whoever thought a man should write and direct a marilyn monroe biopic AT ALL should be arrested first of all.

second of all, controversy aside, ana de armas does a very bad marilyn monroe impersonation here. her accent is annoying and horrendous. don't get me wrong, she can turn on the emotion and facial expressions with her huge expressive eyes and in some shots i was entranced at how she looked SO good but she doesn't transform into her character the way her peers can. come on, this is the same year we've seen austin butler completely disapear as elvis. i do genuinely think ana de armas thought she was paying her respects to marilyn, she does seem delusional enough to believe that marilyn would have been happy with her performance and with this film. but like let's stop the oscar conversations now please like spare us the pain.

in regards to the story, despite it being mostly very dull and boring, i don't understand how jumping around to only convey the traumatic and romantic/sexual (not to mention fictional) parts of someone's life is an accurate and fair depiction of anyone. marilyn monroe was so much more than a two dimensional sympathetic character on our screens. she was a real person, and although this film attempts to show us the contrast between norma and marilyn, it only shows her as a tragic figure who had to put on a mask to survive. i feel like we've seen enough films that showcase the downside of fame, so if that was the point of this very gritty take, then it didn't do anything new. i mean, i guess there are more cgi fetuses?? but who asked for that??

anyways, in a world where we could have imagined a fictionalized or speculated marilyn monroe as anything, why couldn't she have been a superhero? an assassin hell bent on revenge to those who did her wrong? a vampire or a fairy princess? hell, even a regular happy normal person? if we're going the fictional route of a biopic, then why did we have to put the memory of this poor woman through the ringer?? she's crying and suffering through half the movie like ??? andrew dominik you will pay for your crimes, and no amount of pretty lighting and cinematography will save you