THE BUBBLE (Barbie, Expats)

I watched about two-thirds of the first episode of the series EXPATS (dir Lulu Wang) before turning it off mainly out of indifference. The basic premise - based on viewing about 40 minutes of it - is the personal frictions, cheating marriages, and generally luxury living of a group of expatriates in Hong Kong. It's very much a "first world problem" event, and almost aggressively so. While they are a mix of white and non-white bourgeois, none of their problems seem unusual or exceptional to merit our attention to their dramas whatever they may be. Nicole Kidman struggles on like a real trouper in this dud of a series. I am not even a big fan of hers but there were times even in the space of 40 minutes that I felt sorry for her as an actress, not a character. One noticeable point is how unappealing the women are in this piece. Knowing that it is directed by a woman, I can only marvel (but won't waste time doing so) at the Freudian reasons an expatriate Chinese woman filmmaker living in American should adopt this approach. In particular, Kidman's mother-in-law, a Chinese who lives now in America, is a nasty and snobby piece of work - one feels that the director must have met many such types to exact such revenge through such a stereotype (mothers-in-law for example are always negatively portrayed in Hong Kong melodramas of the 1950s). And the relationship between Kidman and her neighbor, an Indian expat goes up and down with such abruptness that you wonder if they are both bi-polar. And even in the first 40 minutes you know the episode is running into trouble when Kidman and her neighbor end up dancing to Blondie's "Heart of Glass" in a noodle shop. OK the song's title may be a reference to the relationships being recounted but when a filmmaker extends the scene to some meaningless dance moves and poor Kidman struggles to adapt her voice to the key of the song in order to screech out a few singalong lines, we know we are facing a paucity of imagination, energy and sense of direction. But then that is life in the bubble is it not?

Something similar can be said for BARBIE which like EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE has bizarrely received acclaim for its pointlessness and inanity. If the Barbie doll did not exist then this film would not, but imagining that someone would make a film about a doll in her world, would this be an interesting film? I doubt it. The extra-diegetic aspect of Barbie (she is a doll in the real world bought by millions of people) is the only thing that keeps this film alive. Once again it is a world with first world problems whether it's Ken or Barbie. Fussing with looks, worried about objects of desire, not having to handle the real world - these would be first world problems that are generally meaningless to the rest of the world IF the Barbie doll did not exist.

The tragedy is that we elevate mediocrity to masterful or at the very least, interesting. That shows a definite perversion of values or maybe an elimination of values so that whatever happens, happens. In that, these two films point a way to the future which I hope will not happen.