Ryan Gosling Is Great In "Barbie" But There's No Way He Should Win An Oscar

I really enjoyed "Barbie" a lot. I'm not going to act like I saw a ton of movies this year, but considering how well-directed it was and how funny it was, I'm not surprised to see it be nominated for many awards. Ryan Gosling was fantastic in it. Bizarrely, it was one of the high points of a career that's featured quite a few of them. This is not meant to knock down the effort that Ryan Gosling gave to Ken. From a comedic standpoint, it was a brilliant performance, and I'm not surprised to see him nominated. But the Golden Globes are coming up this weekend. Award season is heating up, and I keep seeing Ryan Gosling as the favorite for Best Supporting Actor, and I'm kind of scratching my head. 

As I said, Gosling is great in "Barbie," but it's a joke performance. I know it's a comedic performance. It's intentionally meant to be funny, but you know what I mean. The whole thing works because it is a troll piece. It's ironic that a talented guy put that much effort into playing Ken in a Barbie movie. Do people not understand that? Even Ryan Gosling didn't take this thing seriously. Watching on the press tour, all he did was make jokes and Wear T-shirts that became memes. He wants his first Oscar to be for something other than for playing Ken. 

Ryan Gosling winning an Academy Award for playing Ken would be a prime example of a joke being taken one step too far. It's not to say that he isn't good in the movie. He's deserving of a nomination. I like seeing comedic performances get their due, but the idea is that this is the year's best supporting performance. It reminds me of when people talked about W.A.P. as being the best song of the year when it came. Yeah, it's kind of a banger, but it's a joke. It's meant to shock people. It's not meant to be high art, nor is it meant to be taken seriously.

Again, I guess I'm just baffled at how people judge modern art. I'm not denying Gosling's performance was hilarious. I would actually argue with somewhat iconic, but when the Academy Awards does their recap of all the great actors who won Best Supporting Actor, are they going to feel good about having Ryan Gosling as Ken be featured in that montage? For fairness, who is more deserving? Robert Downey Jr. should win the Academy Award for "Oppenheimer." I'm stunned that this isn't a slam dunk. Not only was he the best performance in that movie, but considering how long Robert Downey Jr. has been in Hollywood, the man has definitely paid his dues; it would be a crime to deprive him of this. It should be him going away.

I praised "Barbie" when it came out. I'll continue to praise it. It was fantastic, but it will be one of those movies that will get a lot of backlash over time because it's probably receiving more love than it deserves. It's a really funny comedy that has more effort put into it than anyone expected. It's fantastically directed and features some really funny performances, but the idea that we're putting it in the same breath as films that were deep, moving dramas will only lead to more backlash. Gosling was great, but let's chill with the Academy Award talk.