The trends of the weekend have all been electoral, which should not be surprising, given that politics has co-opted the grids of the TV, which remains the main forum where a society dialogues with itself. In the case of Spanish fabrics, the agora where a country calls itself. But there's more to it. There is a cinema. Let's take a breath, then, in a week in which Alberto Núñez Feijóo has been an uninterrupted star in the daily hashtags since the TVE presenter Silvia Intxaurrondo told him "this is not right" and gave him the thousand-yard stare -those of us who have lived in Euskadi tend to believe that this icy and piercing gaze is an attribute of Basque female genetics-, and we look outside of politics to attend the very interesting Hollywood battle to resurrect the screening rooms , which in the last thirty days has seen the resurrection of Indiana Jones, the exhibition of hegemony of the filmmaker Tom Cruise - which is, and most importantly without the need to write or direct - with his commitment to the big show, and, this weekend, the unusual duel between Oppenheimer, by Christopher Nolan, and Barbie, by Greta Gerwig, which has kept social networks active for the exemplary battle between the seriousness of the important and the lightness of fun.
Universal and Warner Bros., distributors of the two films, have let the coincidence of the release cause a curious competition on social networks, which started months ago, but which has gained momentum in recent days. The competition, dubbed on social networks as Barbenheimer, has operated to create the idea of an unprecedented cinematic event, to the point that last Friday was the best day at the box office since 2019, that is to say, since before the onset of the pandemic, which has so affected a cinematographic business that was wounded some time ago by the onset of digital platforms.
The most beautiful thing about the fight, which in the first place was winning Mattel's doll but which is being beneficial for both titles, is this apparent contradiction between the important things and the banal things that turn out not to be so important. Neither Barbie is without political ambition – in fact, her speech seeks a sophisticated look at the war of the sexes – nor what the biopic of the inventor of the bomb explains is as important as it is solemn. This, on the other hand, underlines what we already knew about the artistic personality of both Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan.
This Barbenheimer is good because it draws well the contours of the contemporary Western citizen, light but pompous, eager to enjoy and fatuous at the same time. But it overlooks that there is another premiere in contention, even more profitable: Insidious: the red door, closing of the famous horror series whose cost in relation to the box office makes it the real deal of the moment and reminds us that we are light and serious, but also afraid. Too.
