The Movie “Blonde,” directed by Andrew Dominik, came out September 28th, 2022. The movie is centered around Norman Jean, more popularly known as Marylin Monroe. The movie is in the genres of  romance, drama, and biography. The show stars Ana de Armas as Norma Jean/Marylin Monroe, Adrien Brody as The Playwright, and Caspar Phillipson as The President. The movie is set in the early 1950s and ends when Norma Jean died of an overdose in the 1960s. 

As stated earlier, the movie begins when Norma was a child and reveals the abuse she went through, inflicted by her mother. Her mother was mentally unstable, and Norma Jean was put into an orphanage. The rest of the movie follows her struggle through the movie industry. She suffers from a lot of sexual assault by her superiors, abuse from her spouse, and her own plummeting mental health, which was inherited from her mother. 

The acting performance by Ana de Armas was exceptional. She was able to portray Norma’s endurance during her suffering. Ana spent two and a half hours getting into hair and makeup, and it really paid off. She was able to represent Norma and all her hardships. The actor for Norma’s ex-husband  also portrayed his character very well. His character was abusive towards Norma, and he was very controlling and manipulative, in a way that character really came to life. 

The lighting was also remarkable in the movie. They would repeatedly switch back and forth between colored pictures and black and white. It really added to the effect of it being about someone who was acting in black and white movies. They did this sometimes in Norma’s emotional scenes, and it really made you feel like you were watching the actual Norma or Marylin act. It also changed how you interpreted the movie when it would just switch in her day-to-day life. That specifically changed how different the movie made you feel. 

Overall, the movie was good, and it made you sympathize for Norma/Marylin. Although, I felt that the movie was slow moving and a little forgettable, I would recommend it to people interested.