Blonde: The controversial first week of New Zealand’s No. 1 Netflix movie

Kiwi-born director Andrew Dominik’s new Marilyn Monroe biopic, Blonde, skyrocketed to No. 1 on Netflix in New Zealand within hours of it dropping last Wednesday night – but viewers have hit out against the controversial film, calling it “detestable”, saying they were left “horrified” and “disgusted”.

The nearly-three-hour, R18-rated film chronicles Monroe’s heartbreaks, assaults and personal tragedies, and was met with a 14-minute standing ovation during its star-studded Venice Film Festival premiere in August – but its public release has elicited no such joy.

Now that Blonde is available on the platform, viewers have slammed it on social media, with one writing that they “couldn’t stomach more than about 20 minutes… nothing but cruel and heartbreaking. Absolutely unwatchable.”

Critics panned the film’s re-traumatisation of the main subject – the film shoots Monroe’s death scene at the real-life site of her death, depicts Monroe’s graphic sexual assault at the hands of President Kennedy and features many “in-utero” scenes that show a talking CGI foetus begging Monroe not to abort it.

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And while critics around the globe have universally applauded star Ana de Armas’ transformation into Monroe, they have been equally vitriolic in their takedowns of the film.

Stuff’s own Graeme Tuckett described the film as “more slow-burn horror than conventional biopic”, praising the craft and star de Armas’ performance, before concluding, “I still got to the end of the 166 minutes wishing they hadn’t bothered, or at least that they had stuck to the truth.”

The New York Times called it “the latest necrophiliac entertainment to exploit her”, while the Los Angeles Times said, “The film isn’t really about Marilyn Monroe. It’s about making her suffer.”

In a one-star review for The Independent, Jessie Thompson wrote: “Blonde is not a bad film because it is degrading, exploitative and misogynist, even though it is all of those things. It’s bad because it’s boring, pleased with itself and doesn’t have a clue what it’s trying to say.”

Author and Model Emily Ratajkowski also criticised the film on TikTok, weighing in on the controversy, accusing the film of “fetishising” female pain:

“I’m not surprised to hear that it’s yet another movie fetishizing female pain, even in death.”

Planned Parenthood weighed in on the “in-utero” scenes, criticising film as “anti-abortion propaganda” in the Hollywood Reporter.

“While abortion is safe, essential healthcare, anti-abortion zealots have long contributed to abortion stigma by using medically inaccurate descriptions of foetuses and pregnancy,” said the organisation, “the new film, Blonde, bolsters their message with a CGI-talking foetus, depicted to look like a fully formed baby.”

Blonde was adapted from Joyce Carol Oates’ bestselling 2000 novel of the same name and chronicles Monroe’s traumatic ascent through the Hollywood system, after her tumultuous upbringing in an orphanage.

Netflix on their website says the film “boldly reimagines the tumultuous private life of the Hollywood legend – and the price she paid for fame”.

In an interview with Screen Daily back in February, Dominik said his film depicted “what it’s like to go through the Hollywood meat-grinder.”

More recently, in an interview with The Wrap, he responded to the criticism swirling around his film.

“You just have to watch as she’s unable to conquer her own demons, and that’s the whole idea of the movie,” he said. “People feel very protective of her, and I think that’s part of the problem. I think that’s part of the reason why she’s dead.”