Movie Man Darian Watching All Night Long

Blonde 

This is the worst film I’ve seen this year! I was disgusted, shocked, disturbed and incredibly offended with how this film depicts the icon that is Marilyn Monroe. It took me about almost 3 weeks to finish Blonde as it was incredibly cringy dialogue was poorly done , terrible direction and just an insulting and uncomfortable tale of the most iconic Blonde in Hollywood history. 

Firstly, I have so many issues and things about this film to talk about I will start with the way they tackled Monroe. When this film was in development there was talks that it would be pushing the envelope in terms of what will be discussed about her life. Now I didn’t listen to to much about it because I wanted to find out from seeing it myself what all the rumblings of how controversial this film is. Now I’m all for artistic expression and to dramatize some events for the sake of the film it’s been done over the course of many biopics before it. That being said it always keeps it’s feet firmly in fact so it doesn’t go off course into almost fictional territory because then it’s not a biopic if half of the stuff your showing is made up. And tackling a person like Marilyn Monroe isn’t easy as she’s always been attacked by the media to the day she died as well as being overly sexualized by not just the media but by Hollywood which is why she only got dumb blonde roles even tho she wanted to break out of that stereotype they put her in. Adding to the fact she had a very tragic life. Their have been countless attempts at bringing her to light in biopics one that stood out to me was the Michelle Williams film my Week With Marilyn which as of now gives the only well rounded take on her as a person. Andrew Dominik is aware of all of the tragedies and dark moments she had in her life but chooses to still overly sexualize her and portray her as this defenceless person who couldn’t stand up on her own two legs without a drink in her hand or pills in her mouth. The film visually looks amazing the cinematography has some very well composed shots that are honestly breathtaking as well as the well composed score that brings this haunting tale to the screen. But the way they show that she was being passed on man to man like a piece of meat was disgusting now it’s fact she had poor relationships with men over the course of her life but not to the extreme extent this film depicts it though. It’s disgusting how they still can’t portray her in a positive light and she suffered from being stereotyped all her life and she still faces that same issue in this biopic. The amount of sexual abuse they show in the film made me sick to my stomach as half of It is false and shown just to appear edgy and for the shock factor and then you have to ask yourself why are they doing this to her image when they would of known how bad her life was. It truly stunned me to see them go to such dark places about Norma Jean I didn’t think anyone would dare go because theirs no reason for it. So how they portray her in the film is insulting and made me feel like I had to take a shower after the film was over as I felt so dirty seeing such a slimy execution of the forever beautiful Marilyn Monroe. 

Secondly, The literally only good thing about this film is Ana De Armas’s sensational performance as Norma Jean. Now she worked best with what she had but her performance cannot be ignored with how good it is. The films cast is unbearable but she is the saving grace of this in terms of performance as it’s not an easy feat to capture the spirit and emotional depth of Malilryn Monroe. She threw herself completely into this performance and delivered a gut wrenching performance that will amaze you and engage you the whole way through this crap show of a film. Everyone else in the film was terrible I’m sorry even the great Adrian Brody was not that good here and he’s a good actor the highlight was Ana De Armas’s incredible work that will have the hairs on your neck standing up. 

Lastly, Blonde is one of the worst films I’ve ever seen in my life! It is disgusting, insulting, sexually violent and extreme and an all around terrible portrayal of one of the most iconic figures in Hollywood history. Their was a real opportunity here to make this a in depth look at her life done in great honesty but instead Andrew Dominik spits in the face of her fans and herself as well by executing her in this cheap and sexually slimy way that makes the viewer feel gross by just looking at a frame of this. It truly is horrible in every sense of the word. I cannot recommend anyone see this film. 

This film centres around the tragic life of Marilyn Monroe showing her from her rough upbringing to her tragic early death. 

Rated NC - 17 : Graphic Nudity, Language throughout, bloody images, sexual violence 

Ana De Armas : Ana De Armas acted the hell out of this horrific film! Now years ago when this film was announced and I heard that she was attached to the project to play Marilyn I knew it would be a special performance. As Ana De Armas has shown how talented she is as an actor in films like Knives Out, War Dogs and Blade Runner 2049 to name a few. Now to step into the shoes of portraying the icon that is Malilryn Monroe is no easy feat as she is someone who people will criticize if not done properly and accurately. Now she knew the amount of pressure she had against her to do this role the right way and she I think did a fantastic job at slipping Into the skin of Monroe and bringing her talented and tortured soul to the screen. Now the film does her a huge disservice but Ana De Armas put her whole heart into this film as you can tell sure the story itself of how it depicts her is poorly done but She’s giving her all though with what she’s given to work with. The moment she’s onscreen every word and emotion can be felt through her spoken words or her body Language the sheer sadness in her eyes she is able to convey without saying a word is so powerful. Then you’ll see her trip on her words because she’s nervous or not wanting to mess up her partner and that quality she gave Marilyn I thought was brilliant yet heartbreaking and little things like that added a lot of depth to her portrayal of Marilyn that really made you engage with what she was bringing to the screen. As Ana shows this raw honesty that is brought to her take on Monroe that feels very tragic and a lot of the film explores the dark parts of her life and she very much goes to those depths in her heart emotionally that is at times hard to watch but she dived into the deep end for this part and you can see the level of respect and care she’s putting into her performance of Norma Jean. She knows that she isn’t Malilryn nor can she ever be her but she tries her best to strip away the glitz and glamour and express the human being she was behind closed doors and that to me is what made the performance so special was her ability to showcase all of the different emotional storms she went through in such a gripping performance that you cannot look away from. Now I really feel for her as her performance is truly brilliant but it will be sadly overshadowed by how poorly the film portrays her but it shouldn’t go unnoticed the incredible hard work and dedication she put into this performance it’s unfortunate the film’s story and representation of her wasn’t as strong as her performance because it truly is a spectacular performance in a truly bad film. You can see the anxiety and sadness just build up more and more in her as the film progresses and then she eventually hits a breaking point where she looses it emotionally and just can’t contain all of her frustrations anymore and to others makes herself seem like a handful but it’s just a person who’s had enough of being pushed around and that was shown brilliantly by Ana De Armas in a tragically brilliant performance full of raw emotion that can be felt in every frame she is in a truly outstanding performance. 

Andrew Dominik : I am so disgusted with Andrew Dominik’s depiction of Marilyn Monroe here. Now this guy has done some decent films I can’t say he’s a horrible director because he’s not. Now I get it people will have a different spin on how they view them especially pop culture icons like her but what I don’t understand is the lack of respect he had for her. Andrew was aware of how sad her life was and how she was sexualized in the media and by Hollywood and still does exactly what Marilyn hated and I don’t understand that approach I really don’t. As their is truly graphic things shown in this film and I understand if you want to explore her sad childhood and the way she had poor relationships with men but to push it to the extreme lengths he did was not needed. As the amount of sexual abuse that is shown in this film isn’t making some bold statement it just made me extremely uncomfortable to sit through now something like that is supposed to make the viewer uncomfortable I understand that but a lot of the abuse that was presented within the film was false. So then I ask the question why put in sexual abuse that never happened to someone who already had a sad life what is their to gain from that by putting that in the film. Because her calling every partner daddy things like that just made my skin crawl and blood boil because I know that is pure fiction and the fact this film is injected with so many false facts made me angry. Because you’d think you would want to show how things happened honestly and no instead he overly sexualized her and then made her seem like this hopeless person that couldn’t do anything on her own when In reality she was a very smart girl who knew how to carry herself. The way he presents her in this helpless manner truly made me steaming in anger because it’s hugely insulting to her and what she fought when she was alive to overcome and to say you are showcasing her for who she was is such lies. This film is 99% a fantasy essentially it’s purely driven off sexual intentions to just make her seem like she was in bed with every man in town and couldn’t think on her own it’s truly insulting and disgusting. The woman deserves a biopic that shows her for who she was not this sleazy slimy overly sexual and dark look at her life. Sure she had darkness in her life but she also had light too and this film focuses solely on the darkness without even thinking of being truthful to who she was I am truly ashamed and disappointed in his direction he went in with telling her story shame on you Andrew.