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New to Netflix and still in cinemas, Andrew Dominik’s Blonde has proved hugely divisive amongst audiences and critics.
Based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oates, the most important thing to know about Blonde is that it is fiction
– as are most Hollywood biopics but this one is upfront about it,
it’s not pretending to be anything else,
it’s not a biopic, it’s a fictionalised telling of the life of Norma Jean Baker, aka Marilyn Monroe.
’Diamonds are a girl's best friend,‘
As if to lean into that, the film seems to exist between dreams
'Norma Jean, wake up. Wake up.'
and is told in an impressionistic fashion,
‘It’s a jigsaw puzzle but you’re not the one to put it together’
stylised to the point where the characters seem to be presented rather than played naturalistically.
‘That thing up on the screen isn’t me’
As Monroe, Ana de Armas is freakishly convincing physically,
her accent does slip from time to time but it’s still a remarkable performance,
particularly given the character’s journey, which is a grim one.
'Baby is gone.'
Critic Mark Kermode has described the film as a horror
and you can certainly see that both in the imagery and in its story of an abused woman,
‘Sweet Jesus, look at the ass on that little girl.’
anatomised by her industry,
a victim of everyone from her mother to the president of the United States
'Am I glad to see you baby, it's been one hell of a day.'
in one of the film’s less subtle scenes.
Marilyn Monroe is the façade Norma Jean creates to protect herself,
but the façade itself then becomes a threat.
How does anybody live under this with the whole world staring, demanding of you,
yet also waiting for the mask to slip.
It’s a horrifying story and one that only works for Marilyn Monroe.
‘I know what it’s like’
He doesn’t. Nobody does.
Monroe has that near unique quality of being so well known yet utterly unknowable,
which makes the story work but is also the film’s weakness.
Extraordinary effort has been put into placing de Armas into the films but it creates a tug between accurate recreation and fiction
– it’s trying so hard to be real while being openly false.
And maybe that’s deliberate in a story preoccupied with the line between Marilyn and Norma Jean.
But for me it made the film feel uncertain about how it wanted to be perceived.
It is also long and quite ponderous in its pacing – it’s not a film with a lot of up and downs.
The larger problem I had was that its stylised lacked humanity.
Given how much she’s onscreen it’s surprising how little range Ana de Armas is given to explore the character,
to make her feel real.
'Thank you.'
My favourite scene was her meeting with Adrian Brody’s Arthur Miller because it was a rare moment of human connection
when Norma Jean felt like something other than a representation of a victim,
completely lacking in agency.
I do also find it problematic that in a film concerned with that strain between the created media image.
’The things they make up’
This adds yet another level.
This isn’t Marilyn, it isn’t Norma Jean, it is another exploitation of that image.
It felt as if we in the audience were complicit, emphasised by what felt like an unnecessary amount of nudity.
And that maybe deliberate, but it was uncomfortable, which again maybe deliberate,
it’s not mean to be comfortable viewing.
‘It’s crude and cruel and you know it’
I think, continue to be a divisive film.
It didn’t work for me but I am glad I watched it because while it says nothing about Marilyn Monroe,
it does say something about fame, and how we treat those we put on a pedestal.
'I love love love you all.'
Thanks for watching. What was your take on this divisive film?
And what Hollywood stars would like to see a biopic about?
Let us know in the comments below.