Blonde (2022)

I agree with a review that I read of this movie that asserts that the film abuses and exploits Marilyn Monroe all over again, this time in gritty details. She is almost drowned by her mother, raped on the casting couch, a third wheel in a gay relationship, a physically assaulted wife, and the list goes on and on. It is overly long and overly detailed, especially in the sexual exploitation aspects. Sooner or later you will have to turn your eyes away as this lurid display becomes just too much. The shot from inside Marilyn’s vagina as she was having a forced abortion performed on her is one such scene. Enough already. But no, it just keeps coming and there is a lengthy, extreme close-up of a drugged-up Monroe fellating President Kennedy while he’s on the phone in a hotel room that feels gratuitous and over played. That said, Ana da Armas is up to the task. Whether she is crying or naked, both of which she is asked to do a lot, she is pitch perfect. She gives it her all in every moment; she’s so captivating, so startling, that you long for the part to provide her the opportunity to show more of Marilyn’s depth, to dig deeper than the familiar cliches, but alas, that does not happen.