Quiz: Am I describing Barbie or Oppenheimer?

Pop quiz, Barbenheimer fans.

Image: Daanish Syed

The simultaneous release of Barbie and Oppenheimer last week resulted in one of the biggest box office weekends of all time. To celebrate, a fun quiz for you today: For each description of a movie below, choose whether I’m describing: A. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, B. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, or C. both. Answer key at the bottom.

1. This movie, which is directed by a well-respected auteur, asks us to think about what it means to be human and confronts the audience with the fact that frighteningly little separates humanity from oblivion. In fact, the movie’s protagonist thinks constantly about death and is often overwhelmed with existential dread.

2. This summer 2023 film may very well cause controversy in certain parts of Asia, if it hasn’t already. Separately, one of its many subplots involves violence against one or more Asian people.

3. This film’s protagonist is played by an actor who has previously portrayed an employee of Arkham Asylum in Gotham City. That employee eventually became a notorious Gotham criminal in large part because of the work they were doing with one or more of Arkham’s inmates.

4. This film’s main character begins the film with a relatively optimistic understanding of the world, believing they exercise a significant amount of control over their environment and their fate. But as the film continues, they realize that there are far more powerful and sinister forces at play that threaten to derail their life’s work.

5. The characters in this movie build a city that’s geographically isolated from most of the world so that they can work and live in peace. Here, they bring together the most brilliant minds to solve one or more of society’s most pressing issues. It’s only when outside forces intervene that the real problems begin.

6. Throughout the course of this film, large groups of white men (many of them hapless) sit behind big tables or desks and, through intentional deeds and/or ignorance, continue to uphold a senseless patriarchal power structure.

7. This film makes clear that being a mother is difficult, especially when there’s no one to support you. To the extent that there are children featured in this movie, they are often churlish and difficult to handle.

8. The protagonist in this film occasionally finds themselves adrift but fortunately, a famous older mentor occasionally intervenes to help them and/or to set them on the right path.

9. The primary love interest of this film’s protagonist is played by one of the main stars of David Leitch’s upcoming 2024 action thriller, The Fall Guy.

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Answer Key

1. c

2. c

3. c

4. c

5. c

6. c

7. c

8. c

9. c

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Other Stuff David Chen Has Made

Before the list of links, a big shout out to Daanish Syed who helped me make the header image for this post. Be sure to follow him on Threads and Bluesky.

• In case you missed it, check out my review of Oppenheimer right here on Decoding Everything.

• On my personal Patreon page, Joy and I discussed eight questions we had about Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One.

• A reminder that over on Decoding TV, we’re doing weekly recaps/reviews of Justified: City Primeval. We’re also wrapping up our coverage of Secret Invasion this week. Subscribe here on Apple Podcasts.

• On The Filmcast, we reviewed Oppenheimer with Patrick Willems. I really loved this in-depth discussion!