Blonde (with Samantha Prosser)

Rotten Rewind

Comedian and co-host of The Toni Awards, Samantha Prosser, joins us to unpack the discourse surrounding Andrew Dominik's polarizing adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates' "Blonde." Starring Ana De Armas in an Oscar-nominated performance as Marilyn Monroe, "Blonde" has been stirring up controversy ever since its first trailer dropped last year featuring De Armas with her native Cuban accent. Things didn't get any better when the film premiered to scathing reviews at the Venice Film Festival, before launching a million think pieces. Dominik's blunt candor on the press tour only made matters worse, adding more fuel to the Blonde-haters fire.

So what are we to make of "Blonde?" Is it an ambitious swing for the fences? A tedious exercise in resurrecting a dead woman's trauma? Torture porn masquerading as a fictional biopic? Accidental pro-life propaganda? A future camp classic? An unflinching dissection of celebrity and the cult we built around our stars? "Blonde" is many things and a movie worthy of a good-faith discourse in today's increasingly sanitized cinematic landscape. It's long and punishing and difficult, but maybe we need more movies to challenge and divide us.

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