Ryan Gosling’s efficiency of “I am Simply Ken” was essentially the most lovable Oscars music second in years.
Should songs written for motion pictures be critical? Annually the Oscar for Finest Unique Track nominations over-index on hushed ballads and motivational anthems—music that’s constructed sturdily, predictably, for utilitarian functions. “I’m Simply Ken,” the Barbie observe carried out by the actor Ryan Gosling, takes that custom and skews it. Half piano confessional and half prog-metal rockout, it’s a deeply foolish music about self-seriousness. Final night time’s rendition of it was an irony-meets-sincerity cyclone of the best order, making for essentially the most lovable Oscars music second in years.
Starting his act whereas seated within the viewers, with a cowboy hat obscuring his impossibly angled options, Gosling was in character because the woebegone Ken, a macho hunk doomed to play beta within the toy netherworld of Barbie. He sang over the shoulder of his co-star Margot Robbie, who was not in character. She let loose a genuine-seeming giggle, which set the tone for the quantity as a lot because the fuchsia lighting did. Barbie’s signature perception is that merchandise and other people, the worlds we escape to and the world we reside in, exist not in opposition however in dialogue. So this was going to be a super-performative efficiency—but additionally one wherein the fourth wall could be repeatedly damaged. Gosling took off his hat, plopped it on the top of an viewers member (his sister), and sauntered as much as the stage.
From there, we received a basic movie-musical spectacle, populated totally by males. Mark Ronson, the music’s co-producer, performed bass guitar along with his shirt billowing open, and Slash of Weapons N’ Roses later appeared for a finale of shredding. On a pink bandstand, tuxedoed dancers wore pink sashes, and offered pink boards for Gosling to karate-chop. (This was all an homage to “Diamonds Are a Woman’s Finest Pal,” besides Marilyn Monroe’s model didn’t contain martial arts.) Barbie’s jokey tackle the male ego has been a lot mentioned, however Gosling’s mannerisms final night time conveyed one thing extra poignant than mere satire. He moved slumpily, much less like a plastic doll than a rag doll. His Ken isn’t just an emblem onto which feminist concepts may be projected, but additionally a personality struggling, in idiosyncratic methods, to determine who he needs to be.
The tempo modified, the set modified, and Gosling stored transferring—shadowboxing, kissing the cameraperson’s hand, crowd-surfing a sea of Barbie-face cutouts. The vitality inbuilt a managed frenzy, bolstered by the grinning participation of Barbie’s different Kens, together with the actors Simu Liu and Kingsley Ben-Adir. Towards the top, in a heat emotional excessive level, Gosling provided the microphone to the ladies within the viewers who made Barbie what it’s: Robbie, America Ferrera, and the director Greta Gerwig. “I’m sufficient / And I’m nice at doing stuff,” they sang collectively, a really ridiculous lyric that occurred to really feel, in that second, completely correct.
