Christ, 2 hours and 45 minutes?? It's slow, it's worse than watching paint dry, and while Ana ( can't remember her name) is in and out, she's most one note. The movie as a whole is turgid shit. Correct me if I'm wrong. I'm looking at the cast. No Joe Dimaggio, no Kennedy, no first husband, only Arthur Miller? It's also noisy. Vidict?....Ruth Negga, please
| by Anonymous | reply 83 | October 9, 2022 4:42 PM |
No Kennedy? I thought there was a scene where he rapes Marilyn.
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | September 29, 2022 4:15 AM |
Yeah, I stand corrected. The role is The President, and ex-Athlete is probably Joe DiMaggio
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | September 29, 2022 4:35 AM |
It's millennial Showgirls. Incredibly serious and depressing, but with all of the hilarious campy over acting, nudity, rape and a badly permed wig.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | September 29, 2022 4:41 AM |
I just plan on reading the book. JFK raping anybody? Please, he was not that invested in getting anyone.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | September 29, 2022 5:03 AM |
It's MISOGYNY!!!
MISERY PORN!!!
THE DIRECTOR HATES WOMEN!!!
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | September 29, 2022 5:14 AM |
I just finished it. Very Darren Aronofsky.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | September 29, 2022 5:17 AM |
We really need 15 threads about this movie!
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | September 29, 2022 5:24 AM |
Did the streaming version cut off an erect penis in an audition scene? I don't see erect penis here!!! Shithole Netflix did it again!!!!
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | September 29, 2022 5:44 AM |
As if she was some helpless victim. She shook her tits and loved the dicks.
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | September 29, 2022 6:02 AM |
All wrong, for fuck's sake. Ana - whatever name is - is/was too thin. MM was a product of her time, when chicks were buxom, and voluptuous . This chick is anorexic. Not believable at all as MM. Her paper thin body ruined the portrayal
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | September 29, 2022 6:18 AM |
Andrew Dominik has never made a movie that appeals to general audiences. He makes pseduo-intellectual films that are more concerned with theme than plot. He has a distaste for fast pacing. He's never made a movie that did even mediocre business in American theaters. His films are considered punishing towards audiences, even when the artistry can be appreciated by critics.
The movie isn't even based on actual events. It's fictional. It strives to tell an emotional truth about a real person using fake events.
Not sure why anyone would presume it would be enjoyable.
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | September 29, 2022 6:31 AM |
R8 you see the penis in a flashback scene on Netflix. At least I did.
I thought Ana surpassed my expectations. I didn’t detect any accent and thought she did well embodying Marilyn. She played her in a less cerebral way to Michelle Williams and I think it worked. I think the film is flawed mostly by dwelling on the misery of her life more than anything. It just seems that it was made to fit the narrative of today’s world to make her the ultimate unofficially documented first #metoo victim.
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | September 29, 2022 6:36 AM |
Ana is very good in interpreting and embodying Marilyn, but the movie is so miserable and gut-wrenching, piling one misery upon another.
Peliculus Horribilis!
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | September 29, 2022 8:04 AM |
Ugh, I’ve not finished Elvis yet and now this? How will I ever catch up?
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | September 29, 2022 8:22 AM |
This bitch's accent is SO strong, how the fuck did she get cast as an American?
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | September 29, 2022 5:59 PM |
[quote]I think the film is flawed mostly by dwelling on the misery of her life more than anything. It just seems that it was made to fit the narrative of today’s world to make her the ultimate unofficially documented first #metoo victim.
Yeah, if you didn't know better you'd think she had no agency in her life whatsoever. She was a fuckup, to be sure, but she was shrewd about her image and she formed her own production company.
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | September 29, 2022 6:05 PM |
The point of the film was obviously not to focus on the good things in her life but to highlight her as a tragic figure, which she was. I liked the dream like imagery of the movie but at nearly 3 hours it is a bit too long.
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | September 29, 2022 6:16 PM |
I want them to Make a film about Charles Chaplin jr and Edward g Robinson jr now and the amorous adventures they got up to.
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | September 29, 2022 6:21 PM |
I'll stick to watching Marilyn's films.
| by Anonymous | reply 19 | September 29, 2022 6:24 PM |
The movie is really dreadful. Ana can forget about an Oscar. The Academy won't reward a woman who takes dick into her mouth on screen..
| by Anonymous | reply 20 | September 29, 2022 9:22 PM |
I thought actress looked more like Marilyn than Michelle Williams.
| by Anonymous | reply 21 | September 29, 2022 9:31 PM |
Ana was not good. As mentioned above it was a campy performance. Her accent was obvious and she looked like a jowly Marilyn.
| by Anonymous | reply 23 | September 29, 2022 10:11 PM |
OP your writing is atrocious
| by Anonymous | reply 24 | September 29, 2022 10:12 PM |
[quote]I thought actress looked more like Marilyn than Michelle Williams.
Williams went for the essence. There hasn't been any actress who looked exactly like Marilyn. The closet is Suzie Kennedy who has been doing Marilyn nearly 20 years. Of course, once she got implants, her bust is too large for Monroe's.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 27 | September 29, 2022 10:40 PM |
That New Yorker profile of Oates someone linked to here has really set me against her, so I’ll probably skip the movie.
| by Anonymous | reply 28 | September 29, 2022 10:41 PM |
I watched it last night having not read anything about it and hoping for an actual biopic. It was very boring and so outlandish at times to be unintentionally hilarious.
I finished it but it was bad.
| by Anonymous | reply 29 | September 29, 2022 10:41 PM |
R26, she doesn't look any more like Marilyn than any of these other ladies do.
| by Anonymous | reply 30 | September 29, 2022 10:57 PM |
JCO's novel was first adapted into a mini-series with Poppy Montgomery as Marilyn. I haven't seen it.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 31 | September 29, 2022 11:04 PM |
I liked the movie with Catherine Hicks a lot. While she didn't look like Marilyn, she did a great job capturing the essence of her.
| by Anonymous | reply 32 | September 29, 2022 11:21 PM |
What is R20 talking about?
| by Anonymous | reply 33 | September 29, 2022 11:31 PM |
I still think Kelli Garner was the absolute best Marilyn, in "The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe."
I've watched about an hour of "Blonde." De Armas is ok. But it's so weird, and yeah exploitative. Are these really the scenes playing out in Joyce Carol Oates' feverish little head?
| by Anonymous | reply 34 | September 30, 2022 5:45 AM |
R34 I agree that Kelli Garner did a phenomenal job portraying her. Probably the best I've seen. Ana de Armas is a close second.
I am not a huge Monroe fan, though I do love some of her films (Some Like It Hot is an indubitable classic, and I also enjoyed her in Niagara and The Misfits), so I went into this with little vested interest. I think people need to go into this movie with the understanding that it is mostly fiction and conjecture, and is based on a book that was mostly fiction and conjecture. It takes a long, hard stare into the darkness of Monroe's life, but at the same time, you cannot (and should not) take it at face value. It is not attempting to find the whole truth of her as a person, but more extrapolating on the tragedy that plagued her life. I can see why some people deem it exploitation, but I think any film about her, no matter what it focuses on, is going to be exploitative and presumptive to some degree. It's an interesting conversation and I can see both sides of the argument.
The film is not a pretty picture, but I thought it worked well as a cavalcade of vignettes that hit on the grim things that she may have endured.
| by Anonymous | reply 35 | September 30, 2022 6:46 AM |
It's just the explicitness. Whenever I see scenes like these, I think, uh-huh, director's fantasy?
| by Anonymous | reply 36 | September 30, 2022 1:55 PM |
I doubt this will pick up nominations for Academy Awards due to the intense backlash, the admission that her accent was minimized in post production (another woman dubbed Marilyn's singing voice) and the director's overall intense misogynistic remarks towards Marilyn and women in general.
R3 She even looked exactly like Elizabeth Berkley from Showgirls with that hairstyle in one of the first scenes with Marilyn and Arthur Miller (Adrian Brody).
| by Anonymous | reply 38 | October 1, 2022 5:25 AM |
[quote]I'm Watching Blond.
Blond[bold]e[/bold]
| by Anonymous | reply 39 | October 1, 2022 5:29 AM |
I want to watch it but is so loooong! I can’t find the commitment. Is it boring? Or is it worth watching it?
| by Anonymous | reply 42 | October 1, 2022 6:08 PM |
It's boring. Not worth it at all.
| by Anonymous | reply 43 | October 1, 2022 6:17 PM |
I wish all the movie was made/shown in color. It’s much more engaging and tolerable than black and white.
| by Anonymous | reply 44 | October 1, 2022 6:51 PM |
DiMaggio was the "Ex-Athlete." Miller was the "Playwright." I don't know why the film didn't want to name them. JFK is in it at the end, portrayed doing vile things that he did not do in real life.
| by Anonymous | reply 45 | October 2, 2022 1:15 AM |
I want a reward for finishing this awful movie. My only satisfaction was going to IMDB and giving it a 4 rating.
| by Anonymous | reply 46 | October 2, 2022 1:17 AM |
R42
It's endless. The pace is glacial. There is one idea with which you are pounded incessantly. You keep hoping it will improve but it doesn't. And then you have to read articles that explain which incidents are invented, which is A LOT. Watching this movie is a project.
| by Anonymous | reply 47 | October 2, 2022 1:20 AM |
R33
There's a scene -- which apparently is pure invention -- in which JFK forces Marilyn Monroe to fellate him before raping her. It's not as explicit as porn but you can tell what's happening.
| by Anonymous | reply 48 | October 2, 2022 1:27 AM |
Do people not understand that this is based on a book that is fictionalized version of Marilyn's life? It's not real life.
| by Anonymous | reply 49 | October 2, 2022 1:29 AM |
Specifically, R33, she has her fingers strategically placed like they're wrapped around his cock, but you don't actually see any peñis.
| by Anonymous | reply 50 | October 2, 2022 1:30 AM |
It looked to me like we see her lips wrapped around his penis.
| by Anonymous | reply 51 | October 2, 2022 2:42 AM |
Normally, I can't watch slow and plodding films, but I had no problem with this one. I didn't hate it, but one viewing is enough. The switching between black and white and color and using different aspect ratios was interesting.
| by Anonymous | reply 52 | October 2, 2022 3:14 AM |
Brody is superb as Miller. Almost makes me wish for a biopic of him.
| by Anonymous | reply 53 | October 2, 2022 5:40 AM |
[quote] JFK is in it at the end, portrayed doing vile things that he did not do in real life.
How do you know this?
| by Anonymous | reply 54 | October 2, 2022 5:41 AM |
I have a soft spot for Misty Rowe as Monroe in Goodbye, Norma Jean (1976).
| by Anonymous | reply 55 | October 2, 2022 6:21 AM |
Blonde is to celebrity biopics as Fire Walk With Me is to teen horror films.
| by Anonymous | reply 56 | October 2, 2022 6:51 AM |
Who heard a Cuban accent? It's not there. She's got to be dubbed.
| by Anonymous | reply 57 | October 2, 2022 8:16 AM |
I find it strange that so many people are so angry at the things depicted in this movie. If you have a problem with it, take it up with Joyce Carol Oates—she’s the one who wrote it.
| by Anonymous | reply 58 | October 2, 2022 10:42 AM |
Agreed, R58. And it's a very faithful book-to-screen job, and Oates has praised it. But I doubt the Twitterati have read the book, and most of them probably wouldn't be able to get through a book of that length. They know they'll get approval from their echo chamber by writing things like "Of COURSE it was written and directed by a man!"
On De Armas's accent: The scene in which MM is meeting with Arthur Miller and talking about the Magda role is where I noticed it the most. For the most part, she did a good job of subduing it, but in that scene and a couple other places, I could tell I was hearing someone speaking English as a second language.
| by Anonymous | reply 59 | October 2, 2022 11:56 AM |
R57
I read that her accent was minimized in post-production but I could still hear it occasionally.
| by Anonymous | reply 60 | October 2, 2022 12:18 PM |
R54
Because people familiar both with JFK and Monroe have said it didn't happen. I also believe Joyce Carol Oates, the author of the book from which the novel was adapted said it was fiction.
| by Anonymous | reply 61 | October 2, 2022 12:20 PM |
R49
Saying it's "fictionalized" is not good enough. This is a movie about well-known people that is using the public's interest in them to market itself. We're not talking about taking minor liberties to make the narrative flow, but inventing major events that did not occur. It's profoundly dishonest and unfair. And make no mistake, I don't like Marilyn Monroe or JFK; I don't worship at their shrines. I watched it because I have Nexflix and knew a lot of people would be talking about it.
| by Anonymous | reply 62 | October 2, 2022 12:27 PM |
R58
That's a ridiculous argument. Nobody forced the director, Andrew Dominik, to make this movie, and possibly to expand on what Joyce Carol Oates wrote. Ninety-five percent of the audience is going to walk away thinking that this portrayal is how Marilyn Monroe actually was.
| by Anonymous | reply 63 | October 2, 2022 12:33 PM |
Was that the real penis of jfk?
| by Anonymous | reply 64 | October 2, 2022 12:40 PM |
[quote]They know they'll get approval from their echo chamber by writing things like "Of COURSE it was written and directed by a man!"
No such thing will happen. Twitter wouldn't shut up about this being written by Oates, and no one would say "it was written by a man" and get praise for it. They'd get dunked on, endlessly.
| by Anonymous | reply 65 | October 2, 2022 12:44 PM |
[quote]This is a movie about well-known people that is using the public's interest in them to market itself.
Is that any different from, for example, the acclaimed play and film Amadeus? What Shaffer wrote is all but worthless as history and biography. Its value is as drama and psychology. Unfortunately, people do see it and think it's an accurate account of events and presents the personalities of the two main characters as they really were. But I would not want it to be suppressed (or condemned) for that.
Even going back as far as Shakespeare's time, the Macbeth we think we know and understand has little to do with the actual 11th-century Scottish king.
In these cases, it seems to me the only difference is in the amount of time that has elapsed. A closer parallel to Blonde would be Doctorow's novel Ragtime, which looked back about 60 years and had fictional characters mingling with historical figures, with the historical figures behaving as Doctorow wanted them to behave. It is in the fiction section, where it belongs (and as Blonde is).
| by Anonymous | reply 66 | October 2, 2022 12:46 PM |
[quote]No such thing will happen.
This took me about ten seconds.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 67 | October 2, 2022 12:50 PM |
I thought you meant they'd say the book was written by a man, r67. Your entire paragraph was about the book, so that's what I thought you were talking about.
Yeah, people are going to point out that the adaptation was done by the director. Even Manohla Dargis mentioned that in the Times review. That doesn't make it some stupid criticism she said just to get approval from her echo chamber. It's a legitimate point to say that a man's adaptation and direction of a book about a famous woman written by another famous woman could have flaws precisely because of WHO adapted it.
Honestly, it just didn't occur to me that anyone would say otherwise, but I should have remembered this is Datalounge, which is mostly I Hate The Woke And Women And Twitter And Also MRAs Are Right Lounge, lately.
| by Anonymous | reply 68 | October 2, 2022 1:22 PM |
[quote]I thought you meant they'd say the book was written by a man,
The "and directed" should have been your first clue otherwise.
[quote]It's a legitimate point to say that a man's adaptation and direction of a book about a famous woman written by another famous woman could have flaws precisely because of WHO adapted it.
I disagree. Unless someone looks at the director's body of work and actually builds a case, it's speculative, knee-jerk nonsense.
| by Anonymous | reply 69 | October 2, 2022 1:29 PM |
Well, did Dominick stray from the book or not? If he essentially stayed faithful to the book, especially in spirit, then it's a meaningless complaint that the adaptation was "written by a man".
How can people not understand this?
| by Anonymous | reply 70 | October 2, 2022 2:00 PM |
[quote]Ninety-five percent of the audience is going to walk away thinking that this portrayal is how Marilyn Monroe actually was.
Then they're stupid. After seeing Hamilton do those 95% think our founding fathers were multiracial and multi-ethnic? I read the Book, I watched miniseries back in the 90s and this.
| by Anonymous | reply 71 | October 2, 2022 2:31 PM |
[quote]Well, did Dominick stray from the book or not? If he essentially stayed faithful to the book, especially in spirit, then it's a meaningless complaint that the adaptation was "written by a man".
He was very faithful. The biggest difference I noticed is that he didn't cover the filming of The Misfits, and he buried the implication that Clark Gable (MM's Misfit costar) was her mysterious father, the famous and powerful Hollywood figure her mother had talked about. She (the Oates version of MM) believed this to be the case. Dominik skipped from Some Like It Hot to the JFK period and the last days. But covering that period would have added another 15 minutes, at least, to a movie that some people already are claiming is too long.
| by Anonymous | reply 72 | October 2, 2022 2:43 PM |
So did Charlie Chaplin's and Edward G. Robinson's sons really have a threesome with Marilyn, or was that bullshit made up by Oates, too?
| by Anonymous | reply 73 | October 9, 2022 1:06 PM |
It’s awful, really awful. Enough said.
| by Anonymous | reply 74 | October 9, 2022 1:21 PM |
I can't believe we're watching a reenactment of the fantasies of Joyce Carol Oates.
| by Anonymous | reply 75 | October 9, 2022 3:18 PM |
R73
According to articles I've read, there was no threesome. They both dated her briefly at different times and one, I think, was significantly younger than she, maybe seven to nine years. The film presents them as all about the same age.
| by Anonymous | reply 76 | October 9, 2022 4:12 PM |
R71
There are many stupid viewers. That's not an excuse to present a version of a real person that is grossly inaccurate. Very few are going to make a distinction between a film being about one author's "idea of Marilyn Monroe" and an intentional biopic about the real Marilyn Monroe. And besides, what is the point of dramatizing one person's imaginings of a public figure? I'm not crazy about it, period, but it's even worse when the individual is someone from the recent past. Many viewers remember what she was like. She has living relatives and friends.
It's easy to be nonchalant about this when you are not in danger of having your private life exploited for money.
| by Anonymous | reply 77 | October 9, 2022 4:18 PM |
The movie would have been better with treasure Gina Gershon as Jane Russell
| by Anonymous | reply 78 | October 9, 2022 4:21 PM |
The recent past? I'm assuming that the majority of people posting on this board and who watched the movie were born well after Marilyn died. No one on here is old enough to remember Marilyn when she was alive. Everything that we know about the woman has been told to us. People who can't separate fact from a fictionalized version of a person's life should stop watching movies, reading books and just about everything else.
| by Anonymous | reply 79 | October 9, 2022 4:25 PM |
R79
She died 60 years ago, not 100 or 1,000.
| by Anonymous | reply 80 | October 9, 2022 4:31 PM |
They definitely did something to clean up Ana's accent in post production, because a couple of months ago, I saw a trailer for the movie where her accent was so thick, it was embarrassing. When I watched the movie last night, there were only a handful of times where you could detect an accent.
| by Anonymous | reply 81 | October 9, 2022 4:36 PM |
I don't understand why they chose to have Ana speak in that girlish, sex kitten voice throughout the entire movie, when it's well known that Marilyn put that voice on for the public, and that in real life, she had a much lower tone.
| by Anonymous | reply 82 | October 9, 2022 4:38 PM |
I found the movie to be be long and plodding, and while there were some truly beautiful moments cinematography wise, it was just a disjointed jumble of macabre, sadistic sick fantasies about Marilyn.
I thought Ana de Armas had one really good scene in the movie, and that was her audition for Don't Bother to Knock. Truly an amazing scene. Other than that, de Armas portrayed Marilyn as a neurotic, emotional mess, constantly on the verge of a breakdown, and not someone ANYBODY would want to spend time with.
| by Anonymous | reply 83 | October 9, 2022 4:42 PM |
