Review of Blonde (2022) by Mattyice — 28 Sep 2022

Blonde is a painful movie to sit through thanks to multiple factors, the first and worst of which being the focused subject matter. The film chooses to focus exclusively on Monroe's continuous suffering and exploitation by every person she was surrounded by, which makes the film feel smut-like, monotonous, and, ironically, exploitative itself.

It reduces Monroe down to an abused sex symbol with daddy issues, rather than an actual human with character and depth beyond that. Additionally, with this harrowing subject matter in mind, Blonde is disgustingly long and should've had over an hour of its runtime cut, as scenes feel overly repetitive and there is not remotely enough depth to justify the length.

Lastly, combined with the aforementioned is the pretension in the direction and writing. The film's entire style is distracting and attention-seeking, using certain visuals (which on their own are beautiful) over and over again, while not justifying their continuous presence enough.

Ana De Armas gives a great performance as Marilyn and is a saving grace at times, but ironically the entire film feels like it's just abusing her for her beauty and body, rather than her acting ability, which I know from Blade Runner 2049 and Knives Out can be amazing on its own.

In the end, Blonde is a miserable, interminable, and honestly regressive film that only a sick sadist would find entertaining, empowering, or impactful. Do not waste your time with it.