KYLE SMITH: Barbie Review: Beyond Her Ken.

As bubbly as the film appears, its script is like a grumpier-than-average women’s studies seminar. At one point, nearing the climax, “Barbie” stops cold so a Mattel doll designer (America Ferrera) with depressive inclinations can deliver a long monologue on how miserable it is to be female. For instance, she feels pressured to have lots of money but also pressured to not appear to seek it. Hearing characters issue denunciations such as “You fascist!” while Barbie muses that the fate of women is “Either you’re brainwashed or you’re weird and ugly—there is no in-between” is like going to the cotton-candy factory to find it producing lead pipes. Don’t we go to a movie like “Barbie” to escape the harrumphing tone of the most aggrieved Twitter users?

Who knew a movie about Mattel toys would have ended up so woke? Would Tom Hanks’ rumored Major Matt Mason movie have ended up as badly?