[Editor’s note: The following article contains spoilers for “Barbie.”]
Matchbox Twenty frontman Rob Thomas is satisfied that his 1997 hit “Push” shouldn’t be the butt of the joke in “Barbie” and that it’s truly a loving homage.
The tune, which was criticized upon its launch for lyrics that allegedly glorified home violence, is used at a key second when the Kens of Barbie Land suppose they’ve lastly received the eye of all of the Barbies, amid the Kens’ pastel putsch of the realm to put in their model of patriarchy. Not simply Ryan Gosling’s Ken, however all the Kens serenade their Barbies with “Push” considering they’ve received the Barbies over — and on their phrases.
However the Barbies have already been deprogrammed of their patriarchal brainwashing and are simply enjoying alongside, making the Kens suppose they’re actually eager about them (and simply as importantly, as eager about their pursuits). It’s one of many issues that finally builds to the Barbies reclaiming their land whereas the Kens are so distracted by having their egos stroked they overlook to attend the vote to vary Barbie Land’s structure, one thing that they’d initially initiated themselves.
In an interview with USA Today, Thomas doesn’t see how “Push” could be a punchline right here, although.
“I need to preface this by saying that I believed it was hilarious. However in ‘Deliver It On,’ [Kirsten Dunst’s character] has this douchey boyfriend. And there’s a scene the place he was in his dorm room with a Matchbox Twenty poster within the background. There was a complete interval through the ‘90s the place the extra profitable we obtained, the larger goal we have been. We have been a simple takedown,” he stated.
“After I obtained the decision for ‘Barbie,’ they instructed me, ‘Ken’s by the fireplace, he’s enjoying the tune and it’s his favourite band,’” Thomas added. “So I did this considering I’d be the butt of the joke, and I used to be fantastic with that. I’m fairly thick-skinned. However Julie Greenwald [from Atlantic Records] got here to the Hollywood Bowl a month or two in the past. She had simply seen the film and was like, ‘You come out of it loving Ken and loving ‘Push.’’ And I used to be like, ‘Aww. Alright, actually good!’”
Actually, Greta Gerwig might herself have affection for “Push.” She stated as a lot to IndieWire’s Kate Erbland, including of the male-aligned references within the film, “I like all of it.” Late-’90s and early-2000s pop-rock appears to be a selected tender spot for the rising auteur: Consider how Saoirse Ronan professes her love for Dave Matthews Band’s “Crash Into Me” in “Woman Chook.”
However there’s undoubtedly one thing totally different about the way in which “Push” is utilized in “Barbie” versus “Crash Into Me” in that earlier film — or the Indigo Ladies’ tune “Nearer to High quality” in “Barbie,” which is used because the triumphant anthem for Barbie to sing whereas making her means from Barbie Land to the true world. (Hopefully, “Barbie” being the smash hit it’s will help the Indigo Girls’ doc “It’s Only Life After All” find a distributor.) One is used because the soundtrack for journey and new discoveries, and the opposite for providing male consolation meals that blinds them to their actuality.
