Blonde Review: Critics Praise Ana de Armas' Portrayal of Marilyn Monroe, Call the Biopic 'Explicit' and 'Infuriating'
Blonde is an upcoming biopic based on Marilyn Monroe and is directed by Andrew Dominick starring Ana de Armas. The film will release on September 16, 2022.
Ana de Armas' highly anticipated Blonde had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and the verdict on it is out. While there is a lot of positives going around, there is a bunch of negatives too. With many praising Armas' portrayal of Marilyn Monroe, many reviews are also talking about how the legacy of the iconic actress is being tarnished due to the film. Let's take a look at what some of the critics are saying. Venice Film Festival 2022: Ana de Armas Hugs Blonde Director Andrew Domink After the Film Gets 14-Minute Standing Ovation.
Watch the Trailer For Blonde:
The Guardian: It will be interesting to see how this plays to audiences when it comes out and eventually hits Netflix, testing whether Monroe’s story still speaks to viewers younger than the baby boomers who remember her when she was still alive. De Armas’s intense and ultimately persuasive performance goes a long way towards bringing the goddess down to earth, but will that be enough?
Indie Wire: The film is obsessed with Monroe’s wide-eyed beauty, and it is apt to capture the quality that enabled Norma to become Marilyn, giving her a passport out of poverty and, on the flip-side, luring in predators of all descriptions. Yet, close-up after close-up after close-up eventually starts to feel less like a knowing nod to her powers, and more like the director trying to have his cake and eat it.
The Hollywood Reporter: The tragic dimension of a woman adored by the world, devoured by Hollywood and ultimately abandoned to her own despair in an ordinary little house in Brentwood resonates because we know Marilyn’s sad story. But 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. She deserves better.
Deadline: But for the brave and the curious, Blonde should prove fascinating, an engrossing slow-motion car wreck of a movie that puts you squarely in the driver’s seat of the oncoming vehicle. It’s worth noting that Monroe wasn’t even Hollywood’s first crash-and-burn idol, outliving the tragic Jean Harlow, among many, by 10 years, but somehow she has become the urtext when it comes to the perverse destiny of movie-star blondes. And with de Armas as his muse, Dominik has found an astonishing way to re-tell it.
Empire: There’s a fine line between depicting the way Marilyn Monroe was underestimated, and joining in with that assessment. Blonde doesn’t always wind up the right side of that line, but has spectacular visual fireworks to spare.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 09, 2022 01:05 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).