Director Greta Gerwig's Barbie was the biggest film of 2023. Along with its Box-Office wins, the film was also lauded by critics for its feminist themes, as well as Ryan Gosling's comedic performance. One person who is not a fan of the film, though, is none other than the Academy Award-winning director of classic films like Wall Street and Platoon Oliver Stone.
Why does Oliver Stone think Ryan Gosling shouldn't do films like Barbie?
Oliver Stone is one of the most well-regarded filmmakers that Hollywood has ever seen. He has been the recipient of no less than four Academy Awards and has delivered some of the biggest classics of Hollywood. The filmmaker, though, is quite critical of the new-age cinema that Hollywood has been producing and is often quite critical of them.
In a 2023 interview with City AM, the filmmaker behind classics like JFK was critical of the current film landscape of Hollywood, especially the biggest hit of the year, Greta Gerwig's Barbie. He largely came down hard on Ryan Gosling, who was previously known for starring in daring independent projects by auteur filmmakers but has recently been gravitating towards more and more blockbuster projects.
The Platoon director said, "Ryan Gosling is wasting his time if he's doing that shit for money. He should be doing more serious films. He shouldn't be a part of this infantilization of Hollywood. Now it's all fantasy, fantasy, fantasy, including all the war pictures: fantasy, fantasy".
Oliver Stone's takedown of recent Hollywood blockbusters
Oliver Stone did not just stop at Barbie; he further went on to express his opinion on some of the recent Hollywood blockbusters, which are also contributing to the apparent infantilization of Hollywood. Taking the example of the Fast and Furious series, the director elaborated that he once enjoyed such films but has now become bored of them due to them becoming more like Marvel movies and constantly repeating stuff already done in previous movies.
He also expressed his opinions on Keanu Reeves's blockbuster action franchise John Wick, which he called a slog to get through. The Scarface writer revealed, "On the plane, I watched John Wick, which is three hours and some. And I fell asleep about 778 times during it." He added, "I kept waking up and having to face him killing more people. It's like the world has degenerated into non-logic."
Oliver Stone's comments are the latest in a line of comments made by some of the most acclaimed directors from the 1970s Hollywood, arguably the best period of filmmaking in America, regarding the latest condition of filmmaking in the current era.
