DIRECTOR: Andrew Dominik
CAST: Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Xavier Samuel, Julianne Nicholson, Caspar Phillipson, Toby Huss, Sara Paxton, David Warshofsky, Evan Williams, Michael Masini, Luke Whoriskey, Spencer Garrett, Rebecca Wisocky, Ned Bellamy, Eric Matheny, Catherine Dent, Haley Webb, Eden Riegel, Patrick Brennan, Garret Dillahunt, Scoot McNairy, Lucy DeVito, Chris Lemmon, Dan Butler, Lily Fisher
RUNNING TIME: 166 mins
CERTIFICATE: 18
BASICALLY…: A fictionalised rendition of the tragic inner life of Norma Jeane, better known to the world as Marilyn Monroe (de Armas)…
NOW FOR THE REVIEW…
Blonde, from writer-director Andrew Dominik, is not a Marilyn Monroe biopic. It feels weird to declare this, because the life and career of the Hollywood icon is absolutely at the centre of it, and it covers a lot of ground when it comes to her highs and lows – mostly lows – but to call it a biopic in the traditional sense would be akin to calling Inglourious Basterds a war documentary.
So, if it’s not a biopic, what is it then? That depends on who you ask: to Dominik and author Joyce Carol Oates, who wrote the original book of the same name, it’s a piece of work that certainly fictionalises Monroe’s life but frames it as an unflinching commentary on the ruthless exploitation of such starlets that have been thrust into the public consciousness; but to roughly 50% of critics and almost 100% of Twitter, it’s an exploitation piece in and of itself that uses shock tactics and trashy storytelling to do more harm than good to the dignity of Marilyn Monroe’s star power.
If you were to ask me, however, I would say that both of these opposing views add up to the fact that Blonde is actually a horror film that happens to be about Marilyn Monroe. It is suitably dark, grim, disturbing, and at times frightfully unhinged, all while telling a story of chilling human psychosis that, in its own way, makes it scarier than some of the actual horror movies that have come out this year. Is it as exploitative as people have been saying it is? Yes, absolutely; but if one looks at it from a horror movie angle, and not as a biographical film like a lot of people are undoubtedly going to mistakenly do, suddenly its extreme nature and penchant for some seriously messed-up visuals make a lot more sense.
The film, and I do feel like this needs to be reiterated at regular intervals, is a fictional retelling of the life of Norma Jeane Mortenson (Ana de Armas), who after a rough childhood with her mentally ill mother (Julianne Nicholson) – who introduces young Norma Jeane to a framed picture of an unknown man that she declares is her father – becomes the famed pin-up model and later movie star Marilyn Monroe. Throughout, she experiences one horrific thing after another on her road to fame and glory – harassment, sexual assault, domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, one or two abortions; you name it, she goes through it – all while she yearns for someone to see her not as the sultry sex symbol “Marilyn” but as the helpless, tormented and utterly lost young woman Norma Jeane.
Dominik’s film, which the filmmaker had spent more than a decade developing, is relentless in its victimisation of the central figure, to a point where you can convincingly argue that it forcibly drills at Marilyn Monroe’s tragic story for shock value, and therefore contributes to the exploitative nature that led to her eventual demise in real life. After all, this is a movie where her fictional counterpart is brutally raped by studio executives (and once by this universe’s rendition of President John F. Kennedy), ogled at by every man who walks past her, beaten relentlessly by one of her husbands, almost drowned by her mentally unstable mother, and forced to undergo a couple of abortions, presented at one point from a POV shot of her vagina. The character herself is often written as a helpless and submissive victim, one with severe psychological issues relating to a lack of formidable parental love (to a point where she creepily calls her spouses “daddy”), is regularly shown nude in a number of key scenes, and who crucially lacks agency in a narrative that revolves around her own issues and torment. Dominik is clearly interested in exploring the separation between Norma Jeane and Marilyn Monroe – a focus that is apparently explored a lot more in Oates’ novel – but aside from a precious few moments where you do see that internal struggle, such as a scene with a mirror that is undeniably haunting, his film seems to get itself off more on tormenting this thinly written character all the way to her untimely death. It is all about giving the viewer this horrifying experience that may not contain any jump-scares or supernatural monsters, but feels through and through like a horror movie in artistic, but no less exploitative, fashion.
As uncomfortable as it can often feel to watch, Blonde is a film that I just don’t hate, or even dislike all that much. It’s not something I would ever want to watch again, because it is so extreme and draining of the soul, but I have to commend the film for taking all these risks and refusing to compromise on its harsh vision. Dominik is such a visceral, and visual, filmmaker that sometimes the most unsettling imagery can look absolutely beautiful when it wants to be, and you can tell that this has been a passion project for him from day one because there is not a single shot in its expansive three-hour running time that feels wasted or lazy. It is stylistically a flawless movie, with the bleak black-and-white (and sometimes colour) cinematography capturing the sheer brutality and misery of this person’s existence, and of course Ana de Armas’ central performance is breath-taking. Any qualms you might have about her accent slip away fast; she simply becomes Marilyn Monroe, but is no mere impersonation either, as the actor dives as deep as she can into this fictional rendition to find the rawest of emotions to deliver a turn that neatly compliments the haunting nature of this production.
Make no mistake, though; Blonde is a horror film, and not a biopic. It’s certainly a flawed horror movie, with thin characterisation and plotting underneath an exploitative and sometimes nasty tone, but nothing out right now seems scarier than what this fictional version of Marilyn Monroe has to go through.
SO, TO SUM UP…
Blonde is a bold and unflinching (but very much fictional) portrayal of the life of Marilyn Monroe, which is beautifully made by filmmaker Andrew Dominik and features a bravura lead turn by Ana de Armas, but its exploitative and often cruel nature towards its central figure makes it more akin to a horror film than a biographical drama, and contains some truly disturbing material that will understandably divide viewers.
