Blonde movie review

MOVIE TITLE: Blonde

This biography movie was released on Netflix on September 28, 2022.

RATING: NC-17

Despite Netflix’s requests to remove all the sexual content, there is plenty of it, earning the movie an NC-17 rating. The director was shocked by the rating, thinking he had “colored inside the lines.” Seriously? That’s one of the problems with Hollywood today: they have no idea where the lines are.

LENGTH: 2 hours 46 minutes

MOVIE REVIEW MOM GRADE: C-

IN A NUTSHELL:

From director Andrew Dominik, and based on the bestselling novel by Joyce Carol Oates, ‘Blonde’ boldly reimagines the life of one of Hollywood’s most enduring icons, Marilyn Monroe. From her volatile childhood as Norma Jeane, through her rise to stardom and romantic entanglements, ‘Blonde’ blurs the lines of fact and fiction to explore the widening split between her public and private selves. What was the point?

THINGS I LIKED:

Ana de Armas gives the performance of her life in this biopic of Marilyn Monroe. With dental prosthetics and blue contact lenses, she really does look like the famous, blonde bombshell. Every now and then, her Cuban accent pops out, despite many months of dedicated voice training to make her sound American. About all of her nudity in the film, she said she can’t control if it gets out on the internet. SO much nudity and unnecessary sex scenes. Surely, she’ll be nominated for an Oscar, especially because Hollywood loves to award biopic actors and films.
The beautiful little actress who played Norma Jean as a child did a great job. Her name is Lily Fisher. I hadn’t seen her in anything before even though she’s been very busy in her young years. I look forward to seeing more of her.
Interesting camera angles and techniques in Act 1. They begin to disappear after that.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

The movie focuses on the bad, ugly, and misery of her life. The result is a very depressing film.
The side characters aren’t given much time or exploration.
I thought it would be a more straightforward biopic of Marilyn Monroe’s life, but instead, it’s more of a psychology study based on FICTION. Why would someone do that when her real life was so fascinating? Ultimately, you feel sad during the majority of the movie and frustrated that you’re watching fabricated details of a real person’s life.
The bloated film clocks in at almost 3 hours, surely evidence that the team expects this to be an Oscar contender. The last hour dragged and I couldn’t wait for the movie to end.
It’s creepy how she calls all of her husbands “Daddy”.
Doesn’t it seem like those who reach the heights of fame and fortune often have turbulent personal lives with devastating endings? Would you rather have a simple, long life or an incredible, short one?
This movie is very uncomfortable to watch because of the excessive, unnecessary nude and sex scenes. The line was crossed MANY times and turned the movie from being an interesting telling of the life of Marilyn Monroe to porn. It’s rated NC-17, which is, basically, X. Rated R movies mean that kids under 17 CAN watch the movie if they do so with their parents. NC-17 means no one under 17 is permitted to see it (in theaters). In other words, this movie is filled with garbage you wouldn’t want your kids to see. The film could have easily been rated R if all of the unnecessary sex scenes and nudity were removed. They didn’t add anything to the movie, at least not for me.
Isn’t it ironic that the movie focused so much on how Marilyn was exploited and yet the movie did the exact same thing?

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

This is NOT appropriate for children.
We see full frontal nudity of a woman and other topless women. We see Ana de Armas topless many, many times.
We see a menage a trois sexual encounter with a lot of detail.
We see her give a blow job to someone. Really? The detail is NOT necessary.