Blonde is an upcoming Netflix film that will focus on the life of Hollywood’s “blonde bombshell” Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn Monroe was an American actress extremely popular in the 1950s and 60s. She was considered to be the sex symbol of Hollywood and soon became the emblem for the sexual revolution of that era. The film would be adapted from the 2000 novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates. The film is directed by Andrew Dominik. It is a psychological drama. The film has one of the most impressive ensemble cast including Adrien Brody, Jessica Chastain, Sara Paxton, Bobby Cannavale, Xavier Samuel, Julianne Nicholson, Scoot McNairy and Ana de Armas who plays the titular character Marilyn Monroe.
The casting of Armas as Monroe was one of the most celebrated casting decisions ever as everyone agreed that she looked the part and no one can doubt her acting capabilities. There was hype around already because of the subject matter and impressive cast but the trailers of the film further extended the intrigue. The film was recently given NC-17 rating by the sensor board and Ana de Armas was unhappy with this as she thought this is too harsh. With the film’s release date now just a over week, critics have seen the film and given their opinions. Is the film everything it promised to be? Let’s what the critics have to say.
Blonde Reviews: Ana de Armas Gives her Best Performance Yet?
Blonde is overall well received with everyone praising the cast and their performances especially Ana de Armas. There are some who say the film feel like another victim story with a female lead. However, no one denies the deeply layered characters that unravel with time. Specular visuals, engaging screenplay and powerful performances make Blonde a must watch. The film currently has a Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes with 82% Critics Score and an early IMDb rating is 7.5/10. The film unlike the content we’re used to is short, it’s runtime is around 2 hrs. 46 mins or 166 minutes.
Nicholas Bell
IONCINEMA.com
“It’s a difficult saga of victimization and self sabotage, and more importantly a portrait of our shared cultural complicity in dragging what’s wild and beautiful into iron cages for eventual eradication.”
Original Score: 4/5
Richard Lawson
Vanity Fair
“It’s pretty much all pain, all the time. But in rendering that so potently, de Armas fulfills the mission of Dominik’s film, crafting a vivid and frightening picture of the madness of fame.”
David Rooney
Hollywood Reporter
“This is a treatise on celebrity and the sex symbol that blurs not only reality with fantasy but also empathy with exploitation. Either despite or because of all that, it’s a must-see.”
Sophie Monks Kaufman
indieWire
“[Dominik] has made a film inspired by Marilyn Monroe where she is monotonously characterized as a victim.”
Original Score: C+
Rafaela Sales Ross
BBC.com
“Blonde’s greatest merit is its frankness – it tells you what it is about to do and then does it. It is a poignant framing for a film about a woman who lived her entire life denied that predictability.”
Original Score: 3/5
Fionnuala Halligan
Screen International
“Blonde doesn’t quite dance on her grave, but Dominik, who adapted, does jump on it, covering everyone, audience included, in a grubby film of voyeurism.”
Connor Lightbody
Flickering Myth
“A dense, chimeric, ever so indulgent fever dream that leaves an impression that will last as long as Marilyn Monroe’s legacy: forever”
Owen Gleiberman
Variety
“From that dreamy-candy singsong voice on down, de Armas channels Marilyn with a conviction that’s melancholy and arresting.”
Leslie Felperin
Guardian
“By turns ravishing, moving and intensely irritating, Blonde is, by the end, all a bit much – in every sense.”
Original Score: 3/5
Bilge Ebiri
New York Magazine/Vulture
“Blonde is beautiful, mesmerizing, and, at times, deeply moving. But it’s also alienating…”
Marshall Shaffer
“May well be the definitive feel-bad biopic, one designed not to inspire pity but to dole out punishment… [It] deserves full consideration for its intellectual merits, not just its emotionally enticing looks – just like Marilyn Monroe herself did.”
Adam Solomons
AwardsWatch
“Bold photography never leaves Blonde, which is one of the most visually inventive big-budget films in years. But writing below the standard of its acting and an odd emotional sterility means it leaves much less of an impression as time goes by.”
Original Score: B
Robbie Collin
Daily Telegraph (UK)
“It swallows you up like an uneasy dream, at once all too familiar and pricklingly unreal.”
Original Score: 4/5
John Bleasdale
Times (UK)
“Andrew Dominik’s adaptation fashions an iconoclastic portrait of the sex symbol, expertly recreating the glitz and glamour — the film is frequently gorgeous — while revealing the exploitation and frailty beneath.”
Original Score: 4/5
Jo-Ann Titmarsh
London Evening Standard
“[De Armas] captures Monroe’s sexiness and vulnerability, yet she is given frustratingly little opportunity to evoke the woman’s intelligence and humour.”
Original Score: 2/5
Jane Crowther
Total Film
“Uncomfortable viewing, then, but also engaging, unbridled cinema that will prompt discourse and divide opinions.”
Original Score: 5/5
Leila Latif
Little White Lies
“What’s most exciting about Dominik’s vision is that it pieces together the most famous images of Monroe to create a collage that pays homage to her ultimate unknowability.”
Ben Croll
TheWrap
“Switching between deep black-and-white and popping Technicolor, Dominik’s style is both visually playful and emotionally dour; the filmmaker decries the dangers of stardom with one side of his mouth and sings about the magic of the movies with the other.”
Catherine Bray
Empire Magazine
“There’s a fine line between depicting the way Marilyn Monroe was underestimated, and joining in with that assessment. Blonde doesn’t always wind up the right side of that line, but has spectacular visual fireworks to spare.”
Original Score: 3/5
Netflix’s Blonde will release on the Streaming Platform on 16th September 2022.
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