Yes, Josh and I gave into the craze.

I don’t think we intentionally planned on seeing both Barbie and Oppenheimer in theaters, but we fell into the trap of the Barbenheimer marketing. On Sunday afternoon, we were joking about doing the double feature, so I brought up movie times on my laptop.

With our mismatched schedules, seeing both movies on the same day wouldn’t work—nor would I want to spend like 5+ hours sitting watching two movies. Barbie had a lot of viewing times available, and it ended up being a spur of the moment decision to go see it after dinner on Sunday. Oppenheimer would prove to be a bit more difficult to schedule, solely based on its length; we’d have to go later in the week.

I bought movie tickets for the first time online, and boy was I baffled at how you pick them up: going to the kiosk in the movie lobby, scanning your phone, and the tickets print right there. Welcome to 2023 I guess. Josh laughed at my amazement at how easy it was. Hey, I don’t get out much, okay?

Barbie

Viewing date/time: Sunday, July 23, 7:40 p.m.

Neither of us knew the plot going in, which we figured was better. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling were perfectly cast for Barbie and Ken, and Kate McKinnon was born to play weird Barbie. I think my favorite character, though, was Allan, played by Michael Cera.

I thought it was completely unhinged and great: 8/10. Josh thought it was dumb but eventually came around to a 6/10 rating.

I’m tempted to update the contact in my phone for Home—my parents’ landline—to Mojo Dojo Casa House. I’d 100% watch this movie again—probably many times.

Some great quotes include:

Yeah, because actually my job, it’s just Beach.

Ken

Do you guys ever think about dying?

Barbie

To be honest, when I found out patrichy wasn’t about horses, I lost interest anyway.

Ken

You’re gonna start getting sad and mushy and complicated.

Weird Barbie

Oppenheimer

Viewing date/time: Friday, July 28, 2:45 p.m.

Well, I fell asleep during the first hour, so… I definitely wasn’t ready for a 3 hour movie, and it’s not like I planned on falling asleep—it just happened. Not sure what exactly I missed—it’s not like I could have asked the movie people to rewind it—so I’m not sure if that affected my general confusion throughout the rest of the movie. The multiple story timelines sort of made sense but mostly confused me as well.

Josh thought it was great and gave it a 9/10. I’d give it a 5/10 overall, but take my rating lightly—I mean, I slept through the second half-hour of the movie.

After the movie, we went out to dinner where I spent most of the time trying to figure out why the atomic bomb was the only way to end WWII. Now you’ll just find me down the rabbit hole of Wikipedia articles.

I would have preferred the movie to be about two twin brothers who sell real estate in LA.

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In the end, it evened out for the both of us, each liking one of the two movies we saw. Maybe I would have liked Oppenheimer more if I had a better understanding of the bombing at the end of WWII. Or if it wasn’t 3 hours long. Barbie was definitely my favorite of the two, and it’s better to go in blind and not really knowing what it’s about. And be prepared to have “I’m Just Ken” stuck in your head forever.