The Barbie Watchlist

July 16, 2023 7:45 PM

Writer and director Greta Gerwig provided Letterboxd with a watchlist of 29 movies that inspired the look and script of the upcoming Barbie movie. A subsequent interview expanded the list to 33 movies. (YouTube link if you'd rather watch the interview than read it.)

Whether you're excited for the Barbie movie, or dreading the influx of Mattel movies to come, there's bound to be something to delight you on this list. Or at least give you a potential subject change when the topic comes up.

The full list below, with links to Just Watch, which will tell you where each movie is currently streamable or rentable, if anywhere. Second link to the movie if it happens to be streaming somewhere for free, without a required sign-in, service listed. (US centric, apologies!)

The Wizard of Oz
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
The Young Girls of Rochefort
Model Shop
An American in Paris
Singing in the Rain
The Red Shoes
A Matter of Life and Death
All That Jazz
Heaven Can Wait -- Pluto.tv movie link, ads
Oklahoma!
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
2001: A Space Odyssey
His Girl Friday
The Philadelphia Story
Gold Diggers of 1935
Twentieth Century
The Ladies Man -- Pluto.tv movie link, ads
Rear Window
And the Ship Sails On
Wings of Desire
The Earrings of Madame de ...
Close Encounters of the Third Kind -- Tubi, with ads -- Pluto, with ads
Modern Times
Pee-wee's Big Adventure
Grease
The Truman Show
Mon Oncle
PlayTime
Splash
Saturday Night Fever
The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart
The Godfather

Would Barbie join her union? Yes, yes she would. Is going to the movies during the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strike crossing the picket line? Not yet, anyway. But you can donate to support affected workers.

Barbie previouslies: Barbenheimer, None More Pink, You guys ever think about dying?, Pepsi Pink Filter, THE DAWN OF BARBIE

posted by the primroses were over (22 comments total)

Of Gerwig's prior work, I've only seen Little Women, so I wasn't that interested in this movie until I saw the interviews/marketing around the production design. But I am so in for the soundstage musical feel, and this is such a great set of references. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is an all time top ten film for me.
posted by the primroses were over at 7:56 PM on July 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

This is freakin’ awesome, especially since she seems to be a fan of the Archers, Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire is one of my all-time favorites) and Jacques Tati.
posted by McCoy Pauley at 8:30 PM on July 16, 2023 [2 favorites]

Sold.
posted by brundlefly at 8:31 PM on July 16, 2023

I'd actually been thinking of Barbie as a sort of Pee-wee's Big Adventure reboot/tribute/pastiche! But oh god, I've seen that movie so many times but I'd completely forgot the bit where he's riding the rails and it's so so so good. Jimmy crack corn, and I DON'T CAAAARE. Greta is the best, she's right, it's definitely one of the top five funniest things in that movie and there's a lot of competition.
posted by potrzebie at 8:53 PM on July 16, 2023 [3 favorites]

Would have expected But I'm a Cheerleader
posted by one for the books at 9:28 PM on July 16, 2023 [6 favorites]

I track my media queues in trakt.tv, which lets you set the services you subscribe to and make lists of what to watch, but I just tripped over the UI, so maybe soon.
posted by Pronoiac at 9:45 PM on July 16, 2023

I made a Trakt playlist. It might or might not be useful to others.

To duplicate this for yourself:
* click the icon that looks like a blank page, with a + at the bottom right. This might show up only at certain screen widths.

To show the ones you can stream:
* you have to be a VIP member, which is paid
* click the play icon, a couple to the right of the "added date" drop then-down
* then "+ all", then "apply filters"

Only 10 of the 33 were on my favorite services. I might check YouTube and my public library to fill in gaps.
posted by Pronoiac at 10:37 PM on July 16, 2023 [2 favorites]

55 year old CIS dude here, no kids here: In a world of films targeted for a narrow demographic, I'm delighted that:-
1. The first film in ages that I'm absolutely planning to go see in a cinema, is Barbie.
2. I'm the one who is going to be persuading my wife to come along.
3. I've got a preliminary study list.
4. The majority of which is composed of films made before I was born.
5. And about 20% of which is French.
posted by rongorongo at 11:44 PM on July 16, 2023 [10 favorites]

55 year old CIS dude here, no kids here:

Quick PSA--cis isn't an acronym, no need for all caps (well, except when it is, but you're not the Commonwealth of Independent States).
posted by hoyland at 2:25 AM on July 17, 2023 [8 favorites]

I am so interested in this, but I’m afraid to click the link because I’m so oversaturated (HA) with pre-Barbie media that I’m worried everything will be spoiled before I even get into the theater. There’s a great article [gift link] in this weekend’s NYT Magazine that goes into Gerwig’s process and how she integrated the history of Barbie and I found myself jumping in and out of paragraphs as I realized dammit the writer is describing another movie scene. So can anyone tell me (though obviously there’s no way to know yet) - how spoiler-y these links are? Because the design and Gerwig’s whole approach are the biggest reasons I’m looking forward to seeing this.
posted by Mchelly at 4:10 AM on July 17, 2023 [3 favorites]

Holy marketing, Barbie! I'm interested in seeing this movie. I just hope it's closer to Pee-Wee's Big Adventure where the whole world is surreal and stylized, and doesn't become mostly a fish out of water story with a bunch of wacky chase scenes in the "real world."
posted by SoberHighland at 4:34 AM on July 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

I'm so excited about this movie. The look of it, the feel of it; I want Barbiecore. And I want Ken-ergy.

no need for all caps (well, except when it is, but you're not the Commonwealth of Independent States)

Or the Confederacy of Independent Systems
posted by Lord Chancellor at 4:48 AM on July 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

Computer and Information Systems, surely.
posted by kaibutsu at 6:09 AM on July 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

I was expecting to see Legally Blonde. That always felt like as close to a Barbie movie as you could make without using the trademarks.
posted by cmfletcher at 6:45 AM on July 17, 2023 [5 favorites]

Confederacy of Independent Systems
Thanks all; always good to have options!
I guess there is also an implicit James Bond (Skyfall era) link with Barbie: a character which remains a fixed notional age as time advances; at once ever youthful and stuck in the past. Bond was created in 1953 - Flemming did not give his age away but his average screen age has been 38. So Bond is a 71 year old character who would be 108 years in 2023. Barbie - who is thought to be 19, is a 64 year old doll who would be 82 years old.
posted by rongorongo at 7:56 AM on July 17, 2023

I'm just accustomed to "watchlist" having a very different meaning in today's world.
posted by TreeHugger at 8:05 AM on July 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

So can anyone tell me (though obviously there’s no way to know yet) - how spoiler-y these links are? Because the design and Gerwig’s whole approach are the biggest reasons I’m looking forward to seeing this.

Mchelly, there aren't full on scene descriptions or anything I'd consider a plot spoiler, but there are specifics along the lines of hairstyle/costuming details inspired by a certain look from a specific movie, and mentions of specific scenes from the watchlist movies that inspired a scene in this movie. So although this doesn't cross my personal spoiler threshold, sounds like it might do yours.

Thanks for the NYT mag link!

I have a feeling this watchlist is very much non-exhaustive of references, so looking forward to chatting with people about this after the movie is out. One of the previouslies had a video interview that referenced Clueless, for example.
posted by the primroses were over at 4:03 PM on July 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

I…. haven’t ever before seen a list of movies this long that I would watch any of them at the drop of a hat and be tickled pink about it.

Except I haven’t seen the BeeGees pic. I’m now thinking that I just might like it!
posted by skyscraper at 9:31 PM on July 17, 2023

I'm so excited about this movie. The look of it, the feel of it; I want Barbiecore. And I want Ken-ergy.

I've seen it now. It's really hilarious - it's great. Strongly recommend. Also some of the references are super obvious and some more subtle. If you liked the Lego Movies, this one is on-par among the best, if not better because it's not directly mostly at small children. It's an adult movie. Also GI Joe doesn't make an appearance, and there's a really hilarious reason for it explained in the movie.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:24 AM on July 20, 2023

The movie it mostly reminded me of was actually Idiocracy though. There are definitely parallels.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:23 AM on July 20, 2023

And Airplane. They borrowed some jokes, brilliantly.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:25 AM on July 20, 2023

Fanfare post, for any spoilery discussion people might wish to have. Seeing this tonight, so I'll see you over there soon.
posted by the primroses were over at 8:44 AM on July 20, 2023 [1 favorite]