Blonde is a 2022 American biographical[5][6][7] psychological drama film[8] written and directed by Andrew Dominik, based on the 2000 novel by Joyce Carol Oates.

[11] The film received controversial responses from critics and audiences; while de Armas's performance garnered praise, the fictionalisation of Monroe's life was considered exploitative and the screenplay was criticised.

Norma Jeane becomes pregnant by Cass, much to her delight, but decides to get an abortion out of fear of the child possibly inheriting her mother's mental issues.

She later meets Joe DiMaggio, a retired athlete who sympathizes with her when she expresses her desire to leave Hollywood and become a more serious actress in New York City.

While filming Some Like It Hot, Norma Jeane becomes more uncontrollable and mentally disturbed, overwhelmed by the constant press attention, feels that she is becoming a joke, has frequent outbursts on set, especially towards director Billy Wilder, and grows increasingly distant from Arthur.

Secret Service agents pick up an intoxicated Norma Jeane and take her to a hotel to meet President John F. Kennedy, who forces her to fellate him, before raping her, and then has her taken away after she vomits in his bed.

Already dazed and drugged, Norma Jeane begins to wonder if this is what being Marilyn Monroe has led to, and she also hallucinates having another abortion before being sent back to her home in Los Angeles.

Andrew Dominik, who directed the film and served as screenwriter, had begun developing the project as early as 2010, which is an adaptation of the novel Blonde (2000), a fictional and controversial account of Monroe's life—and a Pulitzer Prize finalist—by Joyce Carol Oates.

For women, she embodies all the injustices visited upon the feminine, a sister, a Cinderella, consigned to live among the ashes [...] I want to tell the story of Norma Jean [sic] as a central figure in a fairytale; an orphan child lost in the woods of Hollywood, being consumed by that great icon of the twentieth century.

"[14] Dominik described the film as being "more accessible" than his previous projects and revealed that his script contained "very little dialogue", as he preferred to make it more of an "avalanche of images and events."

I think the project has got a lot of really exciting possibilities, in terms of what can be done, cinematically.For Dominik, Blonde was his first attempt at developing a film featuring a woman at the center of the story.

During a retrospective screening of his Oscar-nominated western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), Dominik stated, "It's a different thing for me to do [...] the main character is female.

"[19] In May 2010, it was announced that Naomi Watts would star in the film as Monroe, and that the production, which at this point cost an estimated $20 million, was slated to begin principal photography in January 2011.

[23] In August 2019, it was announced that Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Julianne Nicholson, Caspar Phillipson, Sara Paxton and Xavier Samuel joined the cast, followed by Garret Dillahunt, Scoot McNairy, Lucy DeVito, Michael Masini, Spencer Garrett, Chris Lemmon, Rebecca Wisocky, Ned Bellamy and Dan Butler in September 2019.

[42] Much of Blonde's cinematography is digitally shot in black and white;[43] other portions of the film are in color, aspect ratios (1:1, 1.37:1, 1.85:1, 2.39:1[44]) shift to depict historical usage.

[46][48][49] Blonde was set to premiere at 2021 Venice Film Festival, but Netflix was unhappy with the final cut it received, and hired Jennifer Lame to help.

[50] Real footage from Monroe's filmography is used in this movie mixed in with scenes recreated by Ana de Armas, who was placed in the films All About Eve (1950), Don't Bother to Knock (1952), Niagara (1953), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), and Some Like It Hot (1959).

Dominik was allowed to use the footage after an MGM executive was fired and was replaced by Michael De Luca, who finally gave him permission to use the film clip.

[51] The score was composed and performed by long-time collaborators Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, with the soundtrack album released on September 28, 2022.

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.

"[75] Vanity Fair's Richard Lawson found it a "fascinating alternative to the traditional biopic", commending the unconventional storytelling, direction, and de Armas' performance.

"[82] 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.

[85] "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.

[86] 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.

"[87] 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.

It also acts like a tease—just how scandalous was this sexpot's life anyways?—in a way that may prevent the movie from shrinking Monroe the myth back down to Norma Jean [sic].

[104] 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.

"[106] Writing for IndieWire, Samantha Bergeson claimed the film makes an anti-abortion statement by showing a CGI fetus talking to Monroe.

"[70] A sentiment shared by abortion rights activists such as Caren Spruch, national director of arts and entertainment engagement at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, who called it "medically inaccurate descriptions of fetuses and pregnancy" in a statement to The Washington Post.

[108] 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.