Blonde versus bombshell

In the pink corner, Greta Gerwig's Barbie movie. In the other, Christopher Nolan's epic Oppenheimer. Which will triumph in the box office smackdown?

- Ryan Gilbey

We live in divisive times. Opinion is more tribal and entrenched than ever, the value of reasoned argument and compromise plummeting by the day. This volatility could spread to the multiplex this month, where a battle of the blockbusters is destined to make previous cinematic standoffs - Mothra v Godzilla, Alien v Predator, Kramer v Kramer - look like playground games. Get ready, then, for Barbie v Oppenheimer.

Directed by celebrated auteurs (Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan respectively), and hyped by multiple trailers over the past year, both movies are scheduled to open on the same crowded day. This is one time to buy a physical ticket and save the stub to show your grandchildren. Future generations will want to know where you stood on 21 July 2023 when Barbie met the bomb.

In the pink corner is Gerwig's DayGlo toy story starring Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken, who while away their days happily but vacuously in Barbie-land. In a plot apparently borrowed from Enchanted and The Purple Rose of Cairo, with a dash of Don't Worry Darling, they swap their cosseted fairytale existence for our harsh modern world. (The trailer shows Barbie having her police mugshot taken after walloping a Venice Beach groper in the face.) The cast incorporates hot young things Issa Rae, Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Jamie Demetriou and, most excitingly, the new Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa, as well as old hands Michael Cera, Kate McKinnon and Will Ferrell; Helen Mirren is on narrating duties.