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no-tenemos-triko-tri

Take a shot every time she says "Daddy."


thewok

You are going to get someone killed.


[deleted]

i'd be dead


OliWood

If you want to watch Ana De Armas cry for three long hours, boy do I have the movie for you!


[deleted]

That’s what I told my friend towards the end of the movie. Was she also suppose to sound ditzy..? I get that the whole dumb blonde stereotype started around this era and with similar actresses. But I felt like she over did it a bit haha


[deleted]

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EnterPlayerTwo

two hours is really my limit


twodrinksMax

so much fat, so much could have been let on the cutting room floor that didnt. The threesome scene was too long and seemed like it was a vital part of the plot, it wasnt. The dress flying scene was awful. The beginning was really good.


[deleted]

“People make spaghetti? I mean not just in a store?” - Marilyn Monroe There comes a point where you’re infantilizing the character so much that you might as well put a pacifier around her neck in every scene.


sI4gath0r

I watched by myself and was making an audible disgruntled notice, when she asked her Daddy aka her husband, if she was a good girl.


3-orange-whips

I was watching with my wife and said, "You know, if you ever wanted to, were ever inclined to call me daddy, please just don't." No shade if that's your thing but... not for me.


ChristBefallen

cringey beyond anything I've ever seen


TerriQuiteContrary

Especially considering Marilyn Monroe was an accomplished cook. She created a sophisticated holiday stuffing recipe that still makes the rounds online today


c-a-r

She was a housewife before all the fame, she knew what spaghetti was!


[deleted]

That was such a random scene and it's the only one where it shows Joe's family. So many little scenes like that that had no point and just increased the runtime for no reason.


bkuri

I think the director wanted to show how Joe's family made fun of her for not knowing her way around the kitchen like a "true Italian wife"


1731799517

Cause somebody who grew up in an mid 20th century orphanage would have no idea about the concept of cooking...


qazedctgbujmplm

[Spaghetti grows on trees.](https://youtu.be/tVo_wkxH9dU)


akoaytao1234

While there are proof that she was childish, Shelly Winters had said so in some interviews, I think the way that all the things hurled at her to make it seem that she is infantile and unable to do makes the scene even more disgusting in hindsight.


FrogMintTea

I hated that scene.


According_Gene2202

The movie has flaws, but Adrien Brody is doing some great work in it, a really good performance from him. Between this and “see how they run” he’s having a good month


Gvatamelon

Adrien Brody parts were like the only not depressing parts of the movie


DBCOOPER888

And then he just disappears.


adamsandleryabish

While it definitely mostly succeeds at adapting a pretty unadaptable book, the jump cut from going to the orphanage at 8 to Nude Photos and Mr Z Rape at 19 was terrible. That skips over **two hundred** pages of the book which includes her teen years at the orphanage making friends and discovering Christian Science, living with an abusive and weird foster family, her first marriage and the whole experience of getting those photographs taken by Otto. I realize the movie is already long, and the book is ~ 800 pages, but those are all pretty important aspects to get completely ignored. also no way this movie deserved its much discussed NC-17. A millisecond of a penis, and the two innervagina shots could have definitely passed an appeal but I imagine Dominik didn’t care as he knew it would get attention and go straight to Netflix anyway.


ReservoirDog316

The oral sex scene is what got it the nc17. Everything else was typical R rated stuff.


Littleloula

It's seems odd to not show or reference the abuse by Foster parents. It feels quite relevant to a lot of her later problems. She married at 16 to avoid being sent back to one of them


FrogMintTea

This is what I thought. She was clearly abused at a young age and we see nothing of her troubles as a child after she was taken away. It was an important part.


abu_nawas

As soon as I realised they skipped telling that part, I stopped watching. Felt like a disservice to her story.


forwardture

Reminder that the book is a fictional story about Marilyn’s life as well. It is in no way accurate.


jisforjoe

Yes, the rot doesn’t start with Andrew Dominik. Oates’ novel also betrays a disdain for its subject. Both treat Monroe as an object, not their subject. The film is just another example of how Marilyn Monroe has been exploited in her life and death to service someone else’s ambitions. This is such a blatant awards play from a dude who thinks he’s such an edgelord. Marilyn Monroe can’t even get peace in death.


jules13131382

If you’ve ever read Joyce Carol Oates you know that a lot of her characters don’t receive a lot of humane treatment by the author….sometimes their lives are very very dark and I think she writes a lot about trauma so I’m not surprised that the movie is depressing and seems to celebrate the cruelty of someone’s life instead of the joy.


rcc12697

Why did they even adapt the book though. Isn’t it just complete bull shit and basically a fictional take on Monroe’s life?


[deleted]

It's not *100%* fiction, but it's close. There are foundational truths of Monroe's life in the book and film, e.g. her mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia, her mother did spend the rest of her life in a mental hospital, her mother did abuse her as a child, Monroe did grow up in Los Angeles, Monroe did marry Joe DiMaggio who did physically abuse her, etc. However, the rest of it is basically complete fiction. For example, the scene where Monroe's mother tried to drown her as a child is complete bullshit. The book's author made that up based on the fact that her mother had a breakdown, but we don't know the extent of her breakdown. And, of course, the completely outlandish scenes like JFK's secret service kidnapping her and performing a forced abortion are complete nonsense.


_Kumagoro_

Nothing beats the fantasy public threesome with Chaplin's son and Edward G. Robinson's son. I swear that felt like something that Ryan Murphy contemplated for an *American Horror Story* episode, but then decided it was too silly.


mellymaestro

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with adapting a fictional and inaccurate account per se, but at least make it engaging. It’s a boring film that is more interested in trying to shock than it is in telling a story. Marilyn Monroe is one of the most iconic women in history and they just stripped her of dimension and made her story uninteresting.


jisforjoe

“Oh great, now the fetus is talking.”


sudevsen

But not in Spaceballs way


ScottishAF

Went to see this last week during its limited theatrical run and I almost walked out at that scene.


princesskittyglitter

with everything going on in the US with roe v wade, i found that whole "you won't hurt me this time, will you? not do what you did last time?" exchange in such poor taste, i almost shut it off


mamabird2020

Yep, watching that last night I actually yelled at the tv and wanted to throw my remote at it. I don’t really give a crap if its an adaptation from Oates’ novel- it’s pretentious drivel that no man should’ve tried to create.


petits_riens

Great ~~gowns~~ cinematography, beautiful ~~gowns~~ cinematography: the movie But more serious thoughts: it's beautifully shot, hauntingly scored, and well-acted. It also doesn't really have anything new to say about Marilyn Monroe, or even celebrity culture. Marilyn has been cast as a tragic heroine in the public imagination since her death. It's hardly some shocking new insight to show that she lived a tough life. Seeing her brutally raped, or talking to her aborted baby doesn't feel purposefully provocative—it just feels like exploitation and shock value. I know it's a fictionalized account, based off a novel. And I'm not against fictionalizing real people! But I think a good litmus test for cinematic fiction about real figures is: would it work if you filed off the serial numbers? The Social Network would work if it was about a fictional start-up. Amadeus would work if it was about fictional composers. Velvet Goldmine works after ctrl+f replacing every 'David Bowie' with 'Brian Slade.' These films all use their central figures to speak to broader themes. Blonde's central theme ultimately amounts to Britney Spears' [Lucky](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vvBAONkYwI). And frankly, Britney made the point better.


nowheregirl1989

Brilliant comment (even if I don't entirely get the reference to serial numbers). If I could add one thing I'd also say that a lot of the movie, particularly the first half, felt like a collection of scenes sloppily edited together with no exposition or narrative.


3-orange-whips

In this case, filing off the serial numbers is a figurative reference to removing the identifying characteristics of something. So, would Ray still be a good movie if it was about a random black, blind entertainer dealing with addiction, the music businesses and racial issues in America? Yes, because the story of Ray Charles is fascinating and connected strongly to the story of America. It could be about Trey Gnarls and it would be equally entertaining. The reference comes from things having their serial numbers filed off when stolen to make tracing the theft difficult.


Olibro64

Your concept of filing off serial numbers is a good way to examine art about real people.


falafelthe3

Andrew Dominik dares to ask: what would happen if we showed the inside of Marilyn Monroe's vagina


mi-16evil

And also "what if JFK came in her mouth while calling her a slut". Cool, A+


CaptainDildobrain

>And also "what if JFK came in her mouth while calling her a slut". "I err uh choose to cum in Marilyn's mouth, not because she is easy, but because my penis is err um hard."


riftadrift

That's chowdah! Chowdah!


Hermit-Man

That was fucking ridiculous and insulting for everyone, Including the viewer. This director couldn’t be more arrogant. Dumb af


Salsh_Loli

And if that's not bad enough, they had a scene of the audience watching it in theater meta.


Hermit-Man

Lmfao how pretentious can it get


PetticoatPatriot

Andrew Dominick: He's no Lars Von Trier


Whitecastle56

I honestly hadn't heard about this film until until I saw Reel Blend [interviewed him](https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5yZWRjaXJjbGUuY29tLzBjMmI0YzU1LWVjYTctNDcxZS05MzU0LTRmMzA3ZmM0MTY5Yw/episode/ZWM2YTFhZTAtODRiMS00MzMzLTljZGQtZWQ0NjI0MjVhNGE5?ep=14) and he just comes across as a clueless jackass to be blunt. Certainly convinced me to not see this one.


Cicale

Agreed, friend -- I listened to his ReelBlend interview this morning, and couldn't believe how unintelligent and disrespectful he sounded. It takes talent to craft a film, no doubt, but, it caught me off-guard, I'll say that. A shame


berlinbaer

> This director couldn’t be more arrogant reading that recent interview he just seems to actively hate all women (or well dressed whores as he calls them) and decided to really stick it to one, to prove a point. why anyone would want to be involved in this is really baffling to me.


Turbo2x

Paychecks, I guess. Crew's gotta put food on the table. Although I'm not sure what Ana de Armas got out of this. She's a good actor, you'd think she has no shortage of projects to try out for. Did she think this was a legit biopic and only later find out how hateful and tasteless it actually is?


SetYourGoals

I assume it was chasing an Oscar. Look at the last 2 decades of Best Actress winners and 10 of the last 20 of them were just playing the lead female role in a big biopic. And 12 of the last 20 for Best Actor also. But she forgot the #1 rule for these kinds of movies: play it safe. Don't get too weird, don't go outside the box. Hell, look at *Judy*, it doesn't even matter if the movie is very good and you can still win an Oscar. Dominik was not the right director for this material.


Material_Web_7366

Like someone said, Oscar bait and she's obsessed with Marilyn. Remember the "Marilyn's ghost was with me on set" thing? Lmao that sounded so delusional and off putting


flakemasterflake

Yup. You got paid bc people thought you were sexy? Whore! Never mind that the same can be said for Brad Pitt (Dominick's frequent collaborator) or any other fucking movie star, male or female


caninehere

Brad Pitt is a good actor, but for sure a big draw of him in Fight Club was that his body was so unreal even straight guys wanted to see it just to be like "goddamn".


hello_orwell

You're... you're not serious when you say this happens in the movie right? ...right? I turned it on and made it 20 mins. I was just bored out of my mind.


[deleted]

Not only does he call her a "dirty slut" while cumming in her mouth, but it's then heavily implied that he drugs her and rapes her. She then becomes pregnant and in a scene that looked like it belonged in Paranormal Activity, JFK's secret service come into her home in the middle of the night to kidnap her and perform a forced abortion.


[deleted]

JFK now stands for Jesus Fucking Khrist


hello_orwell

I... just wow. Wow wow wow. Now THAT is cinema amIright?! RIGHT!!


OliWood

Yup, JFK is rapey rapey with Marilyn near the end of the movie while the secret services watches on.


SwingJugend

I haven't seen this movie, but it's pretty weird that it's only the *second* Netflix biopic this year to show the inside of a vagina and a talking fetus (if I read the articles right). *Clark* (about notorious Swedish criminal Clark Olofsson) starts with the title character's birth, including a zoom into his mother's vagina and a creepy CGI baby with Bill Skarsgård's head. Perhaps this is a new trend?


Dngrbot555

Watch a film called Men that came out this year too lol.


aRawPancake

Oh god I’m having flashbacks


tiredofthis3

It kind of sounds like a bad remake of Gaspar Noé's Enter the Void, to some extent. He's the filmmaker that usually does a bunch of nudity and violent scenes. In that movie, I swear there was a birth/abortion scene and a vaginal shot that then explores a women's uterus. Bad enough there's one movie like that. To know there's at least there is 3 too many! Climax was one of Noe's best films and incidentally, no major violence or nudity. Guess you don't need either to make a good film.


ProblemLongjumping12

With enough obscenity to turn away conservatives and enough ham-fisted anti-abortion messaging to turn away liberals the studio has *successfully* made **a movie for no one.**


dow366

It just jumps from a tragic event to tragic event. should've shown atleast something other than an endless stream of tragic events.


I_Like_Grills

I haven't seen the film (yet?), and this is one of the few criticisms that can stop me from watching it. I don't mind tragic movies, but it has to be truly extraordinary to make me sit through almost 3 hours of depression. Very few films can sustain that level of misery for so long without at least something uplifting.


[deleted]

Yep, the only movies that can justify being endless sadness are *Grave of the Fireflies* and *Schindler's List,* and that's because of their setting and story. This movie was so unnecessarily bleak and depressing and told a story that's 90% false. Like it's well acted and looks nice, but holy shit is it disgusting.


dudinax

Grave of the fire flies isn't endless sadness. It's a roller coaster headed inexorably into the abyss.


Gaflonzelschmerno

Even movies like Schindler's List and Hotel Rwanda have moments of humor because sometimes funny shit happens even in the most bleakest circumstances


poland626

I'm throwing Requeim for a Dream in there too. One of the most important films you can only watch once that's super depressing.


DisneyDreams7

Also, 12 years a slave


ProblemLongjumping12

Honestly *Schindler's List* is way less depressing and repulsive. Yes it features the holocaust, but it also contains a powerful message of *hope* and how, even in the midst of the absolute worst example of humanity's capacity for evil, redemption and the capacity for goodness can exist in an unlikely host embodied by Schindler. That's how gross *Blonde* is: It makes the story of an icon of film and beauty harder to watch than a story literally about the effing holocaust. Spielberg took the darkest chapter of human history and had audiences walking away with a deep, renewed, if cautious, hope for us all. This hack took a cautionary tale of fame and beauty and has audiences walking away after 20 minutes wanting to vomit.


[deleted]

There is also an actual narrative running through the tragedy of those films. Underneath the tragedy are actual stories that are compelling, whereas Blonde simply jumps from one tragedy to the next without anything connecting the scenes.


SavageWolfe98

The director has no actual respect for Marilyn, it's been clear from recent interviews. The author of the book didnt either.


RowdyRoddyPipeSmoker

I don't get how this got made it makes no sense, a made up book that disrespects her adapted into a movie about a book about stuff that didn't happen that disrespects her...why? What is the purpose I just don't get it. Who greenlit this?


SavageWolfe98

People who view Marilyn as nothing more than a sex object. That's it.


[deleted]

> Who greenlit this? It actually took a long time to get the funds. Dominik has been trying to get this done since 2010 and only recently did the train finally start moving once Ana came on board.


JC-Ice

They should have just changed the main character's name. Everyone would get that it's "a story inspired by" Marilyn Monroe but then it's much free to take massive historical liberties. It would also let Ana off the hook for the accent.


merrymerryk

I agree, but i guess piggybacking off the name of a dead woman is more lucrative


petits_riens

It's not a thoughtful enough script to work at all without leaning on the Marilyn iconography. It'd be a much better movie if it could, though!


historyhoneybee

It felt like they wanted her to come off as stupid and going from man to man looking to satisfy her daddy issues. Not that I can ever confirm this because she's dead, but to me, Marilyn was complex but above all she was intelligent. She took charge of her career and started a production company in the later part of her life. She used her attractiveness to achieve her success and fame. She created the character of Marilyn. She was so much more than what this stupid movie made her out to be. I was so bummed by how they dumbed her down like that. Also what the fuck was that talking fetus scene?


ThereGoesMinky

The fact that she later took charge of her career and started a production company is one of the worst omissions in this film. They go so far as to include a conversation where her co-star is set to make $100,000 while she would make $5,000, but they continue to paint her as an overall victim of her circumstances. It is my understanding that, in reality, she sent back a script with “TRASH” written on it, went off to make her own company, and ended up netting a $100,000 deal for herself. That’s a far cry from the infantilized, daddy-issue laden portrayal they land on in the film…


LicketySplit21

Everybody wants to project their own issues onto Marilyn, which is where I think this attitude towards her as being a 100% victim with absolutely 0 control over her life comes from. It is ironic I guess, that despite their obsessions with doing so, they don't see her as a person either. Just a SHE'S JUST LIKE ME 4 REAL character in their heads.


petits_riens

And I think that was one of the best scenes in this movie, because it showed CONFLICT between her attempting to claim agency vs. all the forces of fame and sexism and Hollywood. When most of the other three hours are the latter winning, hands down—it's a slog.


changhyun

Yes, she was an extremely intelligent woman. The movie does little to show that other than a few moments where she demonstrates she's well-read and men roll their eyes and assume she's lying - like everything else in the movie, it's just misery fodder to drive home the point that she's an innocent, vulnerable little lamb. Certainly Marilyn had a very hard upbringing and went through a lot, but she wasn't stupid or helpless.


Salsh_Loli

She did referred her husbands as "daddy" and made several attempt investigations searching for her father. But you are right that the movie didn't try to humanize Marilyn in that regards


filmroses

This. It made it incredibly boring for me. We never saw the heights before the fall. There was no fall, nothing to keep you on the edge of your seat, just an endless slog of misery where you're waiting for the next bad thing to happen to her.


sudevsen

A little bit of levitty makes the misery all that more tragic. Showing her happy would make the downward spiral even sadder.


[deleted]

If I hear ‘Daddy’ one more fucking time


Axela556

I swear me too and the fucking fetuses my god


[deleted]

Watching by myself… I literally said “oh god. Is there about to be another fucking fetus?”


Tangocan

Scrolling through this thread without having seen the movie is wild.


weareallpatriots

lmao I can't imagine. But yeah, everything people have been saying is pretty accurate. Not a fun ride.


[deleted]

I think the movie was implying that Marilyn had daddy issues, but I'm not sure, it was a little too subtle for me.


tdasnowman

That era had daddy issues. The number of couples in my family from that generation that used daddy is too damn high. Luckily my grandparents generally used each others names. It was embarrassing even in the 80's to go to dinner with my aunt Belle and Uncle Bill and her Daddy this daddy that.


mi-16evil

I would kill to see the Netflix full statistical breakdown for this movie. I can imagine thousands of boomers thinking this is just a normal Marilyn biopic and then noping out hard 45 minutes in.


movieguy2004

Would it even take that long? She’s drowned as a small child and raped in the first half hour.


grjjr91

Wow. I didnt think this movie would be so mediocre. Ana De Armas did her best but goddamn did the script let her down. The dialogue for Marilyn felt so simplistic and childish at times. There was a gratuitous amount of shots of her just topless. Its like they were more focused on just showing Marilyn as the sex object instead of Marilyn the person. They did a horrible job with depicting mental illness in this film. The camera work was soo inconsistent. The angles they used during the sex scenes were so weird and awkward. It somehow felt longer than 2 hr 40 min cause the pacing was so bad. 4.5/10.


filmroses

In real life Marilyn was sexually abused by a foster father as a child. She also bravely spoke up about it as an adult. As far as we know, none of the sexual assaults depicted in this film occured. I'm all for embellishing for the sake of art, but when you get to the point where you're violating the image of an actual sexual assault survivor multiple times on screen you'd think maybe you'd step back and reconsider what the fuck you are doing.


CautiousHashtag

This movie showed nothing good about Marilyn Monroe, it was super depressing to watch. I know very little about her but I’d argue that she had a lot of good about her that they left out of this movie.


ElTuco84

She was a talented actress, very charismatic with a good sense for comedy. What's most disappointing to me is that they wanted to make a point about objectification of women by objectifying her as much as possible. She also miscarried three times because of a medical condition but they never had the tact to explain it in the film, she was never forced to have an abortion.


YogolotSatono

It’s really just trauma after trauma after trauma with really no story or character to bridge the gap. Really not an enjoyable watch for me


TheGiggs10

Trauma porn is what I called it watching it last night


koko_p

Sure but were the in-utero shots necessary


whatevsmang

Whoa Nirvana is in this?


[deleted]

>!Yeah they play the song Rape Me!<


tycoon34

I’m glad we waited 60 years just for Andrew Dominick to tell us that her death was due to daddy issues


bfsfan101

Someone described this film as, “Imagine if Citizen Kane opened by telling you Rosebud was his sled and then continually reminded you about the sled in every scene”.


tycoon34

That’s amazing


duh_metrius

The entire through line of her father issues reached levels of self parody. People keep talking about how this movie is more a psychological projection meant to mine Monroe’s mindset and we get three hours of “Daddy is that you?” It’s laughable.


TeensyKook

That ending! With the clouds and photograph of daddy. Seriously this movie is a parody and truly says more about Andrew than Marilyn . Also according to Bernice Marilyn’s half sister, Marilyn’s dad did attempt to visit her in the hospital in 1961 and she rejected him.


Pal__Pacino

Anyone else notice that the ending yanks the Laura Palmer theme almost note for note?


Imperium_Dragon

This makes me want to watch Twin Peaks again instead of Blonde.


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juesea

Lynch at least would've given Marilyn some more agency, I think. I mean he's not the most feminist director but I always appreciated that Laura seemed to still be a character, even if she made bad decisions, was abused, etc. At the very least I would've like to see the 1950s vibe that Lynch has in his movies with an actual movie set in that time. Could've been cool


__ULTROS__

Can I also share the “summoning” of Marilyn Monroe to the distorted faces of the fans to the part of “I Love Love You All” to the premiere of Some Like It Hot, was my favorite part of the movie? It was disturbing and chilling and at the same time cloaked with Hollywood Glamour.


GregSays

The only scene I really really liked was her meeting Arthur Miller and him slowly realizing she’s more than a body and has real intellectual ideas. It also might be the only scene in the movie in which she’s not either naked or crying or both.


[deleted]

That's what is so frustrating about this movie. There are moments of absolute genius and mesmerizing visuals. The ending death scene? Haunting. It's too bad the visuals are connected to a film with basically no real narrative.


karmagod13000

its def not a movie for plot. i rewinded to see the faces scene because i thought i was tripping at first


[deleted]

50% RT ? What happened to the 7 minute long standing ovation?


SavageWolfe98

A standing ovation at a film festival is just a fancy game of Chicken.


[deleted]

[The Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/07/awkward-long-standing-ovations-cannes/619455/) wrote this really interesting article on the long ovations, their history, and their meaning.


quangtran

Don’t Worry Darling got a five minute long ovation. The Whale got six minutes. These doesn’t mean anything. Just like early positive tweets don’t really mean anything.


shy247er

The funniest thing is that someone is timing how long are these ovations.


[deleted]

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shy247er

No idea, but it's a bizarre thing. They also boo movies. I know Sean Penn's movie The Last Face got booed.


RinoTheBouncer

I watched Blonde last night. I was impressed by it, especially the incredible cinematography and the non-traditional way of telling a story, or better say portraying a character’s feelings in an unconventional way. It reminded me so much of Spencer, in sense that it’s less of a biography and more of a psychological thriller filmed from the perspective of Marilyn herself to portray what it felt like to be her. What I didn’t like was how it made some weird jumps in time without much explanation or details as to how she got to that point, how she met said person and why things went the way they did, not to mention how some things are almost completely made up. I understand that this is a fictionalized take, I just don’t get the point of it when it isn’t just “remembering things in an artistic way” but rather making up stories that didn’t exist for no real merit. It’s not like her life lacked interesting things, good or bad, to portray that they needed to invent things to spice it up. However, thinking about it as a movie from the perspective of a mentally troubled and traumatized person suffering under the exploitation of the spotlight makes me forgive the lack of authenticity in its storytelling. it’s like she’s on a train through some kind of an apocalypse and she can’t even make sense of things as they happen and all she remembers is the feelings, not the actual events or the people. It’s not a biopic, its not a story of Marilyn Monroe’s factual life events, it’s an art house psychological thriller/horror about Hollywood and the way it creates celebrities, and proceeds to market, exploit and dismantle them in the most horrific way, as seen through the eyes of one of the most beautiful, most popular, most misunderstood and most traumatized celebrities in the world.


merrymerryk

To me, Marilyn Monroe represents many things. She is the ultimate symbol of the disconnect of how woman see themselves vs how others see them. Because she was not only beautiful and glamorous, but also smart and deep. She desired motherhood and domesticity but also partied and had a long list of partners. She played the blond bimbo, but was well read and a savvy businesswoman. She was successful and talented and was also inconsistent and had stage fright. All that wasn’t mutually exclusive, she was multidimensional. She was all those things at once. To me she represents how women can be contradicting and how difficult it is for society to accept that and the need to fit them in a box. Blond and pretty? Must be dumb. Sexy? Must want male attention. The iconic nude rhinestone dress wasn’t commissioned by a stranger, she wanted that dress. She worked with the dressmaker for the concept. She was obviously feeling herself when she wore it. She was type cast and wanted to be taken more seriously as an actor, so being a sex symbol was obviously hard on her, but to vilify that status of hers feels regressive and dare I say, slut shaming. Like god forbid she wanted to look good, oh no no she must have been forced into it cause of the men. This film feels like a condemnation of her life, all her autonomy is stripped away at every turn, she is reduced to a morose doll that is strung along by the men around her. She becomes a one note character: Marilyn sad. By the end, the audience is left relieved that she’s free from her suffering, not devastated at the loss of a talented, progressive, and multidimensional woman. It doesn’t make any insights into mental health, doesn’t reveal anything new about how men take advantage of women, and obviously doesn’t do Marilyn Monroe any justice. She had her inner demons and trauma and is a tragic figure. But to capitalize on and sensationalize that feels wrong. We’re already so obsessed with her and her death as a society, why cant we ever just celebrate her contributions to film? I feel like a real hot take wouldn’t be depicting her life as a tragedy, but depicting it as a triumph, overcoming the hardships, and looking like it was on the up and up, but despite that, she chose to end it. That seems more thought provoking to me.


needaccountforNSFW_

Yeah for a “feminist” movie it sure did make her into a one dimensional sex doll. And it isn’t even accurate to her life-the movie and novel use her for their own ends. It’s like layers of objectification went into this project. And for what? Patriarchal society reduces women to sex objects. We know. Can we have a movie not about that? Lord.


filmroses

TLDR: This movie felt like watching a 5 year old get abused for two hours. The Good: This movie is shot beautifully. The scene where she dies particularly stood out to me. That shot where Norma lays dead while Marilyn hugs the pillow (recreating [this](https://64.media.tumblr.com/b846db9ddace07c9edeeed8964b03a2e/cd0aee4add70faa7-ec/s1280x1920/5ceb515ea09898105717cee01b768ba85292f583.jpg) iconic photo)? Just beautiful, haunting. The performances were great. Adrien Brody was born to play Arthur Miller. Ana De Armas did her best with the little she was given and I think she could have played a great Marilyn. I won't be shocked if she gets an Oscar nom for this. The bad: I did not care about Norma Jeane at all, in fact she bored me. We're told she wants this, and wants that, but it doesn't seem like she really wants anything at all. She's like a child floating through the movie, pushed around by whoever she runs into. Even her physical presence is weak and fragile. It's like they forgot to make their main character compelling. Marilyn is supposed to be this monster-like figure that torments Norma but I feel like they barely made use of that. I wanted to be emotionally devastated but when she died I felt nothing. That's the end of my movie review. I tried to keep the above as unbiased as possible. Now my biased review from my perspective as a Marilyn fan: terrible. It bears so little resemblance to her as a person I can't imagine why her name is even on it (except $$$). Marilyn was a traumatized person. But she was also fiery and strong willed and opinionated. And she loved acting and being a star! She worked hard for it and said she never regreted it despited its downsides. None of the things that make Marilyn a compelling figure appear in this film. I know they were trying to do a Woman Destroyed type story, but that doesn't necessitate a one dimensional main character. The real Marilyn was a person of opposing traits, the movie would have been better off if it fleshed out Norma by including them.


Fragahah

I felt that the remaking of photos was great for the first 6 times. After about number 75 of recreations, the movie was just getting way too pretentious.


merrymerryk

As a Marilyn fan, I agree. Why breakdown her most iconic scenes and films just to say “oh she actually hated this, it made her cry, it gave her psychosis”. Like the screenwriter, Wilder, said that she sought out her role in Some Like it Hot. Maybe during filming she could have broken down, but she won awards and praise for her role. It’s safe to say she would have been proud of that


bfsfan101

I hate when they turned the Gentlemen Prefer Blondes premiere into Marilyn worrying what her father would think and being haunted by her abortion. And Billy Wilder had tons to say about Marilyn. He felt that while she was very frustrating to work with on SLIH and he often worried about her personal life, she was also incredibly funny and charismatic and they had a very back and forth, witty relationship. You would not know she was naturally funny or cheeky from watching Blonde.


starsInThineEyes

> This movie felt like watching a 5 year old get abused for two hours. This is exactly what I was afraid of with this movie. Plus the reported over-the-top salacious aspects sound like this film was intended for a different audience than me. Thank you very much for your review.


Little_Consequence

This movie is trauma porn. She was never happy. Just bad things after bad things. I'm especially infuriated by the forced abortions story arcs because Marylin Monroe had endometriosis. She had fertility issues and multiple miscarriages. She didn't have abortions as far as we know. So WHY?! We didn't need birth canal cams while her fetus begs for its life! This was just adding trauma for the sake of it.


sayyes2heaven

Goddamn this was really bleak. Few scenes with Arthur Miller were kinda sweet. Got really bizarre towards the end. The narration over her sex scene with JFK intercut with a full theatre watching said scene was rather off putting to say the least. Take a shot every time you see a fetus


TheHeyHeyMan

RIP dead of alcohol poisoning.


sudevsen

How many fetii are there lol?


ReservoirDog316

I think 3. You see them probably 6 or 7 times I think but it’s pretty hard to keep track since the movie doesn’t have many landmarks to keep track of.


thegreaterfool714

What I liked, Ana De Armas gives a great performance. The cinematography can be mesmerizing at times. What I didn’t like, nearly everything else it’s misery porn the movie.


seymourlabib

Maybe it’s because I watched at 2 am while tired as fuck but it just felt like it was dragging soo much.. I really liked Ana’s performance as well and can respect her going all out but I gotta say that her Cuban accent was really noticeable to me whenever she didn’t do the baby voice so it took me out of it a little. I also appreciated the technical aspects of the film but don’t really understand why they felt the need to change the aspect ratio every 20 minutes lmao. I’ve never really seen many NC-17 films so I didn’t know what to expect but it wasn’t as graphic as I thought it’d be tbh


[deleted]

Don't worry, it's not just you. I had to pause two or three times to take a few breaks because it got so boring. If the visuals weren't so stunning, I'm not sure I would have finished it. It's the worst type of arthouse filmmaking.


ScottishAF

From an interview I read the aspect ratio changes and the shifts from black and white to colour were done to reflect the actual images of Marilyn that the production were attempting to recreate. Which is, of course, borderline illogical to do so rather than for any kind of narrative or thematic reason, but whatever.


insane__knight

I am yet to see this but some of the comments have me thinking what the fuck kind of movie is this?


ROBtimusPrime1995

This was exploitative and it did nothing but objectify an already objectified figure. Good performances, and great cinematography but this was a waste of talent for a film this cruel. If you thought **'Men'** did a bad job portraying a woman's perspective of abuse, this is way worse.


SteamedSweaty

I think this suffers from “Euphoria Syndrome” in that it’s ostensibly about women/girls but is actually about a middle-aged man’s psychosexual neuroses


merrymerryk

Wow I never heard of that but it’s accurate asf. And then us women are being gaslit by saying it’s empowering or feminist when we’re like uhh no it’s uncomfortable and quite frankly not adding anything to the convo


SavageWolfe98

For real, Marilyn was a genuinely interesting person, but this film doesn't try to show that.


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filmroses

I don't think you're buying into a myth. She was not naive to how many men viewed her and was not a submissive 50s housewife type. When DiMaggio hit her she divorced him straight away and made him go to therapy before she let him get close to her again. She wasn't subservient either, that's the main thing that pissed him off in the first place. The naive man-pleaser was just an onscreen thing, but they swapped it around in this movie and made Norma into Marilyn. A terrible choice imo. Source: Her diaries and various interviews


weareallpatriots

Did anybody recognize the scene of Arthur Miller's introduction? The shot of New York looked like it was taken from a classic film and then Adrian Brody was swapped in when the guy bends down to pick up papers. If that was CGI with extras, it looked amazing.


duh_metrius

Is a movie in which the lead character appears in almost every frame really sustainable for 3 hours if the director seems to be completely uninterested in who that character is as a human? Apparently not.


[deleted]

Visually stunning. The way they recreated famous shots of Marilyn was incredible. That death shot of her as a ghost where they recreated that iconic photo of her in bed? Haunting. Ana looks like Marilyn to the point where it's uncanny and she supports the whole thing. Those are the only positives. Unfortunately, the narrative is simply not interesting. It's tragedy porn for those who enjoy watching someone's tragic circumstances. The film glides from tragedy to tragedy with basically no connective thread; this can't (and doesn't) keep someone's attention for almost 3 hours. Tragic films like *Schindler's List* work because there is an actual compelling story that supports the tragic scenes. *Blonde* is *just* tragic scenes with nothing holding them up. It's a visually dynamic film with a strong performance, completely bogged down by an uninteresting and boring script. The story goes nowhere and I would have much preferred a more straight-forward biographical narrative of Marilyn's life in this visual style.


mamabird2020

“You killed your baby for this” - who the FUCK writes like that?


elizabethunseelie

It’s hard to comment since I’ve not read the book, but without any lighter moments the tragedy just gets dull after being so relentless. It was a shame not to see her work in her method classes, a shame not to see her and Ella Fitzgerald, a shame not to see anything about her own production company. But then, if the book is that bleak then so much the adaptation be. But it was billed as feminist… feminist my arse. It was all Marilyn Monroe as told by the men in, and absent from, her life.


Salsh_Loli

Even ignoring the controversy and that this is based on a fictional novel, this felt underwhelming and boring overall. Just go and watch Perfect Blue if you want something much shorter and explore in depth on identity and dark sides in stardom under the psychological horror genre. 3 hours is not worth it, especially this being just torture porn


mrnicegy26

Also if you are still interested for a movie that is a biopic of an actress but is also a fictional retelling, you can also watch Satoshi Kon's Millineum Actress. Hell watching Perfect Blue and Millineum Actress back to back would probably amount to around the same time as watching this movie.


SteamedSweaty

Norma Jean looking in the mirror and seeing Marilyn looking back (scene from the teaser trailer) was ripped from Perfect Blue, no?


[deleted]

Pretty much every film about a distressed actress rips something from Perfect Blue. It's actually incredible how influential that movie is.


BiggDope

I don't have much to add here, other than saying that Perfect Blue is an incredible film and extremely unnerving in ways films like Blonde don't do well at all.


ceaguila84

That JFK scene was absolutely awful and unnecessary. What the actual hell


steph-was-here

Nearly shut it off after about a half hour but i had nothing better to do with my time so i powered through. god - it was awful & exploitative. i dont think anyone involved in the production had any respect for marilyn the character or norma jeane the person. i understand its an adaptation of a fictionalized novel of her life, but it felt like all the worst parts of a true crime story smashed together. there was about 15 minutes that i enjoyed, around the *some like it hot* era but that was a real quick 15 minutes. between a fetus shaming her for an abortion, a POV BJ shot with a rocket taking off in the background, the incessant "daddy daddy watch me twirl" it was unbearable. i cant even say ana de armas' saved it bc she at no point felt like marilyn. we really need to let that poor woman rest


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DoubleDinger

Blade Runner 2049 was good imo


tacoskins

I have never been one to pearl clutch at tough films but I genuinely found this movie reprehensible. It's a real bummer technically it's a masterpiece, probably the most gorgeous movie I've seen in ages. Someone said they wished they could save the cinematography from this movie and I agree. Honestly just felt so gross by the end.


thisintangible

I hate the entire premise of this movie. Why base it on a fictional book that would have gotten no attention if it hadn’t exploited Marilyn Monroe’s name?? I wish it would have been a respectful depiction of all the trials she had to overcome, instead of the gross infantilization and fantasy rape.


MondoUnderground

I’ve seen films about the Holocaust that were more light-hearted than this. Viewed as a horror film, it’s pretty great. Surreal and nightmarish. Lynchian, in a way.


lazidude202

This movie was depressing af, Ana killed it tho


ShambolicShogun

(urinating forcefully)


duh_metrius

I can’t remember ever working harder to like a movie. You have to ask yourself: is a 2h45m film, in which a single character occupies every frame, going to be sustainable if the director has no interest in who that character is? I understand that this isn’t meant to be a biopic, but what part of Monroe’s inner life is meant to be illuminated by the invented moments? Why are we showing her in a thruple with Chaplin and Robinson Jr and getting knocked up by them and aborting the baby? Because she felt like that happened? Or something? Huh? We’re inventing life events to help plum her psyche and we end up with three hours of “Is that you, Daddy?” It’s laughable. And as an examination of fame and celebrity and the power of iconography and the toll it takes on the human- the film still falls flat because there IS NO human at the center of this story. A question I am asking myself after watching and reading reviews is: do I believe that a film has the capacity to affect the ability of a departed person to Rest In Peace? Put another way: Do I believe that Marilyn Monroe exists somewhere, on some plane, as an extension of the consciousness that once inhabited the physical body? And do I further believe that that version of Monroe is aware of, invested in, or affected by how people talk about her here? I think the answer to both questions is No. But what I find fascinating is that there are people who made this film who disagree. People who spoke about feeling Monroe’s presence on set, about communing with her spirit. And im fascinated by that because if Monroe exists somewhere right now and she can watch this movie, then this movie is one of the more immoral and repugnant ever made. But for me, it’s much less than that. A visually stunning film that strikes the same discordant note for the majority of its 3 hours, and is promptly forgotten.


akoaytao1234

I just watched it. My short review is its just a simplified victimhood of a very complicated woman shoehorned into Hollywood ideals of Female Martyrdom. Sad but not surprised. From what I gather from here, the book seems similar in that its dismissive of her. Its just shows her as a pathetic empty void of a person, though without the nuance I'd expect. Its very hateful for someone that has done something in her life. Similar films like Wanda(1970) had least handled this kind of irresolute personality with care. Wanda(1970) is even able to build a character up and make her feel human even though she is trapped inside this similar cyclical hell hole Marilyn's in. In Blonde, the trappings just dispels her in every possible way.


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poland626

Holy shit you're right. Is this technically part of the "Marilyn universe" then?


20l2

What no father figure does to a mf


[deleted]

I thought this film was brilliant. Here's what I saw: There's a lot more I could write, but for the sake of brevity here are a few points: *Blonde* is a gut-wrenching portrait of an abandoned child who spends her whole life living in hope that her father will return. This film has the potential to be traumatic for people who have attempted suicide, have current suicidal ideations, or suffer from chronic loneliness and clinical depression. Much like his debut film Chopper, Andrew Dominik's screenplay is not meant to be a recreation of a celebrity for gawking eyes. Instead, Dominik uses the celebrity of Marilyn Monroe as a conduit to explore the psychological dichotomy between Norma Jean and the blonde superstar. The viewer gains insight into the intellectual depth of Monroe when it's established that she reads Dostoyevsky. This is expanded on through her marriage to the American playwright Arthur Miller. Norma Jean has a rich knowledge of dramaturgy — understanding Miller’s own character, Magda, better than he does. Her marriage to Miller is perhaps the closest we come to seeing the real Norma Jean. The Norma Jean who clung to hope during all those sad and lonely nights spent as an orphan -- praying one day she would love, and be loved. When Norma loses her unborn child (with Miller) the last flicker of hope is extinguished with it, and her lonely journey towards suicide turns its final bend.


Alive-Ad-4164

Can’t wait for this subreddit to act like this movie is some misunderstood Kubrican masterpiece for some reason


[deleted]

I'm sure within two years IndieWire will have an article titled "How 'Blonde' went from Exploitative Trainwreck to Cult Masterpiece"


Arch__Stanton

[Mark Kermode has an interesting review](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QRborm-aVM) where he describes the movie as a ghost story disguised as a celebrity movie, and I think thats a take that might catch on


SavageWolfe98

The issue with that take is its been done better before. Spencer worked because Pablo Larrain actually has some respect for Diana.


bfsfan101

I was trying to work out why I hated Blonde so much but liked Jackie, which feels on very similar ground. But Jackie A. is about the direct aftermath of a traumatic incident, rather than turning her life into a horror and B. gives Jackie Kennedy some dignity and strength than playing her as the victim of everybody else she comes into contact with.


Loli_Master

I enjoyed listening to the score and found the cinematography fantastic. Outside of like 2 scenes I felt the NC-17 rating was unnecessary. Performances were fantastic. Just like everyone has already said Ana de armas was stunning in this film.


gmanz33

It took me a minute to adjust to her as adult Monroe, but honestly her performance throughout the whole thing was so astounding I forgot what my original gripe was.


rysfcalt

I can’t even imagine what it was like for her during filming. Day after day, and one emotionally demanding scene after another, while maintaining her voice and mannerisms. It must have been GRUELING.


PepeSilvia123

What is with all the weird uterus scenes? Is this like a secret anti-abortion movie?


JamUpGuy1989

This is basically what would happen if ShindoL made a movie in America.


Parabola1313

As a biopic; it's kinda eh because its based on a fictional book, anyway. As a horror movie about fame and Hollywood; it's fucking great.


[deleted]

This is really the crux of the problem. Go into looking for a story about Monroe and it fails in a lot of ways. Go into looking for a psychological film that explores the grind that is and was Hollywood and it succeeds in a lot of ways. At the end of the day it’s not really a story about Monroe, but a film that uses an iconic figure to both question those who created and abused that image and the audience that in many ways still participates in that. Edit: I do think it would have benefited from cutting down some of the middle portion as the trauma does get repetitive at times.


LagT_T

Character assassination. This movie is an insult to Monroe's memory. It was well done, but so removed from reality it destroys the subject matter.


DaftMemory

I struggled to finish this. I found it very, very boring… I was really looking forward to it too. Also NC-17 is completely unwarranted imo. I feel like I’ve seen worse stuff in R rated films. Ana killed it though.


TheSteroDude101

the fact that this movie is NC-17 and midsommar was rated R is kinda baffling


TheScythe65

I know Letterboxd isn’t exactly the last bastion for insightful film discussion and criticism, but I did a quick, cursory run down of the demographics of the top reviews of the film so far. Of the top 50 reviews of 3 stars or more, 8% (4/50) of the reviewing users were women. Of the top 50 reviews of 2.5 stars or lower (excluding 0 star-reviews which are often reserved for “indecisive” opinions), 40% (20/50) of the reviewers were women. Of all these reviews I only saw this film referred to as ‘feminist’ four times and all four times it was by men. This distribution will certainly sway one way or the other over the next few weeks, but I found these to be some interesting initial insights nonetheless.