Blonde

NC-17

9/16/20222h 47m

Theatrical (limited) Release (US)

~ Watched by all, seen by none. ~

Overview:

From her volatile childhood as Norma Jeane, through her rise to stardom and romantic entanglements, this reimagined fictional portrait of Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe blurs the lines of fact and fiction to explore the widening split between her public and private selves.

Director:

Andrew Dominik

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$22,000,000.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Key words:

suicide
rape
husband wife relationship
based on novel or book
pregnancy
overdose
psychological stress
exploitation
biography
celebrity
psychological abuse
fame
domestic violence
hollywood
los angeles, california
mental illness
reality vs fantasy
substance abuse
starlet
traumatic childhood
1950s
1960s
mother daughter relationship
absent father

Cast

Ana de Armas

~ as ~

Norma Jeane / Marilyn Monroe

Adrien Brody

~ as ~

The Playwright

Bobby Cannavale

~ as ~

The Ex-Athlete

Sara Paxton

~ as ~

Miss Flynn

Lucy DeVito

~ as ~

Ex-Athlete's Niece

Julianne Nicholson

~ as ~

Gladys

Scoot McNairy

~ as ~

Tommy Ewell / Richard Sherman

Xavier Samuel

~ as ~

Cass Chaplin

Caspar Phillipson

~ as ~

The President

Evan Williams

~ as ~

Eddy G. Robinson Jr.

View full cast & crew

Reviews (5)

CinemaSerf
Written 3 year(s) ago
6
What a truly disappointing film this is. It offers us a really slow, sterile and disjointed - almost episodic - depiction of just how Marilyn Monroe's life might have panned out. For a start, I couldn't decide whether Ana de Armas was really Lady Gaga or Scarlett Johansson (both of whom would have acquitted themselves better, I'd say) as she offers an admittedly intense, but remarkably uninvolved performance. We move along from chapter to chapter in her life hindered by some fairly weak and uninspiring dialogue and seriously intrusive scoring in what becomes an increasingly shallow and lacklustre fashion. The photography does try hard - it does offer us a sense of intimacy, but the whole thing is presented in such a stylised and un-natural manner that it is frequently difficult to tell whether she is/was a "real" woman. Her marriages are treated in an almost scant manner - and her relationship with JFK is reduced to something rather implausibly one-sided and sordid showing nothing of how their relationship might have come to be. It has no soul, this film. Aside from her glamour - which was, even then, hardly unique we are not really introduced to any of the nuances of her character, we are left guessing a lot of the time as to just how she did become such a superstar, and how she spiralled so inevitably into a maelstrom of booze and pills. It relies to a considerable extent on the viewer's existing knowledge of, and affection for, this flawed lady. Adrien Brody and Bobby Cannavale don't really have much chance to add anything as her husbands and the highly speculative relationship between her and Charlie Chaplin Jnr (Xavier Samuel) and his sexually ambiguous partner-in-crime Edward G Robinson Jr (Scoot McNairy) does suggest something of the rather profligate and debauched existence that some lived in Hollywood, but again their characters are also largely undercooked and again, we are largely left to use our own imagination. It is far, far too long and in a packed cinema, I could see people looking at the ceiling just once too often. Watchable, certainly, but a real missed opportunity to offer us something scintillating and tantalising about this most of iconic of women.
Martín Acosta
Written 3 year(s) ago
4
In the middle of 2022, the movie I was looking forward to the most was 'Blonde', but... I'm really disappointed.

The film has nowhere to hold on, it's just a fictional compilation of the supposed life of Marilyn Monroe, where we don't get context and it's easy to get lost through the scenes and the large number of characters (which if you didn't know the story, you wouldn't really know who they are) of a feature film of almost three hours. The direction is good, although quite experimental where sometimes elements that seem to come out of nowhere are combined. Not to mention the constant switching between color and black/white that doesn't seem to represent anything concrete.

Ana de Armas's performance is brilliant, by far the best of the film, despite how poor her character is.

I'm really disappointed, in these times we live in, designing a movie about Marilyn Monroe could have contained a much more powerful message. The story of a woman who went through the sexualization of the industry in the 50's. Instead the film only seems to add fuel to the fire by showing nudity at any time and sometimes for no reason.

Based on a story in parts fictitious, with a vision, in my opinion, poorly focused, they make 'Blonde' a great disappointment.
H
Hossein
Written 3 year(s) ago
2
This is a movie that shows no other side of Marylin than her being miserable. While watching this movie, if you try to fact-check stuff, you realize that many parts of it are fictitious. Then as you continue watching the movie, you wonder what you're watching. This movie is neither a good representation of reality nor a good work of fiction...
r96sk
Written 2 year(s) ago
8
'Blonde' is a strange one.

There is nothing about it that I'd scream from the rooftops about, yet the heavy run time of around 2hrs 47mins went by in an absolute flash - not once was I bored with what I was watching; I tend to check how long is left of a movie when I'm finding it dull, but with this I didn't check at all - as clear a sign as any that I obviously enjoyed it.

I'm not fully convinced why, admittedly. I think it's just really interesting to watch from start-to-finish, the acting is very good and the film is put together well. I wasn't sure about having Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe during the first few scenes, though I quickly lost those thoughts as she gives a great performance.

I get the criticisms (though how many biopics truly stick to reality?) but I predominantly judge films as films, and this is a very watchable one in my books. I'm not saying it's anything special, though for a near 3hr flick to fly by it evidently gave me what I require.
misubisu
Written 2 year(s) ago
1
No wonder Marilyn Monroe overdosed on sleeping pills, I was suicidal well before this movie finished!! This movie is so depressing that it is hard to watch. I had to jump through numerous parts desperately looking for something even slightly uplifting. I failed.