THB Headline: Joyce Carol Oates Tweet Reviews Blonde

I think it was/is a brilliant work of cinematic art obviously not for everyone. surprising that in a post#MeToo era the stark exposure of sexual predation in Hollywood has been interpreted as "exploitation." surely Andrew Dominik meant to tell Norma Jeane's story sincerely.

not a film for the faint of heart. the director is unflinching, intransigent. the last 20 minutes or so are almost too powerful to be viewed. over all, brilliant cinematography & performance by Ana de Armas.

the problem is, "Marilyn" was a performance. the performer was Norma Jeane Baker. the story is hers, from the inside. but I quite understand, many viewers just do not want to see such an unflinching story-- perhaps it is too true to the experience of some women.

not all films are obliged to be uplifting in their conclusions.

I felt that Norma Jeane became "Marilyn Monroe" & "Marilyn Monroe" become the "Blonde Actress" as she succumbed to drug addiction/ hallucinations. I feel that we all shift our personalities through time & begin to lose our original identities nearing death

In "Don't Bother to Knock" MM was not playing that role, nor in "Niagara." it seems to have been created for "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." perhaps that director encouraged MM to play the breathy, babyish blonde? from that point onward, that was "MM."

for the young starlet Norma Jeane Baker, there was no possibility of her "telling"/ "reporting" a rape. no one would have believed a starlet, or cared; & she would have been dropped from the studio & blacklisted. so, the movie "Blonde" exposes the rape, 50 or 60 years later.

the cruel sexual exploitation of Marilyn Monroe by, among others, John F. Kennedy is well known to biographers of both MM & Kennedy; but the treatment on screen is difficult for some viewers to see, so suggest just do not see it.

like "Requiem for a Dream" & some films by David Lynch, "Blonde" is clearly not a film for everyone. some friends of mine are actually afraid to see it!--& I quite understand.

"Blonde" (film) turns out to be something of a Rorschach test: some see the exposure of sexual mistreatment of Marilyn Monroe as "exploitation" & others see it as a revelation of how a gifted young woman was treated in Hollywood & elsewhere, pre#MeToo.

it isn't for me to judge people who are appalled by scenes in films that, though "true" enough, are just too disturbing to see; I have to confess, I could barely watch "Son of Saul" & "The White Ribbon"; & have no wish to see any more Holocaust films...

the last 20 minutes are of an unearthly sort of cinematic beauty. never has Death seemed so palpable. (in fact, I don't think that MM committed suicide deliberately; I think she "took her own life" by accident, amid great despair.)

it would have been good to show how The Athlete (i.e., Joe Dimaggio) came forward after Marilyn's death to pay for a decent funeral & burial for her. but the novel & the film both end with her death. DiMaggio was furious w/ Hollywood for destroying Marilyn; he still loved her.