Pop Culture Mondays/7.24.23
The “BARBENHEIMER” Edition
Happy Monday, my darling pop culture junkies. Some of you are just coming back from holiday and re-entering the world, and some of you are just heading out on one or are in the thick of it, but regardless, all of you have heard about Barbie and Oppenheimer, and if you have not, you are most def reading the wrong newsletter. Or maybe it's the right one because you need to catch up! But what a weekend for Hollywood and at such an ironic time. More on that below, but again I am not a media writer or anyone in the Hollywood world; I am here for the memes!
I am still here in London, which I have to say has the BEST energy of anywhere I have been recently (yes, I am referring to LA and NY). I just had the amazing privilege of watching my friend Lily star in the incredible West End production of The Pillowman. If you are in the area and have not yet seen it, you must. If you need an excuse to come to London, well, here it is. The play is tragic and dark and yet funny, like true gallows humor, I suppose. But I was so moved by it, and the storytelling is incredible, and it only has six more weeks in its limited run, so GO SEE THIS PLAY! And ANOTHER thing that makes London the best city — at this specific theatre — you can buy a full bottle of champers (Veuve, natch) and they even have rosé champs, and they give it to you in a cooler and real champagne glasses. Not sippy cups and Twizzlers like seeing theatre in NY. London is CLASSY, guys.
BUY TICKETS!
And if you missed last week’s podcast, check it out here:
I do not have a podcast this week due to travel!
Grab some Haribo and a strong coffee, and some headphones…and enjoy PCM!
Full disclosure, I have not seen Oppenheimer, but I will be seeing it this week for sure. I had promised you I would do the double feature, but there was just NO time. But I did see Barbie, and wowzers was I shocked by how much I loved it…how moved I was by it, how much I laughed and cried, and I was blown away by the premise and the writing and the set design and the acting, and it was smart and fun and moving and I cannot stop thinking about it.
I saw it in a packed theater in the center of London where women and men were dressed in pink, and everyone clapped at the end and buzzed about it as they exited the theatre. There were some very American-centric and LA-centric specific inside jokes that I was curious to see how the UK-based audience would react to, but they all seemed to get them. And the soundtrack was…sublime. Congrats to the music supervisor and Mark Ronson on that whole thing.
But both movies have broken records, and it’s wild to see how the co-marketing of the two has really helped the other. Barbie made Oppenheimer seem more mainstream and approachable, and Oppenheimer made Barbie seem a more serious movie. Truly genius…and a sidenote…the marketing team for Mattel deserves all the awards (Warner, too, for sure). And props to Ynon, the CEO of Mattel, who is not a man I would have thought had such a sense of humor of himself, but he clearly does…which you have to see the movie to understand (tip: Will Farrell).
But first, let’s celebrate the woman who had the best weekend:
She should be celebrating….as I write this Monday morning in the UK, Barbie has reported about $155 million domestically and another $182 million internationally. Oppenheimer has earned about $80.5 million domestically and $93.7 million internationally. WILD.
So let’s look at some of the social media responses which is WHY YOU ARE HERE.
I knew, and I mean, I KNEW I was going to love Barbie after seeing the utterly pathetic excuse of a man, Piers Morgan (who has blocked me on Twitter btw…oh I mean “X” ffs, but more on that later…), absolutely spiral over the movie. It is the funniest thing and yet, telling and yet, perfectly on brand for him.
And let’s not ignore his amusement over there being a Barbie with a NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS…like he cannot IMAGINE that.
Well, here we are, Piers. Our 2018 PHYSICS BARBIE, you jackass.
Though, this was pretty funny in a sick and demented way:
Anyway, of course there is another man who is so fragile and insecure in his manhood he just spun out over Barbie…may I present Ben Shapiro, lols:
CLASSIC. Also, I already have tickets for my second viewing of this movie Ben…so your premise is incorrect. But also, LOLS.
But back to marketing, the creators really loved highlighting this…and I have to imagine the marketing campaign for Barbie will be taught in business schools for years to come…
And the perfect representation of my feelings after seeing Barbie:
And I can confirm this is how my friend’s feel who DID see both movies on the same day:
And it IS true; I have heard many people say the stand-out was Ryan Gosling which is sort of the whole mindset the movie tries to point out. I mean, he was great…But the entire ensemble was great.
AND SPOILER ALERT. If you have not seen the movie and don’t want to see a pivotal scene then skip ahead…but this is the scene that we are ALL talking about and for good reason….this whole movie was CHEF’S KISS:
There was also an incredible scene in the movie that the studio was apparently pushing to cut, but Greta refused. There was lots of misinformation that the elderly woman on the bench btw was Barbara Handler, the inspo for Barbie. But it was award-winning costume designer and friend of Greta Gerwig, Ann Roth.
Greta did us proud, I have to say. While I am excited to see Oppenheimer, despite everyone saying it runs too long, the Barbie movie does something so important it is so hard to put into words. But anything that makes Piers Morgan feel this way, is PERFECTION in my book:
A LITTLE OF THIS, A LITTLE OF THAT:
While it seems it’s all BARBENHEIMER all the time, let’s look at some highlights (and lowlights) of some OTHER pop culture-y things that have gone down this week.
Let’s start with country music in the news this week:
I imagine SOME of you have heard of country music singer Jason Aldean who is a 46-year-old country star originally from Macon, GA, which has produced some incredible musicians, including REM’s Mike Mills and Bill Berry. But unlike REM, I personally am not a fan of Aldean’s though not for any other reason other than it’s not my genre of music. And tbh, this guy was not on my radar though he is for millions of people. And here is what I can say is likely very true about Aldean, based on his new song, “Try That in a Small Town”:
- He def thinks January 6th is a holiday
- He loves Trump
- He loves gun
- He hates a lot of people (people of color, people who are not Christian, people who believe in women’s rights, people who believe in gun control, the list goes on and on….). JUST A GUESS.
He released his new single, and it’s a real special POV:
Basically, he is saying that if people tried to protest or do anything that people do in a big city if they did it in a small town, the people of the small town know how to deal with these rebels if you will. But I am not a music reviewer or a political writer; I look at pop culture and explain it to those who might not be familiar. So that’s who Jason Aldean is and why you have heard about this song, and why people are up in arms about the song’s meaning…though Aldean himself took to X (hahahahah X) to respond:
Aldean was on stage in Vegas in 2017 when that horrible mass shooting killed 60 and wounded over 400. The shooter had been at Mandalay Bay Hotel and had spent days bringing in an arsenal of guns he got legally and then barricaded himself inside, broke the window, and shot into the audience of the festival.
My point being is…perhaps there is some trauma there. As someone who has had a lot of trauma, it does impact people in so many ways. Elon. Piers. Ben Shapiro. Jason Aldean. They are all coming from a place of some trauma, I believe.
But the social media response has been wild. Brilliant, funny, chilling. Like I said, wild.
There are a lot more, but I shall leave it there.
But more on the country music DRAMA and that’s due to Miranda Lambert, another huge country star. She was NOT happy with some fans taking selfies during one of her shows which, to be fair, was a small venue, and it might have been super distracting to her. I actually totally respect her dislike of it, but her handling of it was ILL ADVISED.
The crowd seemed ok with it, but the reaction has been VERY mixed.
Apparently, she has a history of doing this, and in the day and age of TikTok…well, it’s a choice:
SPACE KAREN did it again! I mean, you got to hand it to him. JUST when you think Elon couldn’t take the Twitter brand any lower…he actually did…by killing the Twitter brand. Over the weekend, he and his “CEO” announced that Twitter would now be known as X. Frankly, the MAX people should be sending Elon and his “CEO” gift baskets for making the HBO re-brand the SECOND WORST decision in terms of rebranding. So there’s that.
If the “CEO’s” tweet or I guess now, X, is any indication…they have no idea what is happening themselves, but basically…yay AI.
LIKE….wtf does any of that mean?
As always, the users themselves have the best responses:
And Kara summed it up perfectly:
Guys….I thought this was a parody video when I first saw it the other week…but apparently, it is not, and it has sparked a lot of convos online and offline.
Have you heard of time blindness? Like people are trying to make it an actual THING. Like a DISABILITY. Like, sorry I am late to work, but I am time disabled???
NO.
But yet…
The reactions have been amazing.
In case you have a teen girl and she asks you to make her a GIRL DINNER….this is what she is talking about:
Basically, it is the easy food a girl staying in at night makes herself using whatever she’s got.
And lastly…have you seen this SUV pop up on your socials?
She’s pretty right? Maybe a new Land Rover? Or Bronco? You could drive it, right?
Well….she is the new SANTA FE from HYUNDAI! Yep. Hyundai. Shocker. And the socials lost their mind over her.
THAT IS IT, my darlings…
This took me A LONG time, so I hope you enjoyed it. And if you enjoyed it, LMK…I am a human searching for positive feedback. If you hated it, just don’t tell me. I am off to have my last afternoon /eve in London…
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Xx,
Brooke
