Blonde

Blonde (2022) is Andrew Dominik's drama, and you can watch it online on iFILM. This is not a Marilyn Monroe biopic but a fictional riff on Joyce Carol Oates's novel. Ana de Armas takes the lead.

The film moves from a girl named Norma Jeane and her broken childhood to a woman the whole world recognises and barely knows. Dominik deliberately tangles fact and invention to widen the gap between the public star and whatever was left inside her. The picture jumps from black and white into colour, switches aspect ratios mid-scene, cuts moments off before they finish. Around de Armas stand Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale and Julianne Nicholson.

Made for Netflix, it became the first major Hollywood release to carry an NC-17 rating. The canvas runs nearly three hours and splits its audience down the middle: some read it as brutal honesty, others as relentless pain with no relief. De Armas earned an Academy Award nomination for the role. Stream Blonde (2022) online on iFILM.