Ken is the star of the movie because he is extremely relatable and human. barbie is a perfect robot who is discovering humanity: none of the audience members are perfect robots learning to be imperfect, we are all Kens trying to find intrinsic value in ourselves and self respect.

Ken’s the underdog. Everyone loves an underdog.

This video is necessary for those who don’t understand why he was nominated for Best Supporting actor. Great breakdown of his performance!

Ryan Gosling playing insecure & awkward... half of the internet: "he's literally me" 😂 (and this time it is true)

Ken is flawed. That is why people liked him. He has an actual arc while Barbie just learns that she was perfect to begin with. If you want people to resonate with a character you can’t make them perfect

Thank you for doing this cos i see a lot of people dismissing his Oscar nomination because it's a comedic performance not knowing how hard it is to do

When he put glasses on top of glasses I hollered 😂

I’m happy that Ryan Gosling received an Oscars nomination! He delivered a brilliant grade-A comedic performance. Comedic acting isn’t that easy. His delivery, timing, body language, and facial expression were great, subtle, smooth, and hilarious. He didn’t even try hard. He is mostly likely going to perform live at the Oscars too for I’m Just Ken lol. I’ll be watching.

“When the two threaten to beach each other off, they come” Absolutely lost it

Thanks for telling me I did good as Ken it means a lot (I’m literally Ryan Gosling)

Nutshell summary: Gosling is a genius and people are finally noticing. He's an excellent physical actor and funny as hell. Sidenote: He should win for his performance, but a special mention should go to his fantastic abs!! I mean, he *became* Ken. Serious props, and thanks for that, Ryan. Thank you.... 😉

IMO Barbie starts off as perfect and learns how to accept being imperfect, thus being human. Most humans by default understand that they’re flawed, they’re usually trying to cover it up. Ken’s character starts off as someone who clearly WANTS to be acknowledged by the person he sees as perfect, but is always stuck looking awkward or doing all the wrong things, at one point even doubling down and tossing the baby out with the bath water to try and deal with his insecurities - guess who’s more relatable to general audiences, male and female?

There was a reason Gretta and Marggot as produces were so persistent on getting him to accept the role of Ken. A perfect performance in every way

I think it's also worth highlighting the brilliance of the marketing tag line "he's just Ken". It really sets up the later "Kenough" line later so well

Gosling’s SNL performance in ‘Papyrus’ is legendary comedy. Highly recommended.

Happy to see The Nice Guys getting more praise over time! His performance in that movie turned me around on him as well. Great breakdown as usual!

Part of the reason RG's portrayal of Ken is so important is that in less capable hands, it'd be a horror show. Scene after scene, I was sitting there thinking of other movies (or news stories) where that was the point some guy went off the rails and became the stalker/user/bad-guy-perpetuating-the-cycle/etc. The balance of acknowledging negative emotions but not losing the humanity of a character was incredibly crucial to making this work.

Ryan Gosling is going to get an Oscar for this portray; - why because he’s Kenough ❤

Every single second beach ken was on screen was funny, like gosling delivered an all time comedy performance for exactly what you were pointing out and it was his body language. His delivery and tone is great of course but a grown man playing with the bus stop like it’s a jungle gym is ridiculous. I hope he wins best supporting actor (he won’t but a man can dream)

Ryan has a very self-depreciating understated sense of humor in real life, and not over-the-top like the usual comedians. That's what makes his delivery so subtle. He's the best guest on the Graham Norton Show

Thank you for properly crediting the musicians in your video description. Not enough people do that, and I really appreciate it.

Watching the movie in theaters, it felt (and still feels like), Ken was the *actual* main character of the film. He was the most proactive, had the biggest arc, and I was rooting so hard for him throughout the movie. His (relatable) pain is the FIRST we see, in a moment during the film in which everyone is happy - his initial beach scene and then the dance scene. His story had the most depth and the most layers and the most suffering. Unlike Barbie who was mostly just a passive damsel in distress that gains an “out” from her chaotic situation in the end (exiting Barbieland). Ken has to remain in his world AND figure out a way to make it work for him - to adapt, to change, to confront his pain and his desires, to endure, and to have important realizations in the end.

You pretty much nailed why I loved Ryan's performance better than I could have put it in words, just the subtle body language and quirks really help make his Ken feel like a multi-layered character that we can root for.

Hear me out, I think Ken is also more relatable because of the fact that, in a movie that wants to largely be about the societal imbalances between men and women, Ken is societally the "woman" of Barbie-Land. Barbie-Land is very much just "Patriarchy but what if it was women at the top instead of men" with the Kens acting as eye-candy and disposable accessories to the Barbies in the way that women are unfairly treated in our world. So, ironically, Ken feels more relatable than the Barbies as he's the one who's actually experienced gender-based oppression. Which is part of why the ending of the movie feels so offputting, because it's showing the individuals at the top of the hierarchy reasserting their control by pitting everyone at the bottom of the hierarchy against each other so that they can essentially subvert democracy by minimizing the Kens votes. It shows this as a "good thing" rather than the horrifying reality of how the disenfranchised are made to fight each other by the powerful so that they never realize they have enough power to shrug off their oppressors.

Gosling is the Harrison Ford of a new generation - Harrison can convey a whole sentence with just one glance or twitch of a facial muscle, and Gosling is the same......

After watching this video, my heart spoke to me. It tried to say something to me. I came to the burning realization that I’m... literally him

Ryan Gosling in the Nice Guys was what made me fall in love with him as an actor. His acting range is impeccable, he can literally do anything. When people thought he was going to be a horrible Ken, I was upset because I genuinely knew that he would be amazing just from how great he was in past comedies. I’m glad everyone ate their words. 😂

I SO agree with your analysis! After seeing Ryan Gosling as Ken, something in his performance resonated with me that made me want to go back to see all his previous movies. I found his performances amazingly subtle and nuanced, making me wonder why he hasn’t won more awards. He is such a gifted actor!

I love the high-concept, Rod Serling-style tragedy of Ken: a man created for the purpose of being in love with a woman who wasn't created to love him back. I see a lot of comments saying Barbie was too dismissive of him, and she absolutely was, but it's hard to entirely blame her, the humans in the real world created her for the sole purpose of being independent and inspiring little girls, it simply wasn't in her nature to do anything else. Even worse, despite calling him superfluous, she hangs around with Ken all the time and still refers to her and him as a duo, "Barbie and Ken", which only torments him even more. Again, this is awful, but Barbie isn't in control of this either, that's Mattel marketing them as a couple in the real world. It's created this impossible paradox of a relationship that's both unavoidable but also can't really happen and, until the end, Barbie has literally has no way of realising how harmful this is. I understand that this does make Barbie seem unsympathetic, but she does end up being humbled by the whole real world/Ken uprising experience. While all the other Barbies are celebrating getting control back, she looks sort of distant, like she's seeing the bigger picture of how uneven her world still is. She realizes how disrepectfully she had treated Ken and actually ends up listening to him and offering him genuine remorse and help in the end. And, yes, Barbieland goes back to being a matriarchy, Ken still isn't on equal footing with the Barbies and it's unfair. But now the Kens have a sense of self-worth, the Barbies are slowly but surely learning to show appreciation for them, and Ken stays there because now he knows he has the strength to find his place there eventually, just like how Barbie joins the patriarchal human world. They would both rather find their way in a unfair world, face real adversity and get through it by just being themselves, than have everything handed to them in a one-sided "perfect" world. Barbies and Kens overall aren't on the same page yet, but at least two of them are, and that's a good start. EDIT: Forgot to mention this, but while I think the reaction to Margot's snub is overblown (no offense to her, she was great, just not Best Actress great IMO), Greta Gerwig most definitely was snubbed for directing the movie. Ryan Gosling did such a great job because Greta had a clear idea of who Ken was as a character, knew that Gosling would be the only person to portray him properly and even trusted him to add his own touches and make the material even better. A great example of an actor and director totally understanding each other and being in-sync throughout the process, combining their skills to get the best possible result.

Yessss. He literally makes Ken character alive

Everything you said here is exactly why comedic acting 🎭 is far more difficult 😞 than people think 🤔. He has shown amazing comedic skills since Crazy 😜 stupid love.

I don’t think it would’ve made nearly as much money in the box office if it wasn’t for Ryan

I was so amused by Gosling and he was such a breath of fresh air throughout that I didn't even get the chance to fully appreciate these nuanced movements -- that startled reaction of covering his books is especially hilarious 😆 This was an awesome breakdown. It's always incredible to really observe the details of a fabulous performance, and comedy is truly so underrated I could listen for hours!

I love the Ken character. To me, a Ken in the matriarchy is sometimes how women appear/end up behaving in a patriarchy. I think this is why his character and the way its played resonated and was appreciated in a film about Barbie/strong female characters.

Thank you! The this uproar about Margot not getting an Oscar nod is ridiculous. Gosling's acting was out of this world.

Bro. Ryan Gosling man. HE IS. Him. I fucking Knew this movie was gonna be a BIG thing man. This Film was just a Perfect Mix of a lot of things.

Love your channel. This is exactly why Ryan's performace stood out and not Margot's. He was written differently and given more of an opportunity to shine. I've seen most of the performances for best actress and Margot was not snubbed she was simply out acted.

This was a great breakdown of his performance. The acting and writing combined to create by far the best part of the film.

Those of us who remember Ryan’s YOUNG HERCULES days know what a physical comedic actor he can be. Love him.

I went into this movie thinking the movie would be more tongue in cheek and fun with an underlying message that was deep and instead I (personally) got messaging shoved down my throat, watched the Barbies be unkind to the Kens, a convoluted plot line and overall movie that I left feeling flat about. Except for Ryan Gosling’s performance. It was a bright spot in the film.

Ryan was doing comedy when he was younger with "Breaker High" and "Young Hercules", so I was really happy to see him start doing comedies again. He's so good at it. I'm hoping for a "The Nice Guys" sequel.

Thank you. This was a very informative, observant-as-heck video essay. Kudos on how your voice echos back to news reels from way back. Kind of like a commercial from the 40’s or 50’s. Perfect for a Ken/Barbie review.

Ken seemed intriguing -- something dangerous underneath the surface. Some critics commented on a "predatory" quality -- both attractive and repellant. Partly because of his good looks, you'd want to approach him, yet at the same time need to keep away. Maybe because he knows he's good-looking, he can safely laugh at himself and the character he is playing.

Ryan, you ooze talent. You knocked it out of the park with Ken. Thank you for repeatedly entertaining us. Keep being you!!!

That scene where he was doing the manly cry, dudeee i was in tears, he made the movie bearable imo

Your 3 reasons why he’s so likable is really great and so true. A great way to easily sum up his performance and just how great it was

In the spirit of Barbenheimer, "How Cillian Murphy Perfected Oppenheimer" next? 😄

I don't know why this video was recommended to me, but I'm glad I saw it! This was excellent!!! And, I appreciate it because there have been several people complaining about Gretta and Margo not getting Oscar nods, while Ryan Gosling did. Your video perfectly speaks to WHY he was nominated. He really did turn in a nuanced, perfect performance. Margo was also great, but her role didn't require her to be much more than who she is as a person. Anyhoo, thanks for this video. It is excellent!!

Really enjoyable vid. Hilarious analysis of the subtle body language. Great work

Thank you for making a video on such an interesting topic and doing it justice. KZfaq video essays are so often the promise of intriguing analysis that proceed to be the most obvious and uninteresting takes ever heard. I think you’re spot on about boyish insecurity, and your observations of Goslings eye movements is so true!

Thanks for this! I appreciate Gosling's performance even more now, and feel like he truly deserved the Oscar nomination. Funny though, the more sympathetic Ken appears, the less sympathetic Barbie appears. I don't think Robbie deserved a nomination - she's pretty vapid throughout, even when she goes to the real world. It's difficult for an actor to remain sympathetic when he turns into a bully, but Gosling nailed it... and he can sing and dance!

When people ask how Ryan got an Oscar nomination but Margot didn't, show them this video. I always saw Ken's role as bigger than Barbie's. His arc has more depth, conflict, evolution. Honestly, anyone could've played Barbie. And they proved that by having EVERYONE play Barbie. But there was only one Ken in that movie.

My God, you've actually made me admire Ryan Gosling's acting ability.

You did an amazing job at showing us these minute and impeccable details. This is my first of your videos and I look forward to more of the same great work.

No matter how many times I see evidence of his incredible success, I’ll always remember him from Breaker High.

Great to see you back. This is a great channel

Glad this got more people to go back and watch Nice Guys.

While I initially stuck around because I was loyal to your old channel, I have to admit that your writing and editing has improved ten fold. I’m happy that you’ve found a permanent place in my subscription feed ❤️

Great video! Ryan’s Ken (& this video) would make great masterclass material for any comedic actor!

I mean.. I recall Ryan being on that 90s show Breaker High. He was always one of the funnier characters on the show. So it's not as if comedy is something new to him. It's great to see him get to exercise his acting chops in a wider variety of roles as opposed to being type cast from the notebook.

In depth study. It made me realize there is a little bit if Ken in all of us.

This is a wonderful analysis of Ryan’s sublime performance of Ken, it really did make the movie

I watched the Barbie and of course I love$ Ryan Gosling portrayal of Ken his childlike innocence was so spot on and lovable.

The idea of identifying yourself only through other people's affirmation and definition of you is something that girls and women, especially those of us who in no way resemble Margot Robbie, experience EVERY SINGLE DAY OF OUR LIVES until and unless we have our own "Ken is MEEEEE" moment and decide that we matter even other people (predominantly men) don't think we do. This is the whole point of America Ferriera's monologue, a point you apparently missed. What's brilliant about Ryan Gosling's Ken through the first half of the movie is how he mixes the desperation to please that girls are taught to do from an early age with the kind of "Mine's Bigger" macho posturing that he does with Simu Liu's "alpha Ken" (who is more the way men behave in normal life). Ken's journey ends with him not needing Barbie's affirmation anymore. He thanks her and presumably goes on to live a more integrated life, as do all the Kens -- even Simu Liu's, whose "Ken is Me" moment may very well be an epiphany for him too that he doesn't need to be competitive anymore. I had always avoided Ryan Gosling's movies ever since "The Believer" because honestly, he scared the living daylights out of me in that movie and I never really got over it. He wouldn't have been what I would have at first selected, but he was great here and now I want to go back and watch more of his work. Can we also please note about how Michael Cera's Allan is actually a more integrated and secure version of affirmative masculinity? He's overlooked by all the Kens because he's perceived as being "soft," not participating in the macho posturing of "Beach." But the Barbies include him in their parties even though he's still a bit on the outside, and they include him in their return to matriarchy. And yet...when he perceives that the "real world" women might be in danger, he single-handedly, in a kind of badassery that only buff action heroes usually get to play, beats the crap out of all of them for real, not with the stick horses (heh), nerf balls and purple nurples and noogies that the Kens use in their Epic Battle.

yet another insightful analysis from you. thank you.

Bro put actual film names in every short scene, THANK YOU

WOW! Eye opening, brilliant analysis of brilliant acting and writing! Superb choice of clips! Screening this in film class! Thank you!

Conclusion: he did an amazing job and deserves the nomination, well done Ryan.

Great video. Glad you are back.

This was super to listen to. I’m a costumer. I listen to lots of this kind of observational commentary. This was one of the best. I thought I was the only one that lived the nuances of Ken. Now I can see even more. Brilliant. I hope Ryan Gosling sees this. I’d love to hear his views.

Great video--TY. Gosling merely looking at people (ie his interaction with the nurse in The Other Guys) are some of the funniest scenes in recent memory

I still find it funny that in a movie about Barbie the best part is the male actor 😂

Perhaps the best comedic performance of this generation

Ryan has his acting roots in comedy. One of his earliest mainstream roles was as a teenager going to high school on a cruise ship. His character, Sean, along with best friend Jimmy were the bumbling, dorky comic reliefs against the typical teenage melodrama (except it’s on a boat!) that one would expect from a YA tv show.

I missed your videos! They are so thoughtful

This is a movie a didn't even bother to watch. But again after watching your analysis i want to see it. I think isbthe 3rd or 4th movie that i will watch after seeing your video analysis. You are doing an amazing job. Thank you for your videos.

Your video helps me to understand why, since the moment Barbie was released, I heard so much about how great Ken was In other videos, even from those which didn't like the movie, they analize other sides of him but they focus on Ken, and not on the actor

Well done thank you! This is exactly the tribute Ryan Gosling deserves!

You broke it down so well! this is why it made sense to me why he was nominated and deserve so :)

The movie literally gives so much love and care to ken as a character and people will still call it a feminist propaganda film.

Lol, he TOOK me OUT with that bench move. I was def in the theater like “✨😬✨If you don’t get out of here?!” Like a mom at a grocery store✨🤣✨

This is such a great breakdown and it put words to all the nuanced parts of his performance

Dude, Gosling has it all. He is an amazing actor with pure potential to be great and beloved. He is a superstar in my mind.

Goslings break out role was being 1/2 of the comedy relief duo on breaker high in the canadian teen sitcom "Breaker High"

well done. thank you. i love ryan's ken.

I was watching Blue Valentine the other day and thought to myself: this role doesn't work if it's not Ryan Gosling playing it, but quickly realized that this applies to most of the characters he portrayed.

Ryan did a lot of improvisation. He really added to the dialogue.

loved this video! spot on

Throughout his entire career, I always saw Ryan Gosling as the generic, Hollywood pretty boy of which Ryan Reynolds was designed to be the parody. In the Barbie movie, it was like he managed to parody himself, and it was simply glorious to behold.

Great break down. Its hard to put into words why someone is a good actor but when I was watching your video and you point out what the actor does with his eyes, it gave me a eureka moment.Good actors, intentionally or non-intentionally also give ther characters mannerisms. Its something I would have never noticed if you didn't point it out! Its the small things like that we don't realize is the things that slowly create a character as a real person

I still don't understand how people can call this movie "anti-men" when Ryan Gosling's performance was one of the most acclaimed part of this movie

Excellent breakdown of Gosling’s Ken performance! Interesting film. Personally, I wasn’t expecting it to be so deep. When I saw it, it was clear this movie takes on some incredibly complex themes - Matriarchy vs Patriarchy, gender/sexual, mental/emotional themes, etc… But it’s so visually striking and well art directed, there was too much to take in, in just one viewing. I think I’ll have to watch it again, viewing it from Barbie’s/women’s POV, then one more time, from Ken’s POV…

Great analysis, this is the video we need! Thanks 😊

When I was a kid I use to see Ryan in these roles on kid's TV shows playing these quirky, kinda mischievous and goofy characters and I've always loved those parts for him. Dude has great comedic chops in and off character.

I strongly believe that Ryan Gosling deserves the Oscar. Many think that Robert Downer Jr. should win. I don't entirely disagree, but the uniqueness of Ryan's touching and comedic performance is something very special!

A movie with a great song is a cinematic event, and gets repeat viewings.

This was a great analysis, thank you!

Great insight. I appreciate his efforts even more.

Plz go on the Ryan gosling rampage and do analysis on the place beyond the pines... Bladerunner 2049... And others of his movies plz

Ryan was part of the comic duo on Breaker High in his early career and I seem to remember the character being similar to Ken.