2022 Cinema Ranked

5 years of holding out hope for this to be a masterpiece. Of waiting for Dominik's return with full creative control after he made my 2nd favourite film of all time in Jesse James. and this is all I got.

Even after the polarizing reviews I had some hope I was gonna love this. Maybe they're missing the point, it's all fictionalised, truth through artifice etc etc etc.

Instead this is just an empty shell of a movie. Not as provocative as it aims to be, but exploitative, miserable and tasteless all the same. Dominik has made it pretty clear that he has nothing but disdain for Monroe and this comes through in the film. De Armas gives it her all but is kinda lost at sea having been given very little to work with below the surface.

He's done a disservice not just to Monroe, but to whatever fictionalised version of her this is supposed to be. Has very little to say about fame and patriarchal exploitation and is instead more interested in parading around Monroe's living corpse and presenting her as a dim whore who's entire personality revolves around her daddy issues. 

More interested in its own wildly inconsistent style than any exploration of character. My issue isn’t even that’s it’s traumatic or sexualised. It’s just that it’s so empty and mean spirited.

"iTs NoT a BiOpIc!!"
Ok, then it's a pathetic and misogynistic excuse for a character study.

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis innocent.