Rock wrote:
I can’t weigh in too much without having seen the film, but there’s been a weird moralizing quality to a lot of the reactions I’ve skimmed. To the point where it doesn’t register as organic, and I’m getting the sense a lot of people are reacting in that way because they feel they’re supposed to. I imagine that interview where Dominik seems dismissive of the idea that people are actually watching her movies has probably fuelled such fires. (I don’t think he’s wrong for the public at large, but perhaps not so much in certain cinephile circles.)
I think that sheerly on biographical merits, some of these reviews seem off. A theme in the film is fame and projection, and how Monroe, as an icon, became a receptical to what other people wanted her to be. And it looks like a lot of people want her to be a stronger woman than she was, and seem intent on criticizing the film for exploring these vulnerabilities. This is probably an aspect that requires viewing because it's a question of how well it does this, but I found the film quite sympathetic, but some reviewers see Dominik - the man behind the camera - as just another of her creepy abusers, why?, for showing how she was abused. It becomes a no-win situation at that point.
Justin Chang: "(The film) isn't really about Marilyn Monroe. It's about making her suffer." Jake Cole: "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." I think these criticisms are null on their face. If anyone wants to provide any actual biographical inconsistencies that show how Dominik (or author Joyce Carol Oates) were unfair or disingenuous to Monroe, than I'll take a look at those criticisms, but for the most part, the film simply looks like the ugly truth to me, and some critics maybe were hoping that Dominik would rewrite history and have her rise triumphant, maybe with a couple of M-60s, Heidi the Hippo style. They seem to have wanted a whitewash, and thank god we didn't get one. Let them eat their Elvis instead (77% Tomatometer).