Review ‘Blonde’: Netflix Marilyn Monroe Film Impressive but Unpleasant

Despite my opinion that Howard Hawks is one of the top five directors of all time, I didn’t get around to seeing 1953’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes until I could watch it with my teenage daughters. That film features one of the great Marilyn Monroe moments: her breathy/breathless rendition of the cheerfully cynical song “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.” (Apparently, credit for that scene belongs more to dance innovator and film choreographer Jack Cole than Hawks; co-star Jane Russell once said that Hawks “was not even there” for the musical numbers.) It features Marilyn in one of the greatest dresses ever put on screen, drenched in color and swarmed by tuxedoed suitors, begging King of Diamonds Harry Winston to tell her all about it. It also features chandeliers made of women.

I mention all this because my experience watching that scene provides a spoiler-free encapsulation of my experience watching Andrew Dominik’s Marilyn Monroe movie Blonde, currently playing on Netflix after an extremely limited theatrical release. (Don’t call it a biopic; despite its real-life elements, it’s based on a Joyce Carol Oates novel about the actress.) They have chandeliers made of women. That’s amazing. They have chandeliers made of women. That’s terrifying. Just look at them, cantilevered beneath the candelabras, cuffed and strapped into place, white skin against black bikini against red background. Spectacular. Awful.

ML

About the Author

Matthew Lickona

Matthew Lickona is a writer and editor living in Southern California. From 2010 to 2019, he was a film critic for the San Diego Reader.

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Despite my opinion that Howard Hawks is one of the top five directors of all time, I didn’t get around to seeing 1953’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes until I could watch it with my teenage daughters. That film features one of the great Marilyn Monroe moments: her breathy/breathless rendition of the cheerfully cynical song “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.” (Apparently, credit for that scene belongs more to dance innovator and film choreographer Jack Cole than Hawks; co-star Jane Russell once said that Hawks “was not even there” for the musical numbers.) It features Marilyn in one of the greatest dresses ever put on screen, drenched in color and swarmed by tuxedoed suitors, begging King of Diamonds Harry Winston to tell her all about it. It also features chandeliers made of women.

I mention all this because my experience watching that scene provides a spoiler-free encapsulation of my experience watching Andrew Dominik’s Marilyn Monroe movie Blonde, currently playing on Netflix after an extremely limited theatrical release. (Don’t call it a biopic; despite its real-life elements, it’s based on a Joyce Carol Oates novel about the actress.) They have chandeliers made of women. That’s amazing. They have chandeliers made of women. That’s terrifying. Just look at them, cantilevered beneath the candelabras, cuffed and strapped into place, white skin against black bikini against red background. Spectacular. Awful.