Blonde

Name: Blonde
Genre: Biography, Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Romance
Released: September 16, 2022
Duration: 167 min
Rating: 50
Cast: Adrien Brody, Ana de Armas, Bobby Cannavale, Caspar Phillipson, Garret Dillahunt

2022

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 57 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 182 Ratings

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4.7

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4.7	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 182 Ratings

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Blonde

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Movie Details & Credits

Netflix | Release Date: September 16, 2022 | NC-17

Starring: Adrien Brody, Ana de Armas, Bobby Cannavale, Caspar Phillipson, Garret Dillahunt, Julianne Nicholson, Lily Fisher, Lucy DeVito, Michael Drayer, Patrick Brennan, Rebecca Wisocky, Rob Brownstein, Ryan Vincent, Sara Paxton, Scoot McNairy, Toby Huss, Tygh Runyan, Vanessa Lemonides, Xavier Samuel

Movie Facts:

Streams on Netflix beginning September 28, 2022.

Summary: 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 andBased 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.… Expand

Director: Andrew Dominik

Genre(s): Biography, Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Romance

Rating: NC-17

Runtime: 167 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Jane Crowther

Sep 8, 2022

Uncomfortable viewing, then, but also engaging, unbridled cinema that will prompt discourse and divide opinions. Read full review

Mark Kermode

Sep 26, 2022

At its heart this is a gothic melodrama, a fever dream of childhood trauma haunting adult life, replete with skin-crawlingly cruel visions of inquisitorial torture, brutal ordeals and hellish infernos – more Nightmare on Elm Street than My Week With Marilyn. Read full review

The Playlist Jack King

Sep 8, 2022

This is a nasty, queasy, unforgiving piece of work. It is utterly devoid of hope. It’s as shocking as any slasher, as horrifying as any grizzly bit of wartime realism — yet there’s something so compelling about the director’s broader argument, and it’s rendered with rare visual deftness, with some big swing moments that land terrifically. Read full review

Lex Briscuso

Sep 8, 2022

De Armas' dazzling screen presence is inarguable. But with a disjointed directorial eye and a messy script, de Armas is simply doing the best she can within the chaotic world of Monroe's life, but also the chaotic world the film itself forces her to be a part of. Read full review

Peter Travers

Sep 23, 2022

Ana de Armas is raw and riveting as Marilyn Monroe in Andrew Dominik’s surreal journey through a star’s subconscious that leaves out the fun parts to cloak her life in abject misery. The nearly three hour result is hard to watch, but oddly impossible to forget. Read full review

K. Austin Collins

Sep 19, 2022

Blonde is no truer or more intelligent than a more openly sleazy rendition of this story. It leaves too little room (despite its two hour and 40 minute runtime) to reconcile the fuller reality of this woman. Read full review

Manohla Dargis

Sep 28, 2022

If Dominik isn’t interested in or capable of understanding that Monroe was indeed more than a victim of the predations of men, it’s because, in this movie, he himself slipped into that wretched role. Read full review

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User Reviews

sassymah

Sep 25, 2022

Blonde is clearly dealing with review bombing and a bias. Ana de Armas deserves an Oscar nomination for her gripping, soulful, raw, mesmerizing, and beautiful portrayal of Marilyn
Monroe. It is the best performance I
have seen in 2022 so far. The film is a masterpiece and Andrew DominiksBlonde is clearly dealing with review bombing and a bias. Ana de Armas deserves an Oscar nomination for her gripping, soulful, raw, mesmerizing, and beautiful portrayal of Marilyn
Monroe. It is the best performance I
have seen in 2022 so far. The film is a masterpiece and Andrew Dominiks magnum opus. It has a beautiful original score by Nick Cave and strong performances from the entire cast. It is a harrowing film with a tragic and poetic mystical aura.

The book Blonde was written by a woman named Joyce Carol Oates and is viewed as historical fiction. It was nominated for several awards including a Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The movie Blonde is a masterful piece of art that mirrors the novel faithfully but with an avant garde sort of approach. Showing a person's or character's pain is NOT exploiting or **** or victimizing them. I find this malicious spin against the film ludicrous and abusive in itself. The male gaze spin is beyond stupid considering the film is compassionate towards Monroe and an indictment against the men who mistreated her. Marilyn is depicted as a glorious, talented, and beautiful figure marred by mental health issues and abuse. That was her reality and Marilyn Monroe in real life, described herself as miserable. It is a pathway to call out the toxicity that existed in Hollywood. Marilyn Monroe is viewed as a feminist empowerment icon in this edgy and provocative seminal film.… Expand

7 of 21 users found this helpful714

bhappenstance

Sep 28, 2022

By no means a perfect film -- falling somewhere between Dominik's stellar The Assassination of Jessie James..., and the overly-sombre Killing Them Softly -- Blonde packs more ambition, and singularly fascinating moments, into its run time than ten other movies combined. Blonde is, as withBy no means a perfect film -- falling somewhere between Dominik's stellar The Assassination of Jessie James..., and the overly-sombre Killing Them Softly -- Blonde packs more ambition, and singularly fascinating moments, into its run time than ten other movies combined. Blonde is, as with most of Dominik's efforts, unsurprisingly divisive, given that it implicates both the media, and us -- the audience -- in Monroe's unraveling and demise. (A more apt title might have been "The Male Gaze: The Movie.") Further, Blonde barely bothers situating its events in anything resembling a comprehensible order (besides being basically chronological), or segueing between periods and events in Monroe's life (as any self-respecting biopic would), or providing proper introductions to new characters, much less bidding farewell to departing ones. In short, Dominik doesn't hold anyone's hand. F**k hand holding. The overall effect, then, is a mesmerizing fever dream; as devastating as a sudden death. While in no way to everyone's taste -- more likely not to most viewers' taste -- Blonde deserves an audience. A patient and attentive and curious audience. And de Armas should win all the awards.… Expand

2 of 7 users found this helpful25

LulaReiki

Sep 29, 2022

great effort to make a film based on such an extensive and complex work. Excellent editing and direction and spectacular Ana de Armas

2 of 5 users found this helpful23

bertobellamy

Sep 29, 2022

Meaningless exploitation that only worries to portray Marilyn Monroe as a punching bag or a piece of meat for men to do whatever they want. It's clear that Andrew Dominik tried to make a film about how the cult of personality and the tyrannical Hollywood patriarchy ripped Marilyn apart, butMeaningless exploitation that only worries to portray Marilyn Monroe as a punching bag or a piece of meat for men to do whatever they want. It's clear that Andrew Dominik tried to make a film about how the cult of personality and the tyrannical Hollywood patriarchy ripped Marilyn apart, but 'Blonde' mistakenly fights exploitation with a deplorable and erratic tale that doesn't bother to explore another dimension of the character other than her suffering and humiliation. Ana de Armas is fine, but his performance is borderline overacting, although this is Dominik's fault. It's easy to feel sorry for a character when shown being punched, raped, destroyed, and insulted from the first scenes to the last, but what's the point? There are no conventionalisms here; I give Dominik that, but his artistic pursuit has trampled all over the memory of not a movie star but a woman, and that is unforgivable to me.… Expand

5 of 9 users found this helpful54

GerN

Sep 30, 2022

The excellent performance by Ana de Armas is wasted: I wished I hadn't watched this film after reading about Marilyn Monroe. I was revolted by the many inaccuracies and the sadistic approach taken by the director. I was left wondering why Joyce Carol Oates wrote the novel and why NetflixThe excellent performance by Ana de Armas is wasted: I wished I hadn't watched this film after reading about Marilyn Monroe. I was revolted by the many inaccuracies and the sadistic approach taken by the director. I was left wondering why Joyce Carol Oates wrote the novel and why Netflix made the movie.… Expand

4 of 5 users found this helpful41

Alejandraabad

Oct 8, 2022

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Awful. The director Exploits Ana De Armas and Marilyn Monroe’s memory. Horrible storytelling with fictional events that never occurred, this fake biopic written by a women should never be given to a male director. It gets one star because the art team did a wonderful job. I hate how the director used Ana de Armas, she’s a great actress yet the director reduced her to someone that was engaged in the male gaze and the director made her do awful things that never happened to Marilyn Monroe. Why would you fictionalize a woman’s trauma? The movie establishes that Hollywood is cruel to women but the director uses women and gets away with it? The director is obsessed with abortion, he shows the baby in her while they perform the abortion the director chooses to show the inside view of a vagina and also there’s a terrible CGI baby that lingers too long for too many scenes. It is not okay the choices he made with her autonomy. Also why do we need to see inside her? Marilyn who suffered injustice, why be cruel to her memory? The movie is cruel and objectifies Ana de Armas and depicts Marilyn’s trauma through cruel fiction and is not at all subversive at all. Mind you that Ana de Armas was objectified in Blade Runner in a dystopian future. Uncomfortable, cringe depictions and not at all what and who Marilyn was. Don’t watch it.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

hitmewithtruck

Nov 7, 2022

Going to use this movie as an example when people ask me why men should not be allowed to write movies about women.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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