Blonde (2022) Dir: Andrew Dominik
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Andrew Dominik's adaptation of the biographical fiction novel written by Joyce Carol Oates, is a film with very little in the way of reason or worth. There is no shying away from the fact that this is a very difficult watch.
The choice to explicitly depict scenes of harrowing sexual and domestic violence, as well as a number of other mortifying topics, only succeeds in horrifying the film's audience. Its exploitative, gratuitous and so unnecessarily explicit.
The amount of nudity, seemingly for the 'aesthetic' is genuinely ridiculous. It is as if the director wanted his star actress exposed for as much of the film's near 3 hour bloated runtime as possible. Cinematographer Chayse Irvin really thought he did something special here.
The constant switching between digital colour and monochrome filters is baffling, needless and jarring, only made worse by the aspect ratio changing seemingly every shot, in a desperate attempt to create a dreamlike and woozy aesthetic. Ultimately, a large portion of the visuals feel amateur and over-thought.
The only positive to emerge from all this is the performance of Ana de Armas, who thoroughly commits to every scene, and evokes a huge level of emotion that almost swept the bad taste from my mouth. She did an incredible job, providing a performance of true quality, earning an Oscar nomination for her efforts.
Beyond that, the only member of the supporting cast I felt it was worth focusing on was that of Adrien Brody. His performance is typical of him, in that it is very strong, if perhaps a little under the radar.
I will also mention a number of members from the supporting cast, whose performances or roles were worthy of mentioning; Toby Huss, Bobby Cannavale, Xavier Samuel, Evan Williams, Sara Paxton, Julianne Nicholson and Casper Phillipson.
Overall, I can't escape the conclusion that any artistic integrity this film has is buried under a depressing veil of exploitation and unnecessarily explicit content, included merely to shock the audience, rather than through any real necessity. This film left me hollow, irritated and feeling utter sorrow for Norma Jeane.
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