Why The “Closer To Fine” Song Is So Important In The Barbie Movie

Warning! This text incorporates spoilers for Barbie.The Barbie film options each authentic and traditional songs all through the movie, however “Nearer To High quality” stands out amongst the remaining as its most vital music. The Barbie soundtrack contains authentic songs by Lizzo, Billie Eilish, Khalid, and extra, in addition to a rating by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt who additionally wrote the showstopping quantity, “I’m Simply Ken,” carried out by Ryan Gosling. But, it was the Indigo Women first hit music, 1989’s “Nearer To High quality” that’s Barbie’s true musical heartbeat. The folks rock music was featured within the Barbie trailer and quite a few instances all through the film, sharing an vital message together with it.

Subsequent to songs like “Barbie World” by Ice Spice and Nicki Minaj with Aqua and “Velocity Drive” by Charli XCX, “Nearer To High quality” by The Indigo Women may appear misplaced, but it surely’s as an alternative consultant of how multifaceted Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is. As Stereotypical Barbie, Margot Robbie leads the Barbie solid filled with different variations of Barbies and Ken in addition to Mattel executives, an worker named Gloria (America Ferrera), and her daughter Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt). The Barbie film balances between Barbieland and The Actual World as Barbie herself does, making an attempt to make herself “regular” once more with a bit assist from “Nearer To High quality.”

“Nearer To High quality” Is About Accepting Life’s Confusion

In contrast to many different songs within the Barbie soundtrack, “Nearer To High quality” performs thrice diegetically within the movie, with Barbie and others singing it when taking the lengthy journey from Barbieland to The Actual World. After malfunctioning, Barbie makes use of the music to assist her go away Barbieland and “perceive the reality concerning the universe.” Whereas its launched within the Barbie film in a comedic means with Robbie singing alongside and Gosling’s Ken becoming a member of her from the place he was hiding within the backseat and shocking her, the music’s utilization holds an vital, deeper that means.

As Barbie appears to search out out “the reality,” the lyrics to “Nearer To High quality” are all about doing the identical solely to just accept life’s confusion and that there isn’t any one easy reply or fact as Barbie hopes there might be. She sings, “there’s multiple reply to those questions / pointing me in a crooked line / and the much less I search my supply for some definitive / nearer I’m to positive.” It’s considerably ironic that Barbie sings this so early on within the Barbie film, as she has but to study this via her personal existential disaster, offering a type of foreshadowing for viewers and listeners.

Associated: Is Barbieland Imaginary & How It Connects To The Actual World In The Barbie Film

“Nearer To High quality” Represents Barbie’s Journey

Finally, Barbie goes on the identical journey within the Barbie film because the Indigo Women do within the lyrics of “Nearer To High quality.” Different lyrics embrace, “And I went to the physician, I went to the mountains / I seemed to the youngsters, I drank from the fountains,” displaying simply what number of locations they went and seemed for solutions, simply as Barbie had via her travels and when she lastly landed in The Actual World. Nevertheless, “Nearer To High quality” doesn’t simply characterize her bodily journey, however Barbie’s psychological and emotional journeys as effectively.

The ending of Barbie noticed its titular character selecting the scary, complicated Actual World over the comforts of Barbieland, embracing life and the universe for all of its flaws. At first, Barbie was overwhelmed by all of this, having despatched herself right into a spiral when realizing that she not solely wouldn’t discover one definitive reply however that she discovered solutions she didn’t like. Ultimately, Barbie remains to be studying about herself and the place she belongs, however she’s getting “nearer to positive.”