Ryan Gosling’s Ken — like most white men his age — loves a good Nineties band. In Barbie, which was released Friday, Gosling performs an emotional guitar rendition of “Push,” the song by Matchbox Twenty in a particularly low moment for his character’s narrative and his relationship with Barbie.
“And I feel like something’s gonna give/And I’m a little bit angry, well,” he sings with a twang of desperation. “This ain’t over, no, not here/Not while I still need you around/You don’t owe me, we might change, yeah.”
The song is part of a Best Weekend Ever iteration of Barbie the Album, which also features a duet between Brandi Carlile and her wife Catherine of Indigo Girls’ “Closer to Fine,” and which dropped Friday morning.
In one part of the Barbie movie, Gosling’s Ken gets the rest of the Kens to perform acoustic versions of “Rush” for their Barbies. It’s all intentional, according to director Greta Gerwig.
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“I will say there were many notes, many notes sessions on all fronts, but the thing is that anything that have in a movie, any reference — and we reference The Godfather, Matchbox Twenty, Dave Matthews Band — I love all of it,” Gerwig told IndieWire. “I never put anything in a movie I don’t love, and that’s true. I don’t really have use for things that I don’t have affection for, within a movie. That was the core of it.”
Gosling’s “Rush” arrives after the release of Barbie the Album’s original edition, which included standout songs like “Butterflies” by Gayle, “Hey Blondie” by Dominic Fike, and “Journey to the Real World” by Tame Impala. (Songs by Dua Lipa, Karol G, PinkPantheress, Nicki Minaj, and Ice Spice had released previously as singles.)
