Marilyn Monroe is, herself, the most recognizable piece of pop culture in Hollywood history, both in the icon that has survived (the red lips, the blonde hair, the skirt in the wind) and in a worrying and painful personal life about which even now, sixty years after his death, theorizing continues. ‘Blonde’ has no interest in being another tribute to the actress or in paying homage to her: in her place, she embarks her on an unfair journey through the memory of things that never happened with the only destiny of hell in life. Andrew Dominik wants to create a scandal, and he succeeds… But perhaps not as he intended.
I wanna be loved by you
The Marilyn of ‘Blonde’ is not stupid or eternally smiling: her internal debate with Norma Jeane, her unhealthy relationship with her own sexuality and the eternal search for an unknown father mark a film that in every shot wants to innovate and create new trends to dazzle to the viewer. If you thought you had seen it all, the Netflix film is ready to surprise you visually with changes in format, impossible tracking shots that vary your spatial and temporal perception, scenes taken from a softcore erotic movie and even embarrassing supposedly dramatic moments that are powerfully reminiscent of ‘Look who’s talking!’ (which, all told, shouldn’t have gotten past the first draft of the script).
The best thing about ‘Blonde’ is that he doesn’t cut himself in the least with his visual ideas, always rowing in favor of the plot. If it can be done, it will be done. Marilyn Monroe’s real-life tale deliberately neglects to eschew the classic biopic in favor of a continuous-progressing madness that sends us into an exhausting mental whirlwind (watch out for that excruciating showing of ‘Some Like It Hot’) in which you never know what will come next. Watching this film is like riding the Tourmalet on a skateboard: it’s tiring, it’s extreme, it’s absurd and you’re not very clear in the end that the satisfaction was worth it.
At times it is worth it, of course: the Netflix tape sells out, but her portrait of a broken actress in every way and her own fight against the icon that she herself had created, although it does not do justice to the real character, it does create great fictional moments. ‘Blonde’ is a terrible biopic, but a wonderful work of fiction. Sometimes.
Look who’s talking now!
The problem with shooting a movie as extreme and shocking as ‘Blonde’ is that when you hit, you do it fully. There are hundreds of finds amidst the frantic tornado of impossible planes, starting with that car ride to hell itself (not much subtlety here) culminating in yet another trip, this time one way, to a depressed, tired, and sick inside. his own existence triggered by a simple greeting card. You can’t take away merits: like it more or less, the film pretends to be outrageously good, exaggerated, obligatory and bigger than the cinema. He doesn’t always succeed, but he never gives up on his efforts.
And that for every two discoveries there is a moment of wanting to stick your head under the ground: in a film where anything goes, not all concepts can work, and sometimes ‘Blonde’ feels like a place where there has been no screeningalthough the proposal does not fit into the general tone of the film and is going to cause the involuntary laughter of a stunned audience seeing how the film’s flirtation with video art culminates with light pornography or a simply impossible anti-abortion conversation between fetus and mother that almost seems like a parody. It is appreciated, yes, the honesty and the refusal to take our foot off the accelerator: if we play everything, we do it with all the consequences. And if we crash, then bad luck.
Where Dominik does not spin so fine is in his portrait of Marilyn Monroe, one of the actresses who was treated the worst at the time, one of the first broken toys of the paparazzi, which here it is not treated with the justice that time demands. Although the intelligence of the character is emphasized on more than one occasion, in his intention to denounce sexualization (it is noted that the film operates in post-me too times) he falls into what he criticizes and denounces. ‘Blonde’ tells us in the text that Marilyn Monroe was not just a piece of meat, but in the subtext it implies the opposite. When you make a film of extremes, you don’t have time for measurement or niceties. What matters is to argue and never lose the viewer’s interest, and in this sport we are facing an impeccable film.
Present arms!
If thirteen years ago they had told me that I was going to write about the protagonist of ‘Lies and Fats’ who is a serious contender for the Oscars, I would not have believed that dystopian future. And yet, here we are: Ana de Armas, after a few years mounting her ineffable secondary role in Hollywood and being on everyone’s lips after ‘Daggers in the back’, ‘No time to die’ or ‘Blade Runner 2049’ , has finally followed the logical step in his career. She is the absolute protagonist of her own life, the perfect Norma Jeanea success at all levels that, at best, will catapult her to a few more years of fame at the top while in Spain some producers will continue to pull their hair out for having her there and not knowing how to see it.
It is surprising that Netflix, in this year of decisive evolution for its future, has decided to bet on two films so different and at the same time so similar like ‘Blonde’ and ‘Bardo: false chronicle of a few truths’, two visually splendid and technically perfect films but have decided not to take prisoners or strive to please the general public, the experiment turns out well (the one that concerns us) or badly (Iñárritu’s). They may not be perfect movies, but in a time of clonic boredom -even at film festivals!- the effort is appreciated.
‘Blonde’ is a delirium that allegedly moves away from any attempt at a traditional biopic offering at times images closer to art and essay than any Netflix movie. But the prodigious behind-the-scenes work of Andrew Dominik and the spectacular acting presence of Ana de Armas do not entirely mask the fact that this collection of sequence shots, aesthetic innovations and delirious moments are not quite refined, and the footage, so oppressive and fabulous, Most of the time, he doesn’t always hit the shot on this trip that perhaps twenty minutes less would have been much better. In any case, ‘Blonde’ is one of the biggest movies of the year and contains at least two of the most talked about sequences. You choose if you want to put on the safety bar and ride the roller coaster. Once you start, there is no turning back.