Blonde – Review
167 Minutes, Rated NC-17
Written for the screen and Directed by Andrew Dominik
**NOTE: you can read Mark’s thoughts below, then catch Ryan’s review HERE, before listening as they discuss Blonde in-depth.**
Synopsis:
Based on the bestselling novel by Joyce Carol Oates, Blonde boldly reimagines the life of one of Hollywood’s most enduring icons, Marilyn Monroe.
From her volatile childhood as Norma Jeane, through her rise to stardom and romantic entanglements, Blonde blurs the lines of fact and fiction to explore the widening split between her public and private selves.
Marilyn Monroe is one of the most iconic pop-culture figures who emerged from the Hollywood heyday of the mid-20th century.
If you’re going to make a movie about her, you’d better do it right.
Starting with the casting, at least, Blonde gets it right. Bobby Cannavale as the ballplayer (Joe Dimaggio) and Adrien Brody as the playwright (Arthur Miller) both capture the physical nature of their characters, and Ana de Armas… well, she throws herself into the role of Marilyn Monroe without fear or hesitation. She becomes Marilyn.
Glossing over (read: skipping) Norma Jeane Baker’s first marriage (one which arguably would have saved her life by depriving the world of Marilyn Monroe), we are instead treated to an interpretation of a novel which is, itself, a “reimagining” of Marilyn’s life throughout her career.
All of the important waypoints are here, from her two subsequent marriages to her relationship with John F Kennedy, to her various movies (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Seven Year Itch, etc.), but it is in the interludes where the surrealism begins.
Shot in (mostly) black-and-white, Blonde uses varying aspect ratios, which, once noticed, don’t seem to actually be consistent for any particular part of the film. That is, ratio X isn’t confined to “Norma Jeane” being at home with her husbands, ratio Y isn’t only used when she’s dealing with some trauma, etc.
It’s a visual mess, really.
As for the rest of it, those who enjoy trigger warnings should have been given some for drug use, alcohol, smoking, sexual content, rape, abortion, and mental illness.
Blonde wants to be all things to all people, it seems, and as a result can’t really settle into any consistency for the audience. Sure, I could sit here and bloviate about how this mirrors Norma Jeane’s declining mental and emotional state, but I feel like that would be giving writer/director Andrew Dominik far too much credit.
It feels simply like a film made to generate the most hype in the shortest time for the least actual payoff to the audience. Aside from de Armas’ performance, nothing here rises above mediocre. The controversial “first-fetus” POV depiction of an abortion exists solely to make people angry.
Without a greater purpose behind it, it’s sensationalism for sensationalism’s sake.
The same with the near X-rated depiction of her sex with JFK prior to the (highly) implied rape by him. The scenes are shot the way they are simply to titillate, while continuing to abuse Marilyn in the process.
And that’s no way to make a movie.
In the end, watch Blonde for de Armas’ performance, but know the rest of the film likely isn’t going to work for you, unless drug-enhanced mental illness is your thing.
Blonde is a waste of a great subject, a great performance, and is easily 30 minutes too long, regardless.
Blonde is now streaming exclusively on Netflix and stars Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Xavier Samuel, Julianne Nicholson, Lily Fisher, Evan Williams, Toby Huss, David Warshofsky, Caspar Phillipson, Dan Butler, Sara Paxton, and Rebecca Wisocky.
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