Critical response earned an
Academy Award nomination for
Best Actress for her portrayal of Monroe.
Blonde was controversial among critics and audiences alike and was described as a "complicated, highly divisive film". Praise was directed towards de Armas's performance, but the response to the writing and Dominik's depiction of Monroe's life divided critics; some found the film's spin on the traditional biopic refreshing, while others criticized it as exploitative, sexist, On the
review aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes,
Blonde holds a rating of 42% based on 318 reviews, with an average of 5.5/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Ana de Armas' luminous performance makes it difficult to look away, but
Blonde can be hard to watch as it teeters between commenting on exploitation and contributing to it." On
Metacritic, which uses a
weighted average, the film has a score of 50 out of 100, based on 57 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Reviewing the film following its world premiere at Venice, where it received a 14-minute standing ovation, reducing de Armas to tears,
Vanity Fairs
Richard Lawson found it a "fascinating alternative to the traditional biopic", commending the unconventional storytelling, direction, and de Armas' performance.
Owen Gleiberman of
Variety called de Armas' work "a performance ... of breathtaking shimmer and imagination and candor and heartbreak."
Deadline Hollywoods Damon Wise stated the film is an "astonishing" way to tell Monroe's life in a fictional sense, as it is "presented as a horror movie in the surreal, nightmarish style" comparable to the
films of
David Lynch, especially
Mulholland Drive (2001). David Rooney of
The Hollywood Reporter called it "a must-see", yet also "a work of such wild excesses and questionable cruelty". In
GQ, Jack King's review also noted how the film shifts from a "traditional biopic" to "a movie unrelenting in its brutality".
The Guardians Leslie Felperin described the film as "ravishing, moving and intensely irritating" but ultimately "all a bit much", and assigned it a rating of three stars out of five. In a mixed review for
IndieWire, Sophie Monks Kaufman called the film a "bizarre, miserablist biopic", admiring de Armas' performance and the cinematography, but criticizing Dominik's portrayal of Monroe: "Dominik critiques the world for reducing his subject down to her topline assets—and then treats her in exactly the same way. His Marilyn is a sexy, breathy blonde with daddy issues. And that's all, folks."
The New York Times critic
Manohla Dargis panned the film, criticizing the fact that "once again a director is more interested in examining [Monroe's] body (literally, in this case) than getting inside her mind" and writing "Given all the indignities and horrors that Marilyn Monroe endured during her 36 years, it is a relief that she didn't have to suffer through the vulgarities of
Blonde, the latest necrophiliac entertainment to exploit her." In his negative review,
Justin Chang from the
Los Angeles Times stated that the film "isn't really about Marilyn Monroe. It's about making her suffer." He also opined that the film "turns Marilyn Monroe into an avatar of suffering, dwelling on her pain so obsessively that even the film's fleeting moments of empathy feel like another form of exploitation". "At times, the movie feels like a slaughterhouse seen from the animal's point of view" wrote
Bilge Ebiri in his review for
Vulture, remarking on the film's tendency to elicit strong reactions and emotions from an audience by putting together what he described as a "captivating and terrifying" jigsaw puzzle of Monroe's life.
Anthony Lane, in his review for
The New Yorker, praised de Armas' performance and Dominik's visual style, but heavily criticized his portrayal of Monroe, ultimately concluding: "Bedazzling, overlong, and unjust,
Blonde does a grave disservice to the woman whom it purports to honor." In a negative review for
Slant Magazine, Jake Cole echoed Lane's sentiment, stating: "
Blonde…is the worst kind of
feminism, one so absorbed in the desire to 'save' a woman that it victimizes her as much as possible to make its redemption of her that much more praiseworthy." Writing for
Time,
Stephanie Zacharek criticized Dominik for allowing "no room for the real-life Marilyn's multidimensionality", asserting that "Marilyn—the brilliant, perceptive if often difficult performer—is almost nowhere to be seen in Andrew Dominik's willfully clueless
Freudian fantasy
Blonde". Jessie Thompson of
The Independent gave the film one star out of five, stating; "
Blonde is not a bad film because it is degrading, exploitative and
misogynist, even though it is all of those things. It's bad because it's boring, pleased with itself and doesn't have a clue what it's trying to say." Spanish director
Pedro Almodóvar called
Blonde a "great film" and praised Ana de Armas for portraying Monroe in "a chillingly real way". He later argued that de Armas deserved to win the
Best Actress Oscar for her performance. Actress
Jamie Lee Curtis—who starred opposite Ana de Armas in
Knives Out (2019), and whose father,
Tony Curtis, starred opposite Monroe in
Some Like It Hot (1959) and is featured in
Blonde—was impressed with de Armas' performance, after also seeing an early cut: "I dropped to the floor. I couldn't believe it. Ana was completely gone. She was Marilyn." Actor
Casey Affleck also praised the film, stating, "I've seen a couple of versions of
Blonde and it's taken him [Dominik] a long time to get it out into the world. But that's just how he is. He's so slow with it. And it's an amazing, beautiful film."
Suzie Kennedy, an English Marilyn Monroe impersonator and historian for over 20 years, openly despised the film, calling it "a terrible movie... an absolute assassination of Marilyn Monroe's legacy... an assassination of an icon," and that it "capitalized on and exploited the deep sadness of Marilyn's life."
Cast Upon the trailers' release, de Armas' casting as Monroe received some backlash as some viewers felt her ethnic background did not entirely match Monroe's, with complaints that she still maintained her native Cuban accent. Regarding her accent, Dominik told
Screen Daily in February 2022 that there was "work involved" in making the actress "sound American". Monroe's official estate defended de Armas' casting, stating, "Marilyn Monroe is a singular Hollywood and pop culture icon that transcends generations and history. Any actor that steps into that role knows they have big shoes to fill. Based on the trailer alone, it looks like Ana was a great casting choice as she captures Marilyn's glamour, humanity and vulnerability. We can't wait to see the film in its entirety!"
NC-17 rating Blonde sparked some controversy when its NC-17 rating (meaning adults only) was confirmed, raising concerns that it would be exploitative in its depiction of Monroe. The film itself features graphic scenes of sexual abuse, including a rape scene, as well as Monroe having an abortion, Speaking on the rating in an interview with
Screen Daily, Andrew Dominik stated, "It's a demanding movie—it is what it is, it says what it says. And if the audience doesn't like it, that's the fucking audience's problem. It's not running for public office," adding, "If I look at an episode of
Euphoria, it's far more graphic than anything going on in
Blonde". In an interview with fashion magazine ''
L'Officiel Italia'', de Armas echoed the sentiment, saying, "I don't understand why it happened. I can cite a number of programs or movies that are much more explicit and with a lot more sexual content than
Blonde. But to tell this story it's important to show all those moments in Marilyn's life that brought her to the end she did. It needs to be explained. In the cast everyone knew we should delve into unpleasant territory, it wasn't just up to me". Delving into what Dominik's vision for the film was, de Armas told
Rotten Tomatoes, "Andrew's ambitions were very clear from the start—to present a version of Marilyn Monroe's life through her lens. He wanted the world to experience what it actually felt like to not only be Marilyn, but also Norma Jeane. I found that to be the most daring, unapologetic, and feminist take on her story that I had ever seen." She added, "Our movie is not linear or conventional; it is meant to be a sensorial and emotional experience. The film moves along with her feelings and her experiences. There are moments when we are inside of her body and mind, and this will give the audience an opportunity to experience what it was like to be Norma and Marilyn at the same time." In a piece for
GQ, Keith Phipps argues that
Blonde, being an exception from the commercial stigma of having an NC-17 rating due to its exclusive release on a streaming platform, could usher in a new era of films and filmmakers that will "push beyond the restrictions of the R rating", writing, "In theory, the NC-17 rating could thrive on services like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Max and
Blonde could be a sign of things to come, possibly serving as a cue for other filmmakers to push beyond the restrictions of the R rating."
Criticism about depiction of abortion Writing for
IndieWire, Samantha Bergeson claimed the film makes an anti-abortion statement by showing a
CGI fetus talking to Monroe. Charles Pulliam-Moore wrote for
The Verge that
Blonde's CGI fetus "is anti-abortion propaganda dressed up as art", and called it "a judgmental CGI fetus who sometimes talks to Marilyn Monroe from within her uterus to shame her for having had an abortion in the past." Steph Herold, who researches reproductive health at the
University of California at San Francisco and studies abortion depiction in films and television shows, said the scene in which Monroe's character speaks to the fetus "totally infantilized her in ways that I've only seen in anti-abortion propaganda-type movies," Herold said; "I was pretty shocked by it, especially given the platform and the mainstream quality of this movie." There is no evidence that Monroe ever had an abortion, much less forced procedures as it was portrayed in the movie, according to historian
Michelle Vogel, author of
Marilyn Monroe: Her Films, Her Life. "Any talk of pregnancy termination is an assumption on our part. Marilyn loved children and she was desperate to be a mother. Sadly, she never carried a baby to term." Andrew Dominik denied the film is anti-abortion, saying in a statement to
TheWrap:
The Catholic World Report called
Blonde "unwittingly
pro-life".
Accolades ==See also==