturday night. I wound up watching Barbie by myself Saturday morning and seeing Oppenheimer with my family that evening. I even wore pink-and-black to mark the occasion, and my manicure was pale pink with black crow nail stickers.

The two movies are so wildly different in tone I don't need to point it out. Barbie was fun to watch, with plenty of pop culture references even I caught. I appreciated the feminism and diversity in it, though you can't fully discuss gender roles without considering non-binary and transgender viewpoints too. I was a little disappointed in the ending, since it didn't commit to gender equality and prioritized body parts over other aspects of being human.

As for Oppenheimer, it's a much longer, more complicated movie, jumping between three storylines (Oppenheimer's life and work, the kangaroo hearing to discredit him, and Strauss's failed Cabinet confirmation hearing.) Of the three, I preferred the main one focusing on Oppenheimer's career and thought the Strauss subplot least relevant, even if it was part of the book the movie is based on. Since the movie is rated R, I expected violence but not the frontal nudity and simulated sex. I'm not sure what my 16-year-old son thought about that. After the movie, my son asked to get the audio version of the book, so he's interested in other parts of the story, at least. We have the paperback too, but I have so many other books to read that I won't be getting to it for a long time, if ever. However, if you want to learn more about women's contributions to the Manhattan Project, I recommend The Girls of Atomic City.

While Barbie is my favorite of the two movies, I'm glad I was able to watch both of them. If you saw either or both movies, what did you think? Feel free to comment below.