Blonde: a Bleak, Bleached Bore.
by Katerina Kamysheva
Warning: Contains descriptions of sexual violence.
Writing this, I feel close to insanity.
The majority of those who’ve had the unfortunate incident watching Andrew Dominik’s Blonde (2022), would wholeheartedly agree that this film was a fundamental failure. That is why I almost feel ridiculous in reiterating the obvious, nevertheless there’ll always be those handful who disagree, and somehow see potential in this film. I am not usually the stubborn type who profusely maintains one side and can’t see through opposing arguments, this all changed with Blonde. So I’ll try my best to write this article with minimal aggression, to clearly state the obvious problem with this film. Here is why Blonde is a distasteful time waster.
Blonde, 2022, Netflix.
Once Upon a Time, around 2002 (a year we were blessed with Ice Age) Andrew Dominik came across the biographical fiction novel titled “Blonde” written by Joyce Carol Oates. In her book, Oates creates a novelized spin on Marylin Monroe’s life, (basically a wattpad fanfiction but on paper). In an interview on the topic of adapting the book into a film, Dominik said that “there was a story [he] was interested in telling, which is about how childhood drama shapes an adult’s perception of the world.” The process of writing the screenplay was that he “went with [his] instinct and wrote it pretty quick”, interesting, “quick” makes a lot of sense. Many studios were reluctant to produce this adaptation, I wonder why. Unfortunately, Netflix agreed to produce and finance the film, with production starting in 2019, (even the virus tried to stop this film from happening). After all the years of his untouched screenplay, Dominik said that he “didn’t change it that much, even though it was sitting around for 14 years.” Once again, this makes a lot of sense.
As much as the virus huffed and puffed, it couldn’t blow down Dominik’s production, so Blonde made its premiere at the 79th Venice Film Festival, and all hell breaks loose. The news of Blonde being the first NC-17 rated film to be released on a streaming service caused a lot of buzz. Arguably, the rating helped the film get its heavy media attention, which amplified the public’s curiosity, so it was a big driving factor for many to even watch this film. It definitely needed the buzz if audiences were to sit through a runtime of 2 hours and 46 mins, when one could have done something more productive, such as staring at a wall for that duration. Let’s reveal the truth why Blonde is actually just toxic bleach.
I’ll start with the only positive thing I have to say about Blonde, that is the cinematography, although this is really a double edged sword. It made the film look ‘pretty’, but simultaneously let the film down through its nonsensicality, causing distraction and confusion. Much of the visuals are of high standards from design to framing, aided with a 22 million USD budget this isn't out of the ordinary. The detail of immersing the audience into the backdrop of Monroe’s Hollywood is stunning, but then again, these images are just copied from actual images of Marylin Monroe. These world-famous, real-life photographs of Monroe are taken by some of the most notable photographers of the time. So, for Dominik to go ahead copy-and-paste these into Blonde, it will of course make the film ‘look nice’, but it’s not original and doesn’t help examine childhood trauma through pretty images of Ana de Armas in a wig.
Blonde, 2022, Netflix.
If this and the constant colour to b&w change wasn’t enough to induce a headache, the annoying changing aspect ratio will. When Dominik was asked about the reasoning behind these vomit inducing changes, his answer was as deep as you'd expect it to be, he said and I quote “There’s no story sense to it. It’s just based on the photographs. So if a photograph was, you know, four by three, then we do it four by three. There’s no logic to it, other than to try to know her life, visually.” Very imaginative indeed. Not only is this a pointless decision, but through this weird visual choice it distances the audience even more. The cinematography is beautiful, but it feels pretentious and no deeper than a perfume commercial. If Dominik is proclaiming this vision of Norma Jean hidden behind the star of Marlyin Monroe then why would he shoot this character in the most polished, unnatural and violating positions. Even in the most abusive, uncomfortable scenes it's almost filmed like a pornographic film with perfect lighting and aesthetic visuals, It’s pretty sick when you think about it. One will never achieve these raw, empathetic moments of Norma Jean’s trauma as Dominik claims to strive for through these choices. The film does look pretty but you can’t praise a film solely based on its visuals, especially if it's not even for the right reasons. It takes more than just to shoot de Armas pointlessly framed around red roses to make a good film (but hey at least it looked nice).
With almost three hours of generous runtime, one would think that the film would have some direction or varied tone, this is not the case with Blonde. To be honest, the film is pretty boring. I found the ‘Granny, I got the job’ YouTube advert more of a riveting family dynamics story, I feel the urge to know: What Job did she get? And what ‘runs in the family’ ? I digress, the films ‘structure’ (or lack of structure) is very repetitive, we follows Norma Jean’s traumatic events of either getting emotionally/physically abused or sexually assaulted. Blonde is assembled into vignettes of constant suffering, intercut with much softporn. With this constant bombardment of misery the audience inevitably starts to detach from the actual trauma presented on the screen; we don’t feel any sympathy for the character. How is it possible for us to find a reason to care for the character when there is no space in the film for us to better understand Norma Jeane! All we see is abuse after abuse, with no emotional beats of reflection. Because of this, the events that show Norma Jean’s lowest points don't feel real. Dominik conveyed a character with no nuance and no interest, hence we become so desensitised. And for those people who believe that this film is worth acclaim due to its provocative nature, its achievement in making some viewers uncomfortable, this does not total to a good movie. I think that this is pretty self explanatory but I’ll repeat it again, movies that manage to just distrubed you DO NOT automatically equal to a good movie. With this logic people could say that all snuff films on the dark web are brilliant! There isn’t a problem in showing graphic images when making a good film, provided that there is a sincere purpose/a reason for the shocking imagery, one Dominik clearly doesn't have. Blonde has no true evidence to support these frequent very much repetitive graphic scenes of abuse, they give the audience no new information or progress for a deeper understanding Norma Jean. Those scenes are there because everyone and their grandma knows it's a cheap way to grab attention.
Can we all please take a moment to realise that this film has effectively made the audience feel absolute numbness and apathy for a character who has gone through the worst possible trauma. Now even to reach this level of withdrawal is pretty surprising, considering the film’s themes, but Dominik has managed to do just this. A key element that is missing from Blonde, is that in order to present trauma the filmmaker needs to understand how to tell the story that surrounds the abuse, not just the abuse. We’re only presented with the hopeless repetitive visual cases of abuse, with Ana de Armas crying after every other scene of excessive nudity. So where are the moments of getting to know the character? This leads me to the next point, of why Dominik presents a shallow character and fails to capture a dimensional Norma Jean.
Blonde, 2022, Netflix.
Can we all please take a moment to realise that this film has effectively made the audience feel absolute numbness and apathy for a character who has gone through the worst possible trauma. Now even to reach this level of withdrawal is pretty surprising, considering the film’s themes, but Dominik has managed to do just this. A key element that is missing from Blonde, is that in order to present trauma the filmmaker needs to understand how to tell the story that surrounds the abuse, not just the abuse. We’re only presented with the hopeless repetitive visual cases of abuse, with Ana de Armas crying after every other scene of excessive nudity. So where are the moments of getting to know the character? This leads me to the next point, of why Dominik presents a shallow character and fails to capture a dimensional Norma Jean.
For Dominik, it seems the decision of casting the protagonist was just as quick and easy as it was for him writing the screenplay. After watching the 2015 film Knock Knock, which to no surprise was designed for a male gaze, Andrew Dominik found his star! In this erotic thriller, Ana de Armas played the cliched sexy, soaked tshirt girl who seduces a middleaged man. After his erotic thrill was fulfilled from watching two girls sleep with Keanue Reeves’ character, he called in de Armas for an audition. He secured her position just after one audition, “I only had to audition for Monroe once and Andrew said ‘it’s you’” - Ana de Armas, Vanity Fair 2020. It’s difficult to pinpoint what his aims were as a director in making this film, watching Blonde it comes across as though Dominik didn’t have a clear goal for the film's purpose, I felt like I gained nothing from it. It's a shame because in his most comparable film (in terms of themes) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) , which was also based off a novel with the same title, had similar topics Dominik wanted to tackle within with Blonde. In Jesse James, Dominik explores the deconstruction of the American myth, sadly this exploration is only successful in Jesse James not in Blonde. It achieved this success, through its framing of a clinical narration, reminiscent of something like a tour-guide experience, giving the film a display case quality that is at once a story and a statement about storytelling. The myth-making plays into Robert Ford's psyche which causes the story itself to play out the way it does, it works as the two inform and enrich each other. However, this irony does NOT play into Blonde. Dominik just can’t seem to decide what Blonde wants to be, Jesse James is for the most part a straight empathetically told and shot film, while Blonde is sat in this strange uncanny territory, trying to do both things at once, with neither successful satire of these images nor straight face tragedy. The adult psyche of Norma Jean which Dominik attempts to display is pretty surface level. Blonde gives us a very basic relationship, drawn between parental absence and sexual promiscuity, which compromises Norma Jean’s relationships. We don't get to the truth of what's going on inside the characters head, the extent of her headspace manifested is calling all the men in her life ‘Daddy’ or talking to a poorly made GCI foetus (even the half-cat people in 2019s Cats is more believable), which in both cases are simply comical and cannot be taken seriously. In Jesse James the audience is presented with an American-myth but whose character we get to uncover, the dialogue that Dominik writes for Blonde is so painfully superficial even when he tries to show us glimpses of the ‘real’ Norma Jean all we are left with is a one dimensional punching bag.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, 2007, Warner Bros.
Anyone who has a small bit of understanding in regards to acting, writing, directing, filmmaking, knows that constructing a character's motivations, objectives and obstacles are crucial information for good characterisation. We have no agency with Dominik’s version of Norma Jean, nothing that makes us sympathise with this one noted character. In regards to the people who will defend Blonde in saying that “it’s an image, a symbol”, I would say that this is all hunky-dory if it was actually executed well. An exploration of an American-myth is an interesting idea, but why was it presented in such an annoying, bleak and tiresome way? Walking away from viewing this film I was left thinking - what was the point in that? It didn’t make me feel anything. It's well understood that Blonde is based on fiction, I went in knowing this, however it's still matter of fact, inspired by a real human being who lived and breathed as you do now. So I say this, if Andrew Dominik really wanted to create an empathetic look into how childhood drama shapes the life of Norma Jean, it would not be this distastefully shallow with how it absolutely disrespectfully and voyeuristically exploits not only Marylin Monroe’s legacy but also Ana de Armas, who I truly feel sorry for being part of this.
From interviews it's very suggestive that Dominik isn’t a fan of Marylin Monroe. Need I remind us all of the interview with Christina Newland for BFI Sight and Sound, where he calls 1953 Gentlemen Prefer Blonde as a film about “well-dressed whores”. All in all, Blonde is a dull waste of time, I’d be more mentally stimulated from watching Adam Sandler in Jack & Jill. The least Andrew Dominik could have done was make a short Disclaimer at the start of the film saying that it's all based on fiction, for those poor, foolish souls that let Blonde be their first introduction to an incredible woman, who can’t take a break from greedy people who know they can capitalise off of her image. I really think that Dominik didn't have good intentions with making this film, it’s truly upsetting to think that he used his position to create something that has put feminism back 20 years. If you're seriously going to tell me that Blonde doesn’t present Ana de Armas in a voyeuristic way and that there was no excessive nudity that only serves to feed the male gaze, then you're lying to yourself. Why is it that the only good reviews of this film that I’ve heard (which were not many) were all from men who haven’t experienced similar traumas to the character? Just think about that for a second, I really don't think I have to answer that for you.
Blonde, 2022, Netflix.
The ultimate irony is that Dominik and the studio have essentially exploited de Armas just as Norma Jeane Mortenson was. In an interview with de Armas she said, “I know what’s going to go viral, and it’s disgusting.” If you haven't already, don’t watch Blonde, I couldn’t not recommend this toxicity enough.
by Katerina Kamysheva, October 2022.
