The rest of the cast are solid, the film is visually stunning from start to finish, and I loved the music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis (at least one track was a repurposed instrumental from Ghosteen, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' last album, but it fit so well I didn't mind). She'll probably get some nominations come awards season. Ana de Armas is fantastic in the lead role. That idea is horrifying, and I think the film successfully painted it as horrifying. The fact is, things similar to this did almost certainly happen to Monroe and other young actresses. It's arguably not much better nowadays, but whether these exact things happened to her or not feels somewhat beside the point. I think the film was sympathetic to her, and aimed to showcase how misogynistic the film industry was at the time Norma Jean/Marilyn Monroe was active within it. So is it exploiting that pain, discomfort, and trauma? That seems to be the other big talking point. There's very little about it that's supposed to be erotic, and I think that's evident by how the camera tends to lock onto Norma Jean's face, to emphasize the pain, discomfort, and trauma she feels during those scenes. Almost none of the scenes that involve sex or nudity are presented in a titillating way, and they're all over quite quickly.

This film is shocking in parts, yes, but not as bad as a lot of the early discussions surrounding it made it sound. Truthfully, I don't understand most of it. I don't want to talk about the controversy too much, but it's important to address it briefly. It's probably going to be what most film news sites or discussion groups focus on for the next week or two, and maybe longer if it ends up earning some nominations for the upcoming awards season.

That's happened within the last day or two, and I expect that will blow up the discussion and discourse around it even more. Blonde was already one of the most controversial and hotly debated films of the year before it hit Netflix, and therefore became available to the public at large.

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