Movie Details
Movie: Blonde (2022)
Director: Andrew Dominik
Cast: Ana de Armas, Lily Fisher, and Julianne Nicholson
Genres: Romance/Thriller
Release date: 16 September 2022
IMDB Rating: 5.5/10
Language: English
Duration: 2h 46m
Trailer
Synopsis
Ana de Armas was recently asked in an interview if she felt her Hollywood story was similar to that of Marilyn Monroe. She replied yes to some extent. And indeed, from a girl of Latin American origin who could barely speak English when she applied for her first major audition, and who was perhaps too pretty for an actress, no one expected too much from the beginning of her career. But Armas, like Monroe, a girl from an orphanage without any background, managed to break these initial assumptions and quickly break through to the very top in Hollywood. In a short sequence, the likable The Cuban appeared in several big blockbusters such as Blade Runner 2049, No Time to Die, or The Gray Man, which she also added with significant roles in Knives Out or Sergio, only to now solidify this beauty scene with her quite possible life transformation into the iconic Marilyn. Well, it is she, above all, who pulls director Andrew Dominik’s new film up the most.
Blonde is based on the book of the same name by the writer Joyce Carol Oates, which presents a fictionalized view of the life of the famous actress. The novel even goes so far in several respects that people in the past called it a “disgusting sensationalization” of the worst of the Hollywood star’s life. If it happened at all. The story is perfect for a film adaptation. However, what did the creator of the unconventional western The Killing of Jesse James by a Coward, Robert Ford, forget that for the bad to stand out in someone’s life, the audience must also see the good at the same time? Unfortunately, you won’t find that here.
In addition, the film either automatically operates with the fact that you have studied Marilyn Monroe in detail, you are familiar with her fateful loves, films, and health problems, or its creator does not care and is deliberately trying to discourage anyone without in-depth knowledge of the life of the famous actress from watching, because here it tells the story chaotically, fragmentarily, without context, and on top of that, it is careful literal in its attempt to shock. For example, when in one scene Marilyn starts talking to her fetus, who begs her not to hurt him again.
What the film does, on the other hand, is to portray the acting icon of the last century and to this day one of the biggest sex symbols of all time as a bifurcated, totally broken, naive, and wild wreck with whom everyone did what they wanted, who entered the film industry through the bed and which roles fell into her lap purely because she had a nice ass. Which, as we know from other sources, is not entirely true, because Marilyn – real name Norma Jeane – was at the same time intelligent, talented, honestly worked hard, and took her career very seriously. But you won’t learn any of that here, because most of the time Dominik just formally masturbates over how many different film means he can capture someone’s ruin.
In several explicit scenes, for example, the image shakes when Marilyn has sex, or on the contrary, the camera moves along with Marilyn performing oral sex. Most of the time, however, we watch a black-and-white picture in the 4:3 format, which was probably intended to show a kind of depressive despondency of the main character. However, the truth is that the only thing Dominik is consistent about is the sheer inconsistency and incoherence of his film. Lovers of art festival movies will understandably try to find something more in it, but the vast majority of people will give up such an effort after the first 10 minutes, which for me represented probably the greatest terror. Later, fortunately, several ideas were successfully transformed into quite strong scenes (the one with the talking fetus is not one of them), which will stay with you for some time after the end. Otherwise, it’s just an increasingly sad mess of impressively shot sequences depicting the spiraling decline of a struggling actress dealing with a whole range of traumas, swallowing pills for nothing, barely able to get out of bed. However, yes, it’s often taken breathtakingly, there’s no question about it.
As a commentary on current and past Hollywood, this biography works only partially, especially at a time when #MeToo has swept most of the crap from show business into the light, because the behavior of the men around Marilyn rarely surprises anyone, let alone shocks. In most cases, on the contrary, it acts as another artificial attempt to evoke negative emotions in the viewer towards the film, and thus towards the creator himself. At the same time, when it should finally come to real emotions, i.e. at the end of the film, most people will probably remain completely cold, because this fragmented vision of the life of the legendary Ms. Monroe simply never offers anything deeper to latch on to, to root for, or to make you feel sorry for how hard she’s had it. In short, the picture is too detached for that.
Which brings us back to the main character. It is one of the few factors that infuses this biography with at least some blood. As I mentioned in the introduction, Armas performs his life here. Watching her with a blonde wig on her head and a freckle on her face, which sparkles and radiates a specific charm during the movie scenes, but also a certain amount of vulnerability, was like watching the real Marilyn brought to life with the help of cinematic black magic. There is nothing to criticize the actress for. She put everything into it, after all, she put everything into it since the preparation and the result is really visible. Also worth mentioning is the great Adrien Brody as the playwright Arthur Miller or Julianne Nicholson, who played the mentally unstable mother of Norma Jeane.
The musical component, which was once again provided to Dominik by the musician Nick Cave, must be praised in the same way, and just like in the case of Jesse James, they hit the nail on the head again. Quite possibly an adept for the soundtrack of the year. Unfortunately, this time it was simply not accompanied by as complete a film experience as it would have been offered given the ambitions of all those involved. A gloomy atmosphere, would-be controversial scenes, and naked Ana de Armas strangely do not make a good film by themselves. For this, it is necessary, if not to meet the viewer, then at least not to drive him away unnecessarily. Which, considering the nearly three-hour footage for a film conceived in this way, was perhaps the only goal that comes to mind.
At the same time, I struggled with the fact that I wanted to enjoy the movie. Not as a cheerful and traditionally conceived biography of a well-known actress, on the contrary – the more exciting, the better! However, Blonde is not about the story at all, and I am afraid that it is often not even about Marilyn herself. A metaphor, a message, a message, the triumph of form over content – call it what you will, for me, it’s an example of an unhinged ego that made even the strongest moments on paper sound flat and artificial. After watching it, I had the impression as if I had stepped out of the exposition of a famous photographer who took a series of portraits of a famous person. But there were only about ten of them in the whole room, and although they were all provocative and impressively captured, they told me the minimum about the man’s life.
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