Barbie and Oppenheimer are slowing down in the theaters a touch after a month and a half, so I’m a little bit sad. Luckily though, my Google News and frankly all other social media feeds are now tuned with a great deal of precision to be ALL BARBIE ALL OPPY, ALL THE TIME. And appropriately as of Barbenheimer weekend #5, I have seen the two films a combined total of 5 times.
There are so many good Barbenheimer pieces out there, I can’t really compete; so that’s why my contributions are only very tenuously having anything to do with Oppenheimer (haven’t touched Barbie yet, but that’s gonna change TODAY in this article). But I’ve gotten good feedback so far on Parts I, II, and III, thus Imma keep going along this same route. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it is what I say!
Ana Cruz Kayne
Did you know that one of the Barbies was Filipina?
In these photos, the actress who portrays Supreme Court Justice Barbie is wearing a traditional Filipino terno on top with butterfly sleeves. I love how she modernized it with the colors and pattern on the right, and with the fringe skirt on the left. If you haven’t seen the movie yet but plan to, look out for her Maria Clara dress towards the end!
I thoroughly read the listicle which I hyperlinked in the above caption, and I learned quite a few things, including that Ms. Cruz Kayne was in a Greta Gerwig film prior to this! So now I have to find it on a streamer, since (surprise surprise) I never watched that one.
It’s so funny, before this summer, I barely got out to see movies in the cinema. But now I find myself needing to get one of those frequent filmgoer punch card things, so I can get popcorn and ticket discounts 🎥
Jose Rizal
The style of dress that Ana wore to the various Barbie premieres and in one of the final scenes is called the “Maria Clara.” She is a character who popularized the earliest Spanish-influenced version of this garb, from the novel Noli Me Tangere. Which was written by the national hero of the Philippines, Jose Rizal.
He is such the Renaissance man, that Maria Clara is not Rizal’s only Barbenheimer (extremely loose and tangential) connection!
Hero Jose Rizal provides the perfect segue from Barbie to Oppenheimer. Pictured above is his sculpture of Prometheus, and I think we all know by now that Oppy was the American Prometheus.
Rizal chose to sculpt the mythological figure not as Unbound but as Bound, which you can tell from the Tagalog word “Nakagapos.” It makes sense when you realize that Rizal was imprisoned for rebelling against the Spanish. Sadly, he never did get to be Unbound like Prometheus, and was executed by firing squad.
Dave Bautista
OK, that Rizal stuff was really quite heavy and a lot to process, so I want to switch to everyone’s favorite WWE star-turned-actor. (Well, he’s mine anyway. No offense to John Cena fans, who is also great and in fact will co-star with Filipina hero Dolly de Leon and one of the Barbie actors in the upcoming Grand Death Lotto).
While Dave Bautista was in neither Barbenheimer movie (that I’m aware of), he is Filipino (people know this by now, right?) and has a quite large tattoo of one of the Oppenheimer actors somewhere on his body. So, I will let you watch this whole video to see which actor it is!
Tom Conti
Speaking of Oppenheimer actors — Mr. Conti plays Albert Einstein in the film. Conti is traditionally thought of as an Italian surname, which I looked up and confirmed in the below screenshot:
So, what gave me the idea to Google this in the first place? Conti is the maiden name of my Lola Nene, my maternal grandmother who made it to 99 years old. (Here’s an article where I talk about the legendary themed birthday parties that my family threw for both her and my aunt Tita Mener.)
Since my brilliant husband is bona fide European from the #5 country with Conti’s, I asked him to shed some light, if
all this time I’ve been having Italian sangue on my mom’s side, and not just Spanish sangre on my dad’s side (my paternal great-Lola’s maiden name is Hernandez).
I mean, it would explain a lot of things such as I really love Italian food and The Godfather films; plus I am given to speaking loudly and boisterously with much use of my hands.
Well turns out, according to my hubs, most likely I have about as much Italian blood coursing through my veins, as I do midichlorians. But you guys will have to ask him for the full explanation of European migratory patterns back in prehispanic Philippine times, cuz it was making my brain hurt. However, he will probably be too busy catching up on Andor and Ahsoka to tell you.
This article first appeared on my Medium blog Otrivia Rodrigo.
That last paragraph was wild. Also, it's pretty clear that the Le family's t-shirt game is strong.
Related: I should probably go see one (or both) of these movies at some point.
This was great Marmi!
Your enthusiasm for these two movies is infectious and endearing - I love it.
Also, I really enjoyed this line — “plus I am given to speaking loudly and boisterously with much use of my hands.” — I can relate.
And - “Pinko and the Brain” - is hilarious and amazing.