Gerta Gerwig's forthcoming Barbie film, which hits theaters July 21, is drawing rave reviews from critics after the movie's Los Angeles premiere on Sunday night.
Early reactions to the film, which follows Gerwig's previous two Oscar-nominated projects, 2017's Lady Bird and 2019's Little Women, praise the director, as well as notable performances from Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.
ScreenRant writer Joseph Deckelmeier said the "whole cast is brilliant," while calling the film “funny, bombastic and very smart.” ComicBook.com's Jamie Jirak admitted that Gerwig "somehow exceeded" her expectations, before jumping on the bandwagon for Gosling's Academy Awards campaign: "Give Ryan Gosling an Oscar nomination, I'm dead serious!"
The New York Film Academy's Eric Heckler reiterated Jirak's praise regarding Gosling's performance as Ken, claiming the actor's portrayal of the iconic doll is his "best role to date — Greta Gerwig takes everything that has made him great in his previous films and combines them into a Super-Gosling."
"The Oscar buzz is real, and if it happens it would be one of the most fun and inspired nominations in recent memory," Heckler added.
And while much has been made between the upcoming battle between Barbie and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, which will be released on the same day, The Ringer's and Puck's Matthew Belloni tweeted that Barbie is on pace to double Oppenheimer at box office in its opening weekend. "Wow: The BARBIE tracking has spiked to $93M for the opening weekend. OPPENHEIMER is also up, but to $43M, per NRG," Belloni wrote.
Check out some of the early reactions to Barbie in the tweets below.