Photo Courtesy of Netflix
Netflixs psycho-thriller Blonde is based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oates depicting Marilyn Monroes life and some of the most painful tragedies she experienced.
The film by Andrew Dominik, while advertised as an adaptation of Oates novel, is described as boldly imaginative, but never as an actual work of fiction.
With the recent fad of making biopic movies, Blonde acts like one, but it is just as nonsensical and horrific as the recent vampire flick The Invitation.
In just the first six minutes of Blonde, audiences see Norma Jeane, before she became known as Monroe, repeatedly abused by her mother.
The abuse little Norma Jeane endures is nothing like anything I have seen depicted as abusive in films previously. Norma Jeanes mother, Gladys, is shown slapping her, forcing her to sleep in a cabinet drawer as a child, driving herself and her daughter into an active fire in Hollywood Hills and trying to drown her. The abuse continues as Norma Jeane ages to become Monroe and is abused repeatedly by Hollywoods elite and, later in the film, by JFK.
The fictional JFK sexual assault scene is one of the moments that pushes director Dominiks imagined reality into its deserved NC-17 rating. This is the first ever Netflix-produced film with an NC-17 Motion Picture Association of America rating, with the warning of some sexual content.
One point of contention with Netflixs presentation of the film rating and the MPAAs description of the NC-17 rating is that the statement some sexual content is massively misleading.
The statement some sexual content minimizes the trauma the deeply graphic sexual content might evoke for viewers. Titanic should have a some sexual content rating because of that one steamy scene, not this film that has the potential to trigger its audience. At least some type of trigger warning should be displayed for a film rating of this caliber, or the typically smaller rating should be more visible when selecting this movie.
Dominik shared that the film is about the meaning of Marilyn Monroe and why she endured. The film undoubtedly highlights Norma Jeane and Marilyn Monroes endurance, but not why. She ages and grows in stature but remains the same woman who continues to be abused by countless others in her life.
Despite the content, Ana de Armas portrays Monroe beautifully, especially by psychological crime film director Dominiks standard of the Hollywood starlet. Julianne Nicholson plays a haunted mother with schizophrenia and is very convincing in her role of a woman who wishes her daughter dead at times. One cinematographic aspect of Nicholsons portrayal of Gladys that exemplifies her fear-factor to viewers is the use of low camera angles to make Gladys seem larger than life in the especially upsetting moments.
The combination of cinematography, excellent acting and haunting performances comes together to create a work that deeply upsets many but is nonetheless impactful because of its audacity in how it depicts mental illness, sexual assault and the Old Hollywood that still hasnt changed.
Trigger warnings regarding the sexual and non-sexual assault scenes, promotion of mental health resources and an improved description by the MPAA need to be added in order for audiences to view and better understand this terrifying work of art.
