It’s a rarity in streaming, the official reason being that 18+ (or NC-17) means “some scenes of sexual content” to the Motion Picture Association, a rather vague term.

Netflix is ​​hoping a new Marilyn Monroe movie will be a serious contender for prime time next season, but it’s not generating hype for its opening hours.

The film, based on the controversial 2000 fantasy novel by Joyce Carol Oates, has many scenes that seem more like the product of the author’s vulgar imagination – a brutal and painful story of a woman turned into an object.

“Blonde” is one terrible moment after another, many of which might not even have happened. Knowing that he was writing a novel and not a biography, Oates did not even use the real names of the characters.

And the movie is faithful to the book. Marilyn jumps on the conveyor belt of horrible men, many calling them “Dad”, to infantilize herself and create the father figure she was deprived of.

She forms a trio with Charlie Chaplin Jr. named Cass and Edward G. Robinson Jr. named Eddie, who later threatens to sell her nude photos to the media.

Famous baseball player Joe DiMaggio, aka Ex-Sportsman, punches her in a fit of rage after seeing an even more famous poster of a billowing white dress from The Seven Year Itch.

John F. Kennedy, who is remembered only as the president, gives him oral sex (not pornographic, but very suggestive) while he is on the phone with an aide. Hang up and shout “Smelly bitch!” – among other expressions that cannot be reproduced.

Afterwards, Marilyn wakes up as if from a nightmare as the Secret Service drags her out of the White House.

There is no historical evidence of such actions, so the scenes of continuous violence seem gratuitously brutal to both her and the audience. And unjustifiably immoral and dishonest.

Andrew Dominique’s film, shot in both color and black and white, is very good to look at. And Ana de Armas, with her tinged Spanish accent, is charismatic as Monroe. It’s bold, fresh and honest, even in a film that seems inevitably fake, and thanks to dialogue that reads like a poetic narrative.

The global trade in Monroe stuff—keychains, calendars, posters, etc.—reflects the sad reality that she is a commodity, not a person, and that we can only interpret her personality as such.

The more fans try to see the “real” Marilyn beyond the image, the more they distance themselves from her. Even during her lifetime, the tragedy of seclusion in her own fortress of celebrities and beauty was part of her myth.

The combination of the difficult subject matter and the fact that de Armas is mostly stripped to the waist — often for no reason — earned the film an 18+ rating. Don’t ignore the Motion Picture Association’s warning. Most people won’t like this movie if it can last nearly 3 hours.

Sources: The New York Post, Slate