It's important to remember going into Andrew Dominik's Blonde that it isn't about Marilyn Monroe the person, really. It's about Marilyn Monroe the idea. What's clear after watching Blonde, which the filmmaker behind The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford has spent a decade trying to make, is that he doesn't really see any humanity in either. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Joyce Carol Oates, Blonde weaves together extravagant cinematic artifice with a gruelling, cruel portrayal of one of our most iconic movie stars. For the unaware, the bubbly Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend version of the iconic silver screen beauty is nowhere to be found herein. This is, rather, a Netflix movie that reduces Marilyn to the sum total of the child abuse, mental illness, rape, sexism, abortion, drugs, and physical abuse from at least one husband that all, yes, conspired to her set her hurtling toward a destructive end. Unfortunately, in Dominik’s hands, that’s pretty much all that Blonde is. The movie tries to say something, I suppose, about the litany of evils Marilyn had to endure by, paradoxically, forcing the viewer to wallow in it all. And I do mean all of it. Or, more specifically, all of the things I mentioned above. Netflix, up to this point, had already been pushing right up against the line with the degree of raunchiness it allows to exist on the service. The streamer’s 365 Days franchise, for example, is softcore porn for all practical purposes. As for Blonde, Dominik told Vulture he felt “surprised” by the NC-17 rating, since he’d thought “we’d colored inside the lines.” “Americans are really strange when it comes to sexual behavior, don’t you think?” Dominik continued in that interview. Oh please, come on guy. “People are uncertain about where any lines are” You knew exactly what you were doing when, during an abortion scene in Blonde, you made it seem as though the camera was inside Marilyn’s vagina and we were watching as a doctor’s tongs slowly entered the foreground. You knew what you were doing when you had Marilyn raped onscreen multiple times, and during a sex scene with JFK toward the end of the movie that was basically porn. Or when we saw a drugged-up Marilyn vomiting into the toilet, except the camera was pointed up at Marilyn so that it looked like she was heaving onto us, the audience. “We’re in a time now, I think, where people are really uncertain about where any lines are,” Dominik added in that Vulture interview. That’s the same director, mind you, who when it comes time for the infamous city street scene in Blonde, when Marilyn’s dress is blown upwards decides to luridly drag that moment out. To have her dress keep blowing up and down, up and down, and to then slowly zoom the camera in on what she’s wearing underneath. “I’m not concerned with being tasteful,” Dominik told Sight and Sound.
Ana de Armas Oscar-worthy performance
I’d be remiss, meanwhile, if I didn’t say a word about the fearless performance Ana de Armas gives in Blonde. It’s not just the uncanny resemblance, or the mannerisms she mimics or even the work she did to hide (not completely, but almost) her Spanish accent. She disappears, wholly and completely, into this character.
It’s just a shame that praising her work gives me pause. Because to do so is to inadvertently praise a movie that at times seems like its whole goal is simply to make you, the viewer, feel as uncomfortable as possible. Again and again and again.
From a technical standpoint, this Netflix movie is a masterpiece. But when you’re not looking away in horror, it’s hard not to feel like the content of the film in front of you is really just exploiting Marilyn all over again, under the guise of wagging a scolding finger at that exploitation. You have been warned.
Why is Blonde NC-17?
Where to begin. Multiple explicit sex scenes. An abortion scene, in which the camera appears to be looking out from Marilyn’s vagina, as a doctor’s tongs approach the viewer. Multiple rapes. A scene involving Marilyn and JFK too explicit to describe here. All of that, and more, no doubt played a part.
What time is Blonde released on Netflix?
Blonde will be available at 12 am Pacific Time on Wednesday, September 28.
Is Blonde based on a true story?
The movie is adapted from Joyce Carol Oates’ novel, Blonde. The novel, and the Netflix movie, are not straightforward biographies, but rather a narrative “reimagining” of the starlet’s life.
Are there any Marilyn Monroe movies on Netflix?
In April 2022, Netflix released The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes a documentary directed by Emma Cooper.
