COLUMN: 'Barbenheimer' In Tuscaloosa & Why I Love Cultural Phenomena

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No, I can’t even recall the last in-theater movie I went to with my Dad. Weirdly enough, he’s seen “Phantom of the Opera” on Broadway and would listen to the intense soundtrack while doing police work, so he’s more refined than he’d like to put on.

Conversely, the last time my Mama took me to the movies was to see the regrettable “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” at the also since-closed Bama Six theater. The point is, I remember the movie with her not for its merits, but because I was with my Mama. We made memories, even if it was just people watching and griping about the movie after the fact.

And don’t be fooled. The wrong set of eyes around my Dad, brother and I might get the impression we are in some weird brain-washed cult or have some secret language because of the movie and television quotes we will randomly throw out in open conversation to prove a point or just out of the blue to get a laugh.

I know we’re not the only ones out there — surely your family has them, too.

“O Brother, Where Art Thou?”

“Raising Arizona”

“Major League”

“Tombstone”

For example, I could walk up to my 6’4″ baby brother at a funeral and, in a wimpy and sexually suggestive voice, quote Johnny Ringo from the 1994 western “Tombstone” saying “alright lunger, let’s do it,” and we would both cackle like idiots.

That’s one of the beautiful things that often goes under-appreciated when discussing the cultural impact of cinema.

But here’s the only spoiler I’ll offer from “Oppenheimer” and my brother will vouch for it. It was the creepy kind of thing that makes you wonder about the telekinetic powers of brothers.

Nevertheless, it was a detail I quietly noted in the movie before saying anything, then waited for a second look so I could confirm.

Near the very end of the movie, a cosmetically aged Cillian Murphy as the physicist and titular character closely resembled actor Michael Keaton.

I provide this anecdote because I want you to see for yourself and let me know what you think. But after processing the scene, my brother and I immediately turned to each other and both said “he looks like Michael Ke—” … then our eyes got big, we quickly sat back in our seats and dropped the conversation before it started.

Very much to his credit, Dad also agreed to participate in the first leg of what will go down as one of the biggest movie opening days in cinema history with the double feature of “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie.”

My brother and I joked about how we couldn’t take him anywhere. Indeed, Dad’s phone went off twice during the film and, at one point, he dropped it on the floor. More precious memories.

In real life, Oppenheimer was the rock star the movie portrayed him to be. Indeed, his photo was featured above the fold on the front page of the Aug. 8, 1945 edition of the Tuscaloosa News — the day before the second atomic bomb was dropped on Japan.

The rain ripples in a pond shown in repeated cut scenes throughout the “Oppenheimer” movie serve as a metaphor for nuclear chain reactions while underscoring realities from our modern age that Oppenheimer foresaw.

This, as the movie closes with another cut scene of the pond ripples quickly contrasted by a scene of a blue sky split by dozens of exhaust trails from hypothetical Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) — a chief fear mentioned multiple times in the movie through a subtle creative lens.

At the conclusion of the three-hour epic, Dad loved the movie and didn’t call it “woke” or politicized — the most accurate barometer I could have asked for. Chalk it up as a win.

But none of this is the point.

We laughed our asses off together, mostly about things completely unrelated to the movie. Dad was in on the fun, too.

Since I organized the extraordinary excursion and bought his ticket, he agreed to buy snacks. On the drive to the theater, he told his two grown passengers, “I’m gonna do it like I did when y’all were kids at the arcade. Today, I got a $100 bill and y’all can have fun ’til it’s gone.”

We joked that it was more like a $20 bill when we were kids, but we laughed the entire ride to the theater. For just a few minutes, we were all young again.

The movie was great, sure. We all enjoyed it, but I’d wager we enjoyed each other’s time more than anything else.

The three of us ravenously debated the entire ride home over the history, politics, and ethics of the movie. Debate is our favorite sport as a family and it scares some people if they aren’t familiar with what’s going on when we get into one of our regular verbal altercations.

And a movie like “Oppenheimer” gave us plenty more of those experiences.

I told my Dad I loved him before he drove off and I spent the next couple of hours decompressing for the biggest pivot in modern cinema history — a same-day showing of the expected blockbuster “Barbie” movie.

I have a family of my own now, dominated by estrogen with two females in the house, so I figured I would just go for broke, get us tickets to “Barbie” on the same day, and have the entire now-viral “Barbenheimer” experience.

Even in my own family, movies are an important part of our lives. Loading up the wagon and making the trip to see a movie has been a regular thing for us for years.

All that being said, “Barbie” was poised to be a big deal for a little girl who — even in this overly digital hellscape of 2023 — has lost a pirate’s fortune in Barbie accessories to the vacuum cleaner.

CMX Hollywood 16 theater was packed when we arrived for the 7 p.m. showing — a sea of humanity, noticeably marked by people of all shapes, sizes, colors, and socio-economic backgrounds wearing pink.

They were spending money, socializing and enjoying life. A crowd of excited people not at a football game or on The Strip. Regardless of your political leanings, it should do a heart good to see such a busy scene on a Friday night in America.

For the first time since the turn of the decade that brought the COVID-19 pandemic, things felt like they were actually back to normal — even if just for a few hours.

The Kid laughed the entire movie. The slapstick comedy was wonderfully produced and resembled “The Brady Bunch Movie” or a “A Very Brady Sequel” in its parody of iconic pop-culture themes and characters.

The film is nowhere near as politicized as some in the Peanut Gallery would have you believe and it confronts numerous apolitical issues faced by kids and adults alike in everyday life, with the overarching themes of individuality, family and self-worth.

I’m a culture snob, so for me to say I enjoyed the movie is likely to surprise many. Yes, those closest to me will attest I’m not a fan of much on television or most movies. I widely detest television news, goofy fantasy books and pop music played on the radio.

So that’s my endorsement: If a snobbish cynic such as myself can enjoy such a movie, you’re likely to at least get a few chuckles from the pop-culture references and parody humor that’s sure to make “Barbie” a box office success.

But, again, we as a family laughed, bonded and participated in a moment that will go down as a revolutionary innovation in cinema with highly contrasted blockbusters being released on the same day.

It’s something we will remember years from now — because we did it together. A few dollars for some movie tickets and popcorn is a small price to pay for memories that will last a lifetime.

Ryan Phillips is an award-winning journalist, editor and opinion columnist. He is also the founder and field editor of Tuscaloosa Patch. The opinions expressed in this column are in no way a reflection of our parent company or sponsors. Email news tips to ryan.phillips@patch.com.

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