The tragedies of Ms. Monroe

Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe in Netflix's Blonde. 

The 2022 film directed by Andrew Dominik that stars Ana De Armas as Marilyn Monroe has been panned by streamers and critics alike to the point where it’s been rumored to be cursed because of the way the director portrayed the titular character.

 Firstly, it's on record that this film isn't a true biopic but a fictional retelling of Marilyn's life that aims to highlight how Hollywood creates victims out of its stars. The entertainment industry especially in film, fashion, and music is widely known to be a dog-eat-dog world which is why it's extremely difficult for individuals who haven't learned to develop a thick skin towards critics and the emotional demands that comes with acting nor found the right people who truly care for their wellbeing enough to manage them effectively, to survive in.

 Secondly, I strongly feel that Andrew's work would have been more appreciated if he had titled it differently and marketed it as a carefully curated exposition of the loneliness of celebrity and the dangers of wholly trusting media optics. 

Ana de Armas and Julianne Nicholson as Norma Jean and Gladys. 

Andrew uses all sorts of techniques in telling this story visually, from close-up shots to switching from black and white to colour and changing film aspect ratios at will to draw attention to the main character of the film. He does all these in a subtle manner, a grace he refuses to extend to his main character, the star of the film whose story is viciously melancholic and told mainly through the dramatic stream of consciousness method that sometimes blurs to the line between the mental state and reality of the characters, Norma jean and Marilyn Monroe we're seeing tortured on screen.

 Marilyn is portrayed with no admirable quality beside her beauty and kindheartedness towards her mother. None of her philanthropic work or the positive stories She's known for is explored at all. She's a perpetual victim, literally treated as meat. From how her mother and first husband abuses her, to the leers of the paparazzi, to how her manager constantly hounds and drugs her, to her daddy issues, and how her second husband uses it to manipulate her. Even the one time she's put amid other women, she's made fun of, and her suffering only intensifies as the story progresses.

photo credit: Netflix. 

My viewing experience took me back to how I felt watching Michael Haneke's Funny Games. And until the final scene, I kept wondering what the whole point of sitting through this was. At least one could get Haneke's social experiment but in Dominick's case, his style becomes highly questionable when you consider how dark it gets and how far his main star pushes herself. Especially when he veers into certain territories like Marilyn's first abortion using the stream of consciousness method where Marilyn's foetus judges her choices, something that the director ironically makes clear was against her will, makes one wonder if this is more than a critique of Hollywood or if his imagination is simply unflinchingly highlighting these tragedies to show that nothing about Marilyn's life was as glamorous as Hollywood thought us to think. 

I'd rate the performances and cinematography 10 but the storytelling and style a 6. viewers discretion is also advised because of the heavy themes of abuse and mental health. there's little nudity and a not-too-graphic sex scene involved. 

                                                                                                        written by God'sownM