Barbie director Greta Gerwig says watch these movies next

30.07.2023 - 13:11 / polygon.com / Greta Gerwig / Margot Robbie / Ryan Gosling / Stanley Kubrick

Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is finally upon us, and audiences love it. The comedy starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as the eponymous doll and her maybe-boyfriend Ken has made big money at the box office, with audiences and critics both effusively praising the film’s extravagant production design and pitch-perfect soundtrack alongside Robbie’s and Gosling’s sensational performances.

Greatness never occurs in a vacuum, and that goes especially for Gerwig’s film. Speaking to Letterboxd prior to the film’s premiere, the director cited over 30 movies that inspired her while working on the film, from musicals and fast-talking comedies starring Gene Kelly and Cary Grant to films directed by such cinematic icons as Federico Fellini, Stanley Kubrick, Jacques Demy, and Pedro Almodóvar.

If you’re aching for more Barbie-like entertainment, we’ve pulled together a list of where you can stream or rent nearly all of the films Gerwig has cited as inspiration. Classics likeA Matter of Life and Death, All That Jazz, and Oklahoma! are sadly unavailable online, but trust us — there’s plenty here to keep you occupied.

Year: 1935Run time: 1h 35mDirector: Busby BerkeleyCast: Dick Powell, Adolphe Menjou, Gloria Stuart

Gerwig mentioned Gold Diggers of 1935 in the same breath as Fred Zinnemann’s 1955 adaptation of the musical Oklahoma! as a film that most inspired her approach to filming dance sequences in Barbie. Gold Diggers of 1935 centers on the romantic antics of a group of guests at a luxurious resort hotel, among them an eccentric millionaire, a wealthy heiress, and a stage director. “[The film] has this one really surreal dance number with a bunch of steps, Gerwig told Letterboxd. “There’s, like, a million tap dancers that go through each other. It’s kind of unreal.”

Gold Diggers of 1935 is available to rent on Amazon , Apple , and Vudu .

Year: 1968Run time: 2h 29mDirector: Stanley KubrickCast: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, Douglas Rain

Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi opus has exerted a nigh monolithic (pun intended) influence over the medium of film and cinematic storytelling since it first landed in theaters in 1968. Among the film’s most iconic moments are that of its first scene, wherein a tribe of hominins first encounter the alien artifact that seemingly grants them the power of intelligence. The influence on Barbie is obvious to anyone who has seen the first trailer for the film, wherein a group of young girls standing in a valley similar to the one seen in 2001: A Space Odyssey first encounters the doll that would change the history of children’s toys forever.

2001: A Space Odyssey is available to stream on Max , or available to rent on Amazon , Apple , and Vudu .

Year: 1951Run time: 1h 54mDirector: Vi