Netflix
Following its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, the first reviews for Blonde — the NC-17-rated film about actress and model Marilyn Monroe that stars Ana de Armas in the lead role — have begun to hit the internet.
In general, while critics are praising de Armas’ performance as the legendary sex symbol, there seem to be some issues with the actual film, with one critic even calling Blonde “bizarre exploitation.”
The first reviews for Blonde are in and critics are praising Ana de Armas’ performance but say the film itself is flawed
“Ana de Armas delivers a phenomenal performance as Marilyn Monroe in Blonde, a biopic executed with such assured direction and distinctive flair,” DiscussingFilm says in their review of the film.
“It’s hard to ignore the queasy feeling that Dominik is getting off on the tawdry spectacle. De Armas holds nothing back in connecting with the character’s pain,” writes The Hollywood Reporter.
Blonde, flaws and all, reveals how the myth of Marilyn Monroe was built on top of who she was inside — a trauma of need so intense that she transformed herself into the greatest image of the power of beauty in the 20th century,” says Variety.
“Ana de Armas throws herself into a bizarre drama that only seems to want to deliver a story about a lifetime of victimization and exploitation,” IndieWire writes.
“Andrew Dominik’s controversial drama finds space for talking foetuses, presidential sex and a starry throuple – but denies its subject sufficient agency,” The Guardian writes in their 3-star review.
In addition to the 34-year-old de Armas as the iconic Marilyn Monroe, Andrew Dominik’s Blonde also stars Bobby Cannavale as Joe DiMaggio, Academy Award winner Adrien Brody as Arthur Miller, Xavier Samuel as Charles Chaplin Jr. (son of the legendary Charlie Chaplin), and Julianne Nicholson as Monroe’s mother Gladys Pearl Baker.
Blonde was directed by acclaimed filmmaker Andrew Dominik, who has also helmed The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Killing Them Softly, and a few episodes of the hit Netflix series Mindhunter.
Following its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, the NC-17-rated Blonde will hit Netflix in the United States on Wednesday, September 28.
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