The Marilyn Monroe biopic Blond is actually a nearly 3-hour horror shocker

Ana de Armas plays Marilyn Monroe, one of the greatest film icons of all time. The reactions after the first trailers were correspondingly harsh. Above all, the accent of the actress, who was born in Cuba, was criticized. Even the administration of Monroe’s legacy and producer Brad Pitt had to protect her.

According to the 165-minute long blond at the Venice Film Festival, one thing is certain: Ana de Armas plays terrifically in the biopic, which is at most as chilling Hollywood horror film is working. The No Time To Die and Knives Out star is simply better than Blonde, but that almost single-handedly makes the Netflix film worth watching.

Blond at Netflix stages the life and death of a film icon as a horror film

Director Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) adapts Blond from Joyce Carol Oates’ novel of the same name, which was inspired by the Marilyn Monroe biography. Born Norma Jean Baker in Los Angeles, she experienced a difficult childhood with a mentally ill mother, in an orphanage and with foster parents.

Check out the trailer for Blonde:

She became known as a model in the 40s and as a film star Marilyn Monroe became one of the images that embody the glory and misery of the dream factory worldwide. Her marriages to baseball star Joe DiMaggio (Bobby Cannavale) and playwright Arthur Miller (Adrien Brody) fed the gossip columns, and mental health issues and drug addiction plagued her until her tragic death in 1962.

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Blond essentially tells this story from beginning to end. But one shouldn’t fall into the misconception that this is a conventional biopic. Blond bucks conventional narratives and is packed with moments meant to shock. Anyone who has always wanted to see US President John F. Kennedy getting a blowjob will find what they are looking for on Netflix from September 28th.

In principle, this is to be welcomed, because if there is one thing the world does not need, it is also a soporific biography. Blonde is anything but soporific. In its almost 165 minutes, the Monroe film looks like a journey through traumatizing experiences that are remembered in the delirium of tranquilizers and alcohol.

The Netflix film tells a tale of misery, abuse and betrayal

Episodically, the screenplay touches on Norma Jean’s rise, which is repeated by Abuse, exploitation and private setbacks is embossed. Nearly drowned by her mother as a child, harassed by studio bosses as an adult, beaten by her husband and betrayed by the few friends she has.

Andrew Dominik dresses the horror story from Hades Hollywood in glossy black and white and pale color film. He plays with the image formats and other alienation techniques until Norma Jean lives like a never-ending nightmare appears with a handful of fleeting moments of happiness.

Happiness at all just seems to be an excuse to the next punch in the stomach of his tragic main character to land. One of the rare exceptions is an intoxicatingly performed threesome with two movie star sons, whose orgasms create surreal worlds of images that we rarely see in American films. With such almost avant-garde ideas, Blond scratches at an overwhelming film experience. The wretchedness of the film constantly undoes that.

Ana de Armas with Marilyn and Norma Jean two different horror characters

Finally only overwhelms Ana de Armas, who takes on the task of playing an unattainable movie icon. Iconic Marilyn Monroe is seen in the film as a suffocating role that Norma Jean plays until she’s consumed by it. Being Marilyn Monroe means ending up in the shackles of a horror villain whose mask is peroxide blonde hair, strawberry red lips and a cutie mark.

Ana de Armas impresses with her unreserved portrayal of Norma Jean and Marilyn. The resemblance is striking in places, but marginal. The actress appropriates both of the star’s faces portrayed in the film. the seductive Marilyn and the fragile Norma Jean with the breathy voice and the big, soulful eyes. De Armas is a wonder in blond because she withstands her director’s exuberant style, erratic narrative, and monotonous story arc.

She makes the soul of a movie star the common thread of blond. A movie star who is little more than an image in the collective memory. The image of a white dress being inflated by the hot air from a subway shaft. This famous scene from Billy Wilder’s The Seven Year Itch is repeated in slow motion so often in Blond that it would be too much of a good thing even for Zack Snyder.

Unfortunately, Blond has little to say about Marilyn Monroe’s films and her development as an actress. How Monroe fought for an independence as an artist in a restrictive system that others could only dream of is of little interest to Blond. After all, it’s a lot easier than this woman defenseless victim of star fate to be considered, because as an active shaper of her own fame.

And yes, even the two movie star sons from the fantastically dreamy threesome will eventually cheat on Norma Jean.