Blonde review: Marilyn Monroe biopic is dull trauma porn with no idea what it’s trying to say
2 years, 2 months ago

Blonde review: Marilyn Monroe biopic is dull trauma porn with no idea what it’s trying to say

The Independent  

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Get our The Life Cinematic email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. I’ll tell you who isn’t a girl’s best friend: Andrew Dominik, the writer-director of Blonde, a merciless, dull, over-long riff on Marilyn Monroe. Based on Joyce Carol Oates’s sprawling 700-page novel, which offers a fictionalised version of Monroe’s life, the script consists of the star saying things like, “she’s pretty, I guess, but she isn’t me” or, “I guess there isn’t any Norma Jeane, is there”. The film flits between scenes in colour and black and white, inserting real events like her marriages and film roles, with invented ones, such as a threesome with Charlie Chaplin’s son and Edward G Robinson Jr. As Monroe, Ana de Armas has an edgy, nervous energy. Aside from some meticulously choreographed recreations of film scenes, some unimaginative looming paparazzi shots and some billboards, Monroe’s world feels hermetically sealed.

History of this topic

Essay: On the continuing fascination with Marilyn Monroe
1 year, 9 months ago
Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde is based on this bestselling book
1 year, 10 months ago
How hair, makeup and costumes all came together to re-create Marilyn Monroe in ‘Blonde’
2 years ago
How the intensity of shooting ‘Blonde’ put Ana de Armas in the Marilyn Monroe mind-set
2 years, 1 month ago
Ana de Armas thanks fans for watching Blonde as it becomes #1
2 years, 2 months ago
Blonde: Marilyn Monroe fans hit out at ‘disgusting’ and ‘degrading’ JFK scene in Netflix movie
2 years, 2 months ago
Andrew Dominik: Joyce Carol Oates defends Blonde director’s screenplay as ‘remarkably feminist’
2 years, 2 months ago
Blonde: ‘Horrified’ Netflix viewers turn off Marilyn Monroe drama after just 20 minutes
2 years, 2 months ago
Blonde actor Julianne Nicholson: ‘I feel I need to discourage my family from watching the movie’
2 years, 2 months ago
How much of Blonde is true? What is fact and fiction in the Netflix Marilyn Monroe film?
2 years, 2 months ago
Blonde: Adrien Brody says Blonde is supposed to be a ‘traumatic experience’
2 years, 2 months ago
Marilyn Monroe Film 'Blonde' Gets Backlash For 'Cruel' Portrayal, 'Anti-abortion' View
2 years, 2 months ago
Blonde review: A nightmarish, unsettling reimagining of Marilyn Monroe's life
2 years, 2 months ago
Blonde movie accuracy: fact vs. fiction in Netflix’s Marilyn Monroe biopic with Ana de Armas.
2 years, 2 months ago
Ana de Armas' Blonde simply passes Marilyn Monroe on a conveyor belt of abusive men | Review
2 years, 2 months ago
Blonde director says he wasn’t ‘concerned with being tasteful’ in his depiction of Marilyn Monroe’s abortion
2 years, 2 months ago
Blonde: All Marilyn Monroe movies are exploitative. But the new Netflix movie actually shows you inside her vagina
2 years, 2 months ago
Joyce Carol Oates says Marilyn Monroe went through ‘much worse’ than anything in Blonde
2 years, 2 months ago
Review: ‘Blonde’ isn’t really about Marilyn Monroe. It’s about making her suffer
2 years, 2 months ago
Marilyn Monroe fascination comes to Netflix with ‘Blonde’
2 years, 3 months ago
Ana de Armas says she visited Marilyn Monroe’s grave ‘a few times’ while filming Blonde
2 years, 3 months ago
Why Marilyn Monroe is the world's most misunderstood icon
2 years, 3 months ago
Blonde: Ana de Armas finds it ‘disgusting’ and ‘upsetting’ that her nude scenes will ‘go viral’
2 years, 3 months ago
Ana de Armas says it's 'disgusting' that nudity from Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde will 'go viral'
2 years, 3 months ago
Ana de Armas and boyfriend Paul Boukadakis arrive in NYC amid praise for star's Marilyn Monroe role
2 years, 3 months ago
Ana de Armas says once she got into costume as Marilyn Monroe she felt the icon
2 years, 3 months ago
Netflix's new movie Blonde is SLAMMED for featuring scene in which JFK RAPES Marilyn Monroe
2 years, 3 months ago
Review: Ana de Armas digs deep as Marilyn in brutal ‘Blonde’
2 years, 3 months ago
Ana de Armas Reveals She Was Haunted By Marilyn Monroe on Blonde Set: ‘She Would Throw Things Off...’
2 years, 3 months ago
Ana de Armas believes Marilyn Monroe haunted Blonde sets: ‘She would get mad…’
2 years, 3 months ago
Blonde: Ana de Armas tears up as Adrien Brody praises her ‘remarkable’ portrayal of Marilyn Monroe
2 years, 3 months ago
Blonde film review: A 'hellish rereading of the Marilyn myth'
2 years, 3 months ago
Ana de Armas never expected to play Marilyn Monroe. The opportunity changed her life
2 years, 3 months ago
Ana de Armas' Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde may 'offend everyone': director
2 years, 4 months ago
Netflix’s Blonde: Why is the Marilyn Monroe biopic, starring Ana de Armas, proving so divisive?
2 years, 4 months ago
Marilyn Monroe's estate stands behind casting of Ana de Armas in Blonde ... after pushback from fans
2 years, 4 months ago
Blonde: Fans accuse Ana de Armas Netflix film of ‘exploiting Marilyn Monroe’
2 years, 4 months ago
We are all Marilyn Monroe – Blonde proves it
2 years, 4 months ago
Ana de Armas shows the dark life of Marilyn Monroe in Netflix's Blonde. Trailer out
2 years, 4 months ago
Ana de Armas opens up about being a Cuban actress tackling the role of screen siren Marilyn Monroe
2 years, 5 months ago
Adrien Brody predicts ‘there’ll be some controversy’ with Netflix’s Marilyn Monroe biopic
2 years, 6 months ago
Blonde Teaser Out: Ana de Armas is a Spitting Image of Hollywood Icon Marilyn Monroe
2 years, 6 months ago
Blonde teaser out: Ana de Armas recreates Marilyn Monroe moments in this monochrome drama
2 years, 6 months ago
Blonde teaser: Ana de Armas transforms into Marilyn Monroe in monochrome drama
2 years, 6 months ago
Marilyn Monroe Biopic: Ana de Armas' Blonde Misses Out On Cannes, Will It Head To Venice Now?
2 years, 7 months ago

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