Best Supporting Actor 2023: Ryan Gosling in Barbie

Ryan Gosling received his third Oscar nomination for portraying Ken in Barbie. 

Barbie follows the story of Barbieland as one set of Barbie and Ken venture into the real world. 

In the story of Barbieland there are many Barbies though the focus on the center of it all is stereotypical Barbie as performed by Margot Robbie, where her "companion" is technically Gosling's Ken as stereotypical Ken who performs the job of beach, which is to hangout and "do beach" though not actually anything involving water or a general thing known as work. Ryan Gosling seems already well cast as Ken by just more or less looking like a Ken doll, only requiring much more blonde hair in this instance to fully embrace the reality of being Ken. And what is there really to Ken as a character here? Well perhaps the most, but what Gosling does in the role in the first half of the film is "be funny", which sounds simple yet can be the greatest challenge of all. And I'll say even more challenging at times is when the silliness is ever present in the tone of the piece. As when everyone is goofing around being a little silly so how does one stand out? While just simply being the best at it. And as great as Gosling can be at internalized emotionally raw performances, he's also quite capable of extravagant ridiculousness. And what does Gosling do here, well basically what his performance is doing is looking for any excuse for comedy, and has much conviction in that. And Gosling proves himself to be an expert as such as just take the initial moments of Gosling's frustrated reactions as Robbie Barbie is distracted. Gosling has a particular brilliance here in always conveying what the character is going through just being funny when doing it, as here he sets up Ken's frustrations and the looks he gives about them are hilarious. Or his manner after attempting to go headfirst into a solid wave, Gosling's injured face is hilarious, his way of so meekly saying everything about his position as doing beach is proper comedy, his little petulant though also sweet smile when Barbie pays more attention to him is also funny, while also establishing his state of perpetually looking for any attention from Barbie. 

Gosling finds wonderful comedic variation that keeps Ken consistently fresh and importantly just funny in each interaction as early Ken, Barbie is just barely putting up with. And Gosling's performance is both over eagerness and a bit of a subversion of that eagerness. As towards Barbie it is always with a bright smile he looks at her with and every delivery of his with a bit of a baited breath hoping she's going to see him as more than the status quo, while outside of that Gosling bringing this desperate sneering anger when Barbie pays any attention to anyone else including alternate Ken played by Simu Liu. And it's all very funny while also establishing Ken in his state of need, which ends up attempting to help Barbie as she journeys to the real world to solve her existential crisis. Where again Gosling thrives in just his delivery of every line with that certain foolhardy enthusiasm when talking to Robbie. When asking him if he has his roller skates for example, and Gosling replies with the most sincere affirmation. When we get to the real world, where both find it isn't at all as they expect, their reactions are quite different with Ken becoming intrigued and Barbie getting lost. Gosling though is terrific in just making the most out of his reactions, as his eyes widen with excitement every time people notice him and he just exudes this unabashed joy at this whole new world that sees him. And special mention does need to be made out of the pictured image that symbolizes the first half of Gosling's performance. In that Ken getting his picture taken by the police could've been mildly amusing, but it is far funnier because of the extreme level of joyful silliness he manages to contain in a single ridiculous image as Ken poses for the image with as much joy as possible. And that's Gosling role of just bringing that conviction to the silliness in a way that works, he even convinces of Ken's naive acceptance of the patriarchy when presented to him, where Gosling's eye opening fascination is pitch perfect, as is then his most directly faulty delivery as he tries, and fails to get any job with this newfound sense of self-worth. And I would say some of these moments are fairly easy jokes that I might've not even liked if not for Gosling's delivery of them where he just believes in this Ken so convincingly that he makes even a lesser joke far greater through sheer will. 

We then shift to the next phase of Gosling's work where Barbie returns to Barbieland where Ken has transformed it with all the women subservient to the men due to Ken's exposure to the patriarchy. And Gosling shifts his comedic energy slightly as he plays this kind of nefarious quality as the mix of bitterness towards Barbie's lack of attention to him, while also now just owning his new philosophy. Gosling's performance switches particularly in his physical work, which is more aggressive and more grandiose within Ken's over the top full 80's Sylvester Stallone attire. And again Gosling owns it with confidence at certain moments, like putting on two sunglasses is a silly gag, but again what makes it funny is that Gosling's certainty and faux seriousness as he goes about each glasses sells the moment. Gosling successfully becomes this villain of sorts, while comedically as such, and that is both as the now dominating man brandishing his new found power, but also his outrage towards Barbie. Where Gosling's way of screaming out his distress is quite amusing in itself, and again not even necessarily funny in conception but made comic through Gosling's delivery of it that manages to never sacrifice where the character is either. The highlight of the section though is two songs, the first Ken's delivery of "Push" for four hours to serenade Barbie, where Gosling's singing even is funny through the slightly off squeaky over the top "rugged" sound along with his very intense joyful staring at Barbie the whole time. And of course "I'm Just Ken" where Gosling brings that song to life for all its worth as the ballad of all of Ken's sorrows and all his joys all beautifully performed by Gosling once again with such dramatic emphasis to every point of Ken's singular journey towards self-actualization...through the song's placement doesn't exactly make sense....but regardless it works in-spite of that, with a major reason why being Gosling once again. And the climax of the film, aka one speech after another. And if you maybe haven't noticed I took less to the film on re-watch, with the flaws I saw the first time becoming more present but liked everything Gosling did, including realizing Ken's ending. The ending of finally honestly speaking to Barbie who apologizes for taking him for granted, after Ken is at his lowest, which again Gosling does sorrow to an extreme, that makes the point while still being very amusing. BUT the final moment of just sort of finding his place again as a separate entity, Gosling earns this discovery of earnestness without any exception or bitterness at the end, and we see Ken become his own man. And while overall I don't love this film, Gosling's performance consistently sold the tone the best out of anyone in the cast, sold the humor by the far best and realized the most complete arc within the film.