The Real Blonde is a 1997 American film directed and written by Tom DiCillo, and starring Matthew Modine, Catherine Keener and Maxwell Caulfield.
His longtime girlfriend Mary works as a cosmetician for the fashion industry and largely supports him with her steady income.
Joe is more concerned with expressing himself than getting a paying job, and has been unwilling to accept roles that do not live up to his artistic standard.
He also has a fetish for natural blonde women, leading him to date Sahara, a naive model, and then dump her after discovering that her hair is dyed.
Mary is harassed as she walks to work each day and begins taking a self-defense and anger management class on the advice of her therapist.
Bob is successful in his soap opera role and begins a relationship with his beautiful co-star Kelly, a "real blonde".
Joe meets Madonna's body double, Tina, a friendly aspiring actress, and gets himself fired for protesting an anti-Semitic statement made by the assistant director.
The Real Blonde had a higher budget than DiCillo's previous work, and he claimed it was not the kind of movie the studio wanted him to make.
At the time, he commented, "when they gave me the budget, they trusted me not to make a three-hour movie about two people staring at each other.
"[2] DiCillo has stated that Tom Rosenberg of Lakeshore Entertainment, the film's production company, wanted him to cast a big name actress in the role of Mary, such as Nicole Kidman or Julianne Moore.
DiCillo instead wanted Catherine Keener to play Mary, as he had experience working with her on previous films, including Box of Moonlight, Living in Oblivion and Johnny Suede.
[4][5] It then received a theatrical run in the United States beginning on February 27, 1998, where it grossed only $83,048 against a budget of $10 million.
[8] In September 1997, Lisa Nesselson of Variety wrote, "The Real Blonde pillories the shallow realms of fashion advertising, rock videos and soap operas while championing the search for sincere romance and rewarding work in the big city", and described the film as a "comic exploration of the quest for integrity and depth in a world wowed by artifice and superficiality."
Keener grounds the proceedings with her Everywoman brunette demeanor, and Berkley and Wilson sally forth for the hard-working blond contingent.
However, its dealings with contemporary sexual mores and male / female relationships, are, in some parts, quite amusing.
"[9] In March 1998, Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave it a C+, commenting "the movie, an attack on superficiality, never quite makes it out of the shallow end.
In his other review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, and wrote:[Director/writer DiCillo] devises brief, sharply observed scenes.
And Catherine Keener brings a wry wit to her character; she sees models on Times Square billboards and knows what it took to get them there.