evidence: Look past the muddled feminism and the pro forma blockbuster car-chase scene and Barbie still feels laden with Gerwig’s main considerations. In an interview with Rolling Stone, she pointed not to Gloria’s big moment but to the second monologue, delivered by Robbie’s Barbie at the end of the movie, as the key to understanding it all. By now, Barbie Land has been restored. Barbies maintain control of everything, and Kens cannot live in the Dreamhouse, though Barbie does offer Ken an equality bone; not every night has to be girls’ night. But even though Barbie Land is still a matriarchal utopia and the real world is still horrible to women, Barbie chooses to leave. She doesn’t want to be an idea; she wants to be the one doing the imagining, she says tearily over a home-video montage of women at various life stages being happy. Better to be the director than the muse.