Blonde
Director: Andrew Dominik
Writer: Andrew Dominik, Joyce Carol Oates (original author)
Starring: Ana de Armas, Lily Fisher, Julianne Nicholson, Tygh Runyan, Evan Williams, Xavier Samuel, Bobby Cannavale, Adrien Brody, Caspar Phillipson
Reason for watching: a combination of this being an awards push movie, Ana de Armas being the star, and old Hollywood movie
Number of times I’ve watched it: first time viewing
***
Welp. Oscar season has come back. It is time for great actors, directors, and other artists to collaborate to make a movie I have seen before a hundred times with the intention of reminding us how unforgiving and terrible or wonderful and dreamlike the world of Hollywood can be. But you know why it keeps happening? Because those artists are willing to rub the studio’s back to get that primetime viewership so they can make what they really care about. Ana de Armas stars this movie and then she’ll be in a spy thriller with Chris Evans. Andrew Dominik directs this movie and then gets to make one about the Navy seals. Those all sound like way more interesting movies to me than this one. But studios know what wins the awards.
Blonde is about Norma Jean (de Armas), the real name of Marilyn Monroe, and her tragic journey to stardom. We follow her from child hood (young Norma Jean is played by Lily Fisher) to the peaks of her stardom. Part of her journey is the lack of stability she receives from her unstable mother (Julianne Nicholson) and her unavailable and distant father (Tygh Runyan). Their poor influence hurts her mental state. Not to mention the abuse we see her deal with while married to the ex-athlete (Bobby Cannavale) and the playwright (Adrien Brody) or when she is having an affair with the President (Caspar Phillipson) are all even more demeaning to her.
I won’t take away from the better aspects of this movie. The cinematography sets the tone for this dower movie. Alternating between black and white and colorful shots, we do get that anxious feeling Monroe is dealing with. There are some intriguing camera angles and shots as well, including some very haunting hospital or medical operation scenes. While the scenes themselves of Norma getting medical treatment are sad and scary, they are very well-done.
Screaming, crying, running, and talking with her best Marilyn impression, de Armas is doing as much as possible in this role as the titular blonde. While it does take talent to do what de Armas is doing, there is not a ton of subtle to the performance. That’s more of a knock on the directing and writing rather than her acting, but it’s the equivalent of throwing a 100-mile-per-hour fastball every pitch. Sure you’ll get a strikeout or two, but your strategy is very predictable. Yet it is the kind of thing that would get you some acting awards if you run the right kind of campaign for it.
Honestly, what takes this movie down a peg in my mind is the constant sorrow and misfortune. Everytime there is even a brief moment of happiness, something terrible happens to Marilyn. I know that Ms. Monroe lived a complicated life and had a fragile mental state near the end. Being the main starlet of the 1960s and being seen as a sex symbol rather than a human does nothing good for one’s mental health. But there are plenty of movies about struggle and being mistreated that do not make me feel depressed at the end. It is excessive and pulls down my mood so far that I cannot get attached to the movie.
This genre of biopics has started to get on my nerves. All they do is grab great talent and pigeonhole actors and actresses into individual awards contention by giving them a makeover or a fat suit. Yes on occasion there are good performances out of these types of roles, but it always feels like pandering to awards voters at its base level. I hope de Armas can find a better, less pretentious movie to be a part of.
6/10
Until I see another one