Blonde (2022) Review
Even if you look at Blonde as a fictional story of a fictional version of Marilyn Monroe, you are still left in the world of a director who does not respect his protagonist.
Andrew Dominik takes Monroe's dignity at every opportunity. It's clear that Dominik views Monroe as less than a person and in doing so condemns Ana de Armas to the same fate.
Every character in this film feels hollow as Dominik paints every relationship in Monroe's life as insincere. It seems clear that Dominik pities Monroe and reviles the choices she made (those of fact and fiction). His inability to see Marilyn Monroe as more than just a victim, rendered him incapable of directing de Armas to give a meaningful performance beyond the costume and makeup.
I was surprised by the blatant anti-abortion sentiments strewn throughout the film. They are both disgusting and disrespectful. We'll never know if Marilyn Monroe was truly haunted by having an abortion (if she even had one), but we do know that Andrew Dominik believes she should have been.
Dominik's inflated ego seeps its way into every piece of this film. He is not the visionary he believes himself to be and even at its core, this film is abysmal and renders poor performances from a talented cast.
I found myself comparing Blonde to the new Elvis film. Baz Luhrmann imbued his style and craft into his film while still treating Elvis with compassion. Even when portraying Elvis' struggles, it never felt like Elvis was being exploited or judged. Each director painted his own picture of an American icon, but with Luhrmann it was clear that his picture was drawn with care and respect for Elvis as a human being. Whereas Blonde is a picture of Monroe drawn by a man who looked down on her and her legacy.
Part of me wonders if this was a big joke to Dominik; a social experiment to see if he could exploit de Armas as Monroe was exploited. If it was, then I guess in a sense his experiment worked because we all showed up to watch.
