Director Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie was the biggest film of 2023. It broke records for Warner Bros., for Gerwig, and for female filmmakers in general. It’s been represented in the nominations this awards season, and it’s a fan-favorite that brought people back to the movies after a few weird years post-pandemic. The movie stretches across the genres, with plenty of comedy, drama, music, existentialism, romance, and the questions of life, but some have written it off as a shallow endeavor.
One such critic is director Oliver Stone, who has helmed well-received films like Platoon, Wall Street, Born on the Fourth of July, The Doors, JFK, Natural Born Killers, Any Given Sunday, Snowden, and many more. He gave an interview with Yahoo! to promote his new documentary, Nuclear Now, and was asked jokingly if he would want to direct a Barbie 2 if it were to ever come around.
Stone responded, in no joking manner:
“Ridiculous. Ryan Gosling is wasting his time if he’s doing that shit for money. He should be doing more serious films. He shouldn’t be a part of this infantilization of Hollywood. Now it’s all fantasy, fantasy, fantasy, including all the war pictures: fantasy, fantasy. Even the Fast and Furious movies, which I used to enjoy, have become like Marvel movies. I mean, how many crashes can you see?”
I mean, I think most people can agree that we’ve seen our fair share of Fast and Furious movies, but I think he’s discounting a film that clearly made an impact. I think what Stone doesn’t understand is that Barbie isn’t necessarily for him, and it doesn’t matter what he thinks of it. Films find audiences, despite the fact that certain people may not enjoy them. It’s really strange to think that a director would be so critical of a film that he didn’t happen to find entertaining (assuming he watched it, and isn’t just bitching about how he thought it looked). It’s also asinine to criticize an actor’s choices, especially for an award-worthy performance that the actor is proud of.
Move on, Stone. Go cry about something that matters.
Update: Oliver Stone has since apologized on X saying: “At the time, I was busy promoting my nuclear documentary in Europe and had little to no knowledge of the project beyond its title. At the time, I was busy promoting my nuclear documentary in Europe and had little to no knowledge of the project beyond its title.”
Oliver said he “was able to see Barbie in a theater back in July and appreciated the film for its originality and its themes.” He continued, “I found the filmmakers’ approach certainly different than what I expected. I apologize for speaking ignorantly.”
