Marilyn Monroe biopic, "Blonde" (Netflix)

[Black Narcissus]

Ana de Armas will win an Oscar for her performance here. And ya'll are going to clap and are going to goddamn love it, and with a grand sincere smile, you will say thank you, I will rewatch it again, so help you god.

 

[shauner111]

Do you really think there was no thought put into the choice? You know every single element of a movie is planned out far in advanced, with various meetings, notes, etc? Do you think people just somehow missed the fact that she doesn’t sound like Monroe and it wasn’t a deliberate choice?

Dude. Why would they make the choice for her to sound Cuban? What would be the thought process behind that? Do you mean to tell me when an American actor does a poor British accent for a movie, or when Charlie Hunnam’s accent slips while playing an American that it was deliberate?

What?

Mistakes are made. Sometimes ppl aren’t very good at attempting something. Did Coppola and Keanu plan for his British accent to be terrible on purpose? No. They already cast the person. There’s a time limit the actor has to work on their accent before the shoot, and everyone hopes for the best. It either works or it doesn’t, and you have to roll with it when production starts. You can’t delay a shoot just because the actor couldn’t nail the accent, obviously. Ana put the work in. She said so in a interview. But so has every living actor. Doesn’t mean it’s going to turn out well.

 

[Sawyer]

Ana de Armas will win an Oscar for her performance here. And ya'll are going to clap and are going to goddamn love it, and with a grand sincere smile, you will say thank you, I will rewatch it again, so help you god.

This gif was made specifically to trigger Grace Randolph.

 

[Kane52630]

This gif was made specifically to trigger Grace Randolph.

 

[Eddie Dean]

Dude. Why would they make the choice for her to sound Cuban? What would be the thought process behind that? Do you mean to tell me when an American actor does a poor British accent for a movie, or when Charlie Hunnam’s accent slips while playing an American that it was deliberate?

What?

Mistakes are made. Sometimes ppl aren’t very good at attempting something. Did Coppola and Keanu plan for his British accent to be terrible on purpose? No. They already cast the person. There’s a time limit the actor has to work on their accent before the shoot, and everyone hopes for the best. It either works or it doesn’t, and you have to roll with it when production starts. You can’t delay a shoot just because the actor couldn’t nail the accent, obviously. Ana put the work in. She said so in a interview. But so has every living actor. Doesn’t mean it’s going to turn out well.

Have you heard of Bertolt Brecht?

 

[BoredGuy]

Dude. Why would they make the choice for her to sound Cuban? What would be the thought process behind that? Do you mean to tell me when an American actor does a poor British accent for a movie, or when Charlie Hunnam’s accent slips while playing an American that it was deliberate?

What?

Mistakes are made. Sometimes ppl aren’t very good at attempting something. Did Coppola and Keanu plan for his British accent to be terrible on purpose? No. They already cast the person. There’s a time limit the actor has to work on their accent before the shoot, and everyone hopes for the best. It either works or it doesn’t, and you have to roll with it when production starts. You can’t delay a shoot just because the actor couldn’t nail the accent, obviously. Ana put the work in. She said so in a interview. But so has every living actor. Doesn’t mean it’s going to turn out well.

Again, I don't think it was an "artistic choice" of "Let's make Marilyn sound Cuban"
I think the choice was, "let's get a talented actress who looks the part, and nobody will care about her accent if the movie is good"
There's very little chance a Cuban born, raised in Spain woman was going to nail a native English-speaking accent, and I'm sure the execs in charge knew that when they hired her

 

[shauner111]

Again, I don't think it was an "artistic choice" of "Let's make Marilyn sound Cuban"
I think the choice was, "let's get a talented actress who looks the part, and nobody will care about her accent if the movie is good"
There's very little chance a Cuban born, raised in Spain woman was going to nail a native English-speaking accent, and I'm sure the execs in charge knew that when they hired her

That’s fair. I was under the impression Eddie meant “they carefully planned out the accent to sound like this”.

 

[Kane52630]

 

[GothamCity]

Looks great. She is a great choice actually.

 

[Kane52630]

Marilyn Monroe Estate Defends Ana de Armas Accent in 'Blonde' - Variety

 

[Pennywise]

Brad Pitt Defends Ana De Armas as Marilyn Monroe in Blonde

 

[Sawyer]

Good or not, that’s just an unhinged amount of clapping. Get a grip, people.

 

[samsnee]

I feel like they would give a standing ovation to a car commercial at this point

 

[Enriquespy]

8 months training her accent? Wild.

 

[Black Narcissus]

 

[Stringer]

Is there a designated person timing these ovations? Hollywood is weird, man.

 

[Black Narcissus]

Andrew Dominik said he knew she was MM after watching Knock/Knock.

 

[Hollis Mason]

Seems like it's going to be the most controversial movie of the year. Still going to watch. Dominik is a good director. But some people on Twitter and Letterboxd really seem to HATE this movie, even though they haven't even watched it yet.

 

[shauner111]

Those people pretend like they know Marilyn and they know what really happened when in fact they just want something to scream about and this is what they’re choosing to fuel that fire.

 

[NotNickFury]

Very conflicted. On the one hand, everything you've heard about Ana de Armas is true: she is undeniably incredible as Marilyn Monroe and does a good job at showcasing how tortured this woman was while the entire world admired and ogled her.

However, this film, while yes, taking inspiration from a book and not Monroe's full life, takes some weird directing choices. Not in terms of how it's shot, as I do admire the way some scenes are framed, but the movie just jumps ahead at certain times with big gaps left out. We go from Norma Jean as a little kid to her already being in the film industry without any of the in-between. What inspired her to become an actress? What led to this meteoric rise and how Hollywood saw her as the dumb blonde?

I do appreciate a lot of moments where we get into Monroe's head when she talks about what she truly wants, and the film truly does feel like torture seeing how Monroe never truly had a shot at genuine happiness before any joy was ripped from her. That much I can't deny the film accomplishes. This movie is almost three hours and you feel its length, and there are some scenes where I was left going "Well, that was a choice," but I just wish more time was spent with the eventual transformation into Marilyn Monroe.

The film is daring and provocative. I cannot and will not argue that. It won't be everyone's cup of tea. I can see why it has an NC-17 rating, even if it doesn't go to the same lengths as, say, "The Brown Bunny." This film has been in my head since I saw it yesterday in the cinema and though I have my issues with "Blonde," it's bold in its storytelling and unapologetic in showcasing how objectified Monroe was, but also how she continually sought approval from people who were all too willing to give her that validation.

"Blonde" is a very dark film that doesn't have that uplifting finale that you got in "Spencer," but these are two very different films about two different women who had the world's eyes on them at all moments. Still, Ana de Armas delivers a fantastic performance that is very much award-worthy, in my opinion. I have my issues with some direction choices, and I'm left with a lot of questions, but it's managed to stay near the front of my mind since I saw it, so it accomplished the role in sticking with me.

At the very least, if you have Netflix, I would say check it out for Ana de Armas' performance alone.

 

[Asr]

Ana de Armas on Blonde 's explicit scenes: 'Those are harder for people to watch than for me to make'

 

[Kane52630]

I'll say this yeah this is definitely not for everyone even if you don't care that it's an obvious fictional tale of Marilyn Monroe's life. It's pretty experimental and stylish and it's Andrew Dominik trying out all the tools from the directing toolbox and seeing what works. Ana de Armas was incredible despite the misery porn of it all.

My only complaint is it's too repetitive and a bit too long.

 

[samsnee]

Both the critic and audience score aren’t great.

 

[Kane52630]

I'm still trying to get over the part where the movie makes a harsh left turn and it became Hereditary all of a sudden.

 

[Frodo]

I'm probably not gonna see this one.

As someone who grew up in the 80s and 90s,I've seen numerous Marylin Biopics, Biographies, documentaries , etc on Marylin.

One of the best docu-miniseries I've seen about her in the recent one by CNN which really told her story from a new and fresh perspective and explored how much of a ground breaker she is.

So having said all of that, I don't know what new this film has to offer me other than being able to go farther and more explicit than other Marylin Biopics have gone.

So, while I'm intrigued do to all the controversy surrounding it , I don't feel the need to see the film.