While film fans have likely known about this project and have been anticipating it for quite a while (news about it first broke in 2014), Andrew Dominik’s feature film, “Blonde,” has largely been under the radar over the past couple of years as the drama finally inches closer to release. And according to the author of the novel that inspired the film, “Blonde” is something that moviegoers might not be prepared for.
“Blonde” is a film based on the Joyce Carol Oates novel of the same name and tells a fictional biography of Marilyn Monroe and the struggles the actress experienced over the years before her untimely death. The drama is written and directed by Dominik, who is probably best known for features such as “Killing Them Softly” and “ The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” and stars up-and-coming actress Ana de Armas in the lead role. And speaking on social media, Oates offered some insight into what people can expect with the upcoming Netflix film and why everyone should be excited for Dominik’s latest.
On Twitter, the author wrote, “I have seen the rough cut of Andrew Dominick’s adaptation & it is startling, brilliant, very disturbing & [perhaps most surprisingly] an utterly ‘feminist’ interpretation… not sure that any male director has ever achieved anything [like] this.”
Obviously, when you speak to the author of a novel that is being made into a film, that person might have a vested interest in liking the feature and perhaps even be a tad bit biased. Of course, there are also people, like Stephen King, who will be the first to tell you when an adaptation is bad. So, it’s unclear where Oates falls on that spectrum, but it’s high praise indeed to call a film “startling” and “brilliant,” as well as “utterly feminist.”
Consider our excitement for the film raised even more. De Armas is coming off of a breakout performance in “Knives Out” and is expected to be a huge star thanks to upcoming films like “No Time to Die” and her Ben Affleck co-starring feature, “Deep Water.” Needless to say, “Blonde” is going to be one of our most anticipated films of 2021, when it’s expected that Netflix will finally release the film.