Why BarbenHeimer Was Such a Success

The first thing that probably came to your mind when you saw this title was "Okayy. But isn't this a couple of months too late?" To that, I say, Variety just released their Actors on Actors Interview with Margot Robbie and Cilian Murphy four days ago, so no, this isn't too late. In fact, it's perfectly timed.

I was a couple of minutes in when the two brilliant actors began dissecting why Barbenheimer was such a success. They mentioned how people will always be people, weird, refusing to be put in a box. People will be people, loving different things and daring you to force them to choose.

"I dare you to tell me I can only watch Oppenheimer or I can only watch Barbie. Look at me. I dare you."

And they're right. Humans will be humans. But I think it's also a bit more than this. Why was Barbenheimer such a success? Why was the coming together yet staying distinctly separate of two extremely different realities just what we needed as a whole? What we needed to be whole?

First, Margot Robbie mentioned that the Barbie Script was written or started being written in 2020. What was happening in 2020? A world-changing, life-altering global pandemic that claimed lives and wrecked homes. Do you know what else was happening in 2020? TikTok!

I know, I'm beginning to sound crazy, but stay with me. TikTok became a huge thing in 2020. With the pandemic confining us to our homes, we were on the brink of collectively losing our minds. We were desperate for an escape, some alternate reality, where the pandemic couldn't touch you and your major concern was learning the trending dance of the day, or the trending sound to lipsync to in the comfort of your home.

The world was literally ending and what were we doing? Dancing. Because what else is there to do, really? It reminds me of that scene in The Titanic where all hope was lost, they were all going to die, and the musicians continued playing their instruments, because really, what else is there to do when all hope is lost but dance and sing?

I think this is why Barbenheimer was such a success. The juxtaposition of both extreme realities, the invention of the atomic bomb that claimed and is still claiming millions of lives, and the escape into a pink and blue bubble world where dreams come true and you get to party all day. We needed both of these things to happen at the same time.

I know I speak for all of us when I say we're still processing what 2020 did to us. Being in 2023 feels like a daze, a hazy dream we cannot wake up from no matter how hard we try. It is why we are still on the desperate hunt for escapes, movies, songs, Tiktok, anything to take us from where we are to another world. While we seek escapes, we simultaneously seek explanations. "Why does life have to be this way? Why do women have to still battle patriarchy in 2023? Who the hell thought it was a good idea to build an atomic bomb, and why the hell do I feel like absolute shit?"

In today's world where everything is happening everywhere all at once (No, I haven't seen that movie), we're unable to grasp the new realities our lives have now become, neither are we able to process the things that happened three years ago. It's all just blurry, moving very very fast. These questions plague our minds whether or not we realise it, and this is why Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan are such brilliant creators. Barbenheimer could not have been more perfectly timed.

On the one hand, you have the brilliant storytelling taking you into a world where atomic bombs had not yet existed, how they came to be, and the overwhelming regret that came after. You are taken into a different world, an escape, yet an explanation. "This is the why. This is the how. This is the hereafter."

On the other hand, you have a just as brilliant storytelling taking you into a world where patriarchy does not exist, where a woman can be anything and everything she seeks to be. Where limits do not exist, and dolls have lives of their own. You are drawn into a strange yet familiar world, providing a similar escape yet an explanation, and even more, an exhortation.

Boundaries are tested, erased. New worlds are created, and while one movie shows us the total destruction that our world has now become, the other shows us the perfect world where patriarchy does not exist and the protagonist's greatest achievement is visiting her gynaecologist. Ridiculous? Maybe. But it surely gets the point across.

We seek escapes. We seek explanations. For some of us, our favourite forms of escape are the feel-good films, and books that show you the amazing world we could live in. They take our minds off the destruction that is our world and force us to breathe, to take their hands and to feel.

For some of us, our favourite forms of escape are the action movies, the tragedies, the films and books that remind you that life isn't a merry-go-round, but in Bojack Horseman's words, "a long hard kick in the urethra."

What Barbenheimer does, without realising or perhaps intending to, is simultaneously validating both school of thoughts and feelings. This is why Barbenheimer was such a success. (In my opinion, of course...)