Kenough!

Do you guys ever think about logging off?

That is my question for Film Twitter this week, as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences sent everyone into a rage about Oscar nominations for Barbie Tuesday morning.

Barbie received eight nominations: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (Ryan Gosling), Best Supporting Actress (America Ferrera), two for Best Original Song ( “I’m Just Ken” and “What Was I Made For?”), Best Costume Design and Best Production Design.

Margot Robbie did not get a nomination Best Actress for her role as Barbie; instead, she got one for Best Picture in her capacity as one of the film’s producers.

Greta Gerwig did not receive a nomination for Best Director; rather, the Academy recognized her for Best Adapted Screenplay, along with her writing partner and husband Noah Baumbach.

These omissions kicked up a firestorm of Online Discourse™ that is so much worse than anything that happened last summer when the film came out.

Headlines like “Why weren’t Barbie’s director and lead actress Kenough for Oscar nominations?” and “‘Barbie’ meets patriarchy, again? Why Margot Robbie’s, Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’ Oscars snubs touch a nerve.” immediately popped up. On Wednesday, L.A. Times culture critic Mary McNamara wrote a column headlined “Shocking Oscar snubs for ‘Barbie’s’ Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie just prove the movie’s point,” featuring this absolutely insane lede referencing other Best Picture nominees:

“If only Barbie had done a little time as a sex worker. Or barely survived becoming the next victim in a mass murder plot. Or stood accused of shoving Ken out of the Dream House’s top window.

“Certainly millions of “Barbie” fans are currently wishing they could push someone — perhaps a member or two of the film academy — out of a very high window.”

Huh?

Ryan Gosling, who received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor for playing Ken, released a statement Wednesday about Gerwig’s and Robbie’s perceived snubs:

“There is no Ken without Barbie, and there is no Barbie movie without Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, the two people most responsible for this history-making, globally-celebrated film.

“No recognition would be possible for anyone on the film without their talent, grit and genius.

“To say that I’m disappointed that they are not nominated in their respective categories would be an understatement.”

America Ferrrera also said it feels “disappointing” to not see Gerwig nominated for Best Director.

But all of that pales in comparison to the pièce de résistance of this whole discourse: Hillary Clinton weighed in, apparently comparing Barbie’s massive box office take and seeming lack of Oscar nominations to her winning the popular vote but losing the electoral college in 2016.

Greta & Margot,

While it can sting to win the box office but not take home the gold, your millions of fans love you. 

You’re both so much more than Kenough.#HillaryBarbie

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) January 24, 2024

Wild stuff. It’s a perfectly normal reaction to remind people of your failed presidential campaign while rushing to the defense of an extremely popular movie that made $1.4 billion and received eight Oscar nominations. We haven’t seen this level of Clinton Posting on Twitter since Pokemon Go To The Polls.

Her are some of my favorite parodies of said tweet:

Beautifully said pic.twitter.com/yJ8fvSu0BE

— Rafa Sales Ross (@rafiews) January 24, 2024

??? pic.twitter.com/FWBfo1xIFl

— Mike Scollins (@mikescollins) January 24, 2024

Just told my 10yo daughter about #HillaryBarbie. She had tears in her eyes. And then she did the Wakanda pose and said #Gretanda forever" — which is the sort of pop culture cross-over that I can celebrate. https://t.co/IMp80jtjdg

— Rebecca Alter (@ralter) January 24, 2024

All of this is very silly, of course. Barbie was the top box-office draw for 2023 and received the fourth-most nominations at this year’s Oscars.

Gerwig has directed three films in her career so far; the Academy has nominated all of them Best Picture. Her first, Lady Bird, earned her Best Director and Best Original Screenplay nods. Her second film, Little Women, also received a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination. It’s safe to say the Academy has never ignored her. Plus, it’s impossible for the director of every Best Picture nominee to receive a Best Director nomination, given that there are 10 Best Pictures and five Best Directors these days—and, again, Best Picture goes to the producers, not the director.

Robbie, in every bit of press she has done for Barbie, spoke at length about her job as a producer on the film and how rewarding it was. Her production company LuckyChap Entertainment primarily focuses on films and TV shows made by women or about women: Barbie; I, Tonya; Dollface; Birds of Prey; Promising Young Woman; Saltburn. It’s safe to say that without her, no one would have made Barbie. Hollywood should  recognize her as a producer as well as an actor.

Furthermore, angry commenters keep quoting Ferrera’s Barbie monologue about how hard it is to be a modern woman. Yet hardly anyone opining on the subject seems elated that Lily Gladstone made history as the first Native American to receive a Best Actress nomination, or that the Best Picture field this year features three films directed by women (Anatomy of a Fall, Past Lives and Barbie)—an Academy record. I think Barbie herself would celebrate the accomplishments of all women instead of getting irate that two successful women get even more nominations.

Anyway, the Oscars ceremony is on March 10. There’s plenty of time for a few more outrage cycles.