I'd been meaning to see Netflix's 'Blonde', despite my natural aversion to celebrity biopics, largely due to Bobby Cannavale's appearance who, to me, is a good actor. Having just finished it, gotta say I kinda wish I'd stuck to the one or two fragments I saw before the movie released. Would've kept my opinion of it much higher. I won't bore you with a review of the movie itself, as those are everywhere, it seems, and besides, you've got one in the title of this post. Aside from the phenomenal acting all around, the movie has little to give it the weight it so badly craves.
And where "Elvis" managed to rouse sympathy for its "troubled star", 'Blonde' only manages to alienate all sides, it seems. Which is what I really wanted to write about.
Even the people who couldn't be arsed to watch such a production normally may now feel incensed after the copious amount of criticism it's received online. One thing I liked about the movie was its stark portrayal of abortion, which comes to haunt Norma Jean, some could say, to death. It was among the few good things about this production, that it portrayed the genuine guilt and suffering that our society doesn't talk enough about. Mind you, that part also gets cringy after a while.
Of course, that was immediately destroyed in the press by inflamed left-wing "pro-choice" activists (who may as well be described as anti-life, really. When you only support one of the two choices, you're not pro-choice at all.). How could a big Netflix movie broadcast such "anti-abortion propaganda"? Funny how it's always propaganda when someone else is saying it. You never hear a peep out of these people whenever there's a nice big movie celebrating abortion, or demonizing motherhood. Not a peep. Odd.
What strikes me as interesting here, though, is that the movie works so hard to make Norma the perpetual victim, and it backfires. The very mob it's supposed to appease is now slamming it for being sexist and trite (which, again, it is). After going to all the trouble of including all those nasty, lecherous, Weinstein types in their production, as well. What a shame.
Just in case that didn't work, you've got Joe DiMaggio being a right proper cunt 'cause he slaps his wife around a little. Personally, was not impressed. Why should anyone be? Whatever his faults in real life, the way the movie puts it, the guy tells his wife "hey, stop letting these assholes treat you like a brainless fuckdoll", and what does she do? She goes and plays at being a brainless fuckdoll.
Then you've got a scene where Arthur Miller is surprised she's well-read, 'cause she's just "a dumb blonde", right? In a movie that spends almost three hours making this wonderful actress exclusively behave like a dumb blonde. Thus pissing off the very people it was supposed to appeal to. Is that precious or what? I love it when these people turn on their own.
At the end of the day, the Norma Jean in the movie, to me, was the soft core that most of us (women? people?) carry around inside us. The one who gets hurt easy, and wants to trust a lot. The one you often think you'd be better off without. But what the movie gets wrong, you see, is telling audiences that the world's unfair and everyone's a big bully because they don't notice and nurture you as a special little flower. Well, no. The world is tough and unfair and often ugly. Just as it is beautiful, amazing, and capable of renewing hope in the most dire of situations. It is a duality that we've created and hidden ourselves in, what's the point of moaning about our fate now?
It sends out such a poor message, too. You could be so much, and so strong, and so brilliant. And sure, maybe someone's gonna get all aww and weepy over a biopic of your life 50 years on, but that doesn't sound like much consolation to me. In the end, 'Blonde' left me with the same message 'Elvis' did. Victimhood is a choice. Sitting around, saying yeah, the world ain't fair, and look what it did to these nice people is meaningless, not to mention poor conversation.
P.S.: But then, what do you expect from a Joyce Carol Oates adaptation?