Barbie, the movie is as much fun as I can recall in years.

Right-wing film critics are screaming that it is a “woke” film,  thus, not worth seeing, which seems a bit Stalinist to me (ideologically impure) and foolish. If any conservatives still have a sense of humor, I hope they will fund or make a movie like this; I’d love to see another.

The movie had me laughing from the opening scene – a takeover on the “dawn of man” sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

In the scene, young girls are seen on barren rocks playing with the baby dolls most young women play with. The ominous music gets louder.  Suddenly, they see Barbie and smash all their dolls on the rocks.

The movie takes off from there, and Gerwig does a brilliant job. I’ve never seen a movie as surprising and creative as this one. She puts it all together and then goes much farther.

The movie is beyond “woke,” whatever that means.

It’s also a runaway success, a blockbuster filling theaters worldwide and raking in many millions for Warner Brothers. (Oppenheimer is the other movie I’m aching to see, I plan on seeing it Wednesday.)

Barbie is a feminist movie from beginning to end, and in a sense, intensely political for all of the intelligent and dazzling sets and inside jokes and laughs. It’s all about empowerment, independence, and agency.

Barbie finds her perfect world falling (she is horrified to see her feet are no longer pointed) apart and goes to “Weird Barbie” (Kate McKinnon, formerly of Saturday Night Live) for help.

She is sent out into the world to find the Barbie doll owner, who has entered her consciousness psychically and disturbed the boundaries between  Barbie World and The Real World. This was turning parts of her human.

It’s not supposed to make sense and doesn’t. I wouldn’t waste much time on that. The movie is a wild romp.

Only when she discovers this disturbed but loyal fan will she be able to come home.

She heads for the Real World. She tells one of the first people she meets there that she has no vagina, regular toes, or feet.

The movie then pivots to the central question: can she discover her authentic self and stay in the real world, or will she return to the familiar, colorful, and relatively safe life in Barbie World? Margot Robbie makes a great Barbie (I think. I never owned one.)

The men in the movie are idiots, almost to one. Here Gerwig fails to be as thoughtful as she was in the rest of the film. She doesn’t seem to know how to portray men initially,  intelligently, or persuasively.

To me, that’s a flaw. I know the movie is a comedy not to be taken too seriously, yet it seems very serious and important to me, worthy of being taken seriously.

There is a bizarre scene of newly aggressive  Barbie male dolls (included by a renegade Ken) warring amidst themselves on the eve of a planned takeover of women-run Barbie World. The war of the men suddenly turns into a gay theater dance at the end of a fake ocean.  I wasn’t sure what she was trying to say.

It’s a wild scene that lost me in many ways, but I could hardly stop laughing.

I do have a caution to make.

As much as I loved the movie, this one made me highly conscious about an older white male like me writing authentically about a movie produced and directed by women, filmed and costumed by women, created by women, about women, and primarily featuring women. It’s all about women.

I noticed that Maria got several things I didn’t get or understand. She also loved the movie.

As awesome as it is, I thought the movie lost its discipline at the end and flopped around too much.  That didn’t take away from its originality, humor, and relevance.

I concede that some things about the movie eluded me – like the bizarre and relentless (and hilarious at times)  portrayal of men as dumb, weak, and clueless.  Their clothes were silly too.

The point of this is that men in Barbie’s world are ignored and dismissed as cruelly as women often are.

At one point, Barbie’s muscled companion, Ken, leaves the  Barbie World in pursuit of her for the Real World and discovers that men are all stupid, violent, arrogant, and repulsive. He decides this is what men are supposed to be, not just empty-headed companions. He turns into a power-mad thugs.

He rushes back to Barbie World to take it over and quickly co-ops all the women.

What were they expecting from Director Greta Gerwig? War and Peace? John Wayne? Can Barbie and the other women stop him?

This is not a movie made for men and women.

It’s a women’s story dealing with the most critical issues and difficulties women have faced for so long and still face. There was a lot of genius in the presentation of Barbie, in its beauty, and in the raw and revealing issues they face. Barbies are essential; they affect how young girls feel about themselves.

I highly recommend the movie, and it would make a lot of sense for every girl and woman in America to see it. Men too. There is a lot to talk about. Maria and I are still going at it hours later.

Barbie has played a massive role in the life of young girls and in their perceptions of change, looks, health, and opportunity.

It is suggested in the movie that many Barbies offered positive examples to young girls planning their lives. In the film, Barbie is shocked to find so many young contemporary girls hate her. “We thought we were helping you,” she pleads. And maybe they were.

There are Barbie Presidents and doctors now, but every time we see women making progress, frightened men still seem to rise up to control them – abortion comes to mind. Women’s persecution never seems to stop; thus it never seems old or over. The movie has a timeliness and punch that surprised me.

It’s difficult to watch this movie and forget the horror stories affecting sick and frightened women whose health care has been upended by mostly arrogant and cruel white men in state houses. Women are nowhere near out of the woods; the struggles seem to get uglier.

That sense hangs over the movie, but it does not make it grim or depressing or derail the clever humor.

The movie is billed as a comedy, and hilarious moments and excellent cinematography is scattered throughout it. Will Farrell is a riot as the foolish and panicky CEO of Mattel Toys, the creators of Barbie.

The bottom line is that this is a one-in-a-lifetime movie. I’m not sure I’ll see another like it anytime soon.

It is not a masterpiece; many men will find the portrayals of them sad and pathetic. But women have earned the right to tell their stories; the Barbie phenomenon is one of their significant stories, skillfully and artfully told.

I can’t imagine how Gerwig told this story and made it so funny, but she deserves the big awards. It is a meaningful story with many punches, twists, and meanings, said in the most palatable and entertaining way.