“We come to this place for magic. We come to AMC theaters to laugh, to cry, to care … and to furiously google ‘mattel board configuration’ while others are trying to enjoy a [f—] magnificent comedy,” the film’s soundtrack producer posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Ronson was responding to the “Real Time” host’s scathing 1,882-character review of the satirical Greta Gerwig film, which he posted to X.
“OK, ‘Barbie’: I was hoping it wouldn’t be preachy, man-hating, and a #ZombieLie – alas, it was all three,” Maher wrote on Monday. “What is a Zombie Lie? Something that never was true, but certain people refuse to stop saying it (tax cuts for the rich increase revenues, e.g.); OR something that USED to be true but no longer is, but certain people pretend it’s still true. ‘Barbie’ is this kind of #ZombieLie.
“Spoiler alert, Barbie fights the Patriarchy,” he continued. “Right up to the Mattel board who created her, consisting of 12 white men! The Patriarchy! Except there’s a Mattel board in real life, and it’s 7 men and 5 women. OK, not perfect even-steven, but not the way the board IN THE MOVIE – which takes place in 2023 – is portrayed. And not really any longer deserving of the word ‘patriarchy.’ Yes, there was one, and remnants of it remain – but this movie is so 2000-LATE.
“I know, I know, ‘How could I know about the patriarchy, I AM a man!’ That argument is so old and so silly,” the HBO host continued. “Of course, none of us can know exactly what others go through life, but I can see the world around me, and I can read data.
“The real Mattel board is a pretty close mirror of the country, where 45% of the 449 board seats filled last year in Fortune 500 companies were women. Truth is, I’m not the one who’s out of step – I’m living in the year we’re living in. Barbie is fun, I enjoyed it – but it IS a #ZombieLie. And people who don’t go along with zombie lies did not take some red pill – just staying true to CURRENT reality. Let’s live in the year we’re living in! Hi Ken!!!”
Maher, whose HBO show focuses on political discourse with varying guests from week to week, is the latest to vocalize his disdain for “Barbie,” following right-wing figures Ben Shapiro, who filmed a 43-minute rant about the film and posted it to YouTube; and Ted Cruz, who attacked the film on X due to a conspiracy theory that Barbie was “pushing Chinese propaganda” — Mattel has denied this.
Comedian and “Glow” star Marc Maron weighed in during an Instagram live this week, calling the film “monumental,” and called out the men who took issue with the comedy “insecure babies.”
“I saw ‘Barbie’ and I thought it was a f—ing masterpiece,” Maron said in a video posted to Instagram this week. “I don’t throw that word around lightly.
“It’s like it does a fairly amazing thing to create a sort of broad-based entertainment product that applies to the entire spectrum,” Maron continued. “I think primarily of women. And then just seep it in progressive politics and basic feminism in a way that’s funny, informative and well-executed in a context that is completely engaging.
“I mean, so embarrassing for them,” he said. “Any dude that can’t take those hits in that movie, they’ve really got to look in their pants and decide what they’re made of.”