Almost There: Marilyn Monroe in "Some Like It Hot"

by Cláudio Alves

September started with the Venice Film Festival where Andrew Dominik's controversial Blonde premiered and closes with its arrival on Netflix. As a Marilyn Monroe fan who tried and failed to get through Joyce Carol Oates' doorstop of a novel, I had early apprehensions about this production and its fictionalized account of the star's troubled life. However, the combination of a gorgeous-looking trailer and moralistic backlash online led me to anticipate the movie with bullish optimism. Yet, having seen the thing, I'm afraid I can't sincerely take on a contrarian positive take nor defend most aspects of the misbegotten mess.

Worst of all, I'm stricken by the picture's puddle-deep purview of stardom, image-making, and Monroe herself as a person and phenomenon. Considerations of her as an actress are similarly shallow, verging on nonexistent. This is especially disheartening because, above all else, she was an amazing actress whose talent is often overlooked, either obfuscated by the glare of tragedy or dismissed by those who can't see beyond media objectification. So, to combat both narratives, let's remember Marilyn Monroe, the actress, in one of her best films – Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot…

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Venice Diary #9 - "Blonde"

by Elisa Giudici

Today was Blonde day, at least until one of the most iconic royal figure from the last century died, stealing attention and coverage away from Venice movies and all other events. Considering the reviews for the biopic (and the spike in views The Crown will get), Netflix should probably be relieved. So for today's diary, a controversial take on the life and death of Marilyn Monroe and two movies that reiterate how healthy French cinema is.

BLONDE by Andrew Dominik
Overlong, indulgent and hyper-focused on the most tragic aspects of the life of Marilyn Monroe, Blonde as a biopic is a thanks but no thanks...

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Link Stop

• Variety Spider-Man: No Way Home and Euphoria lead the MTV nominations. Happy about the nomination for Sydney Sweeney for Euphoria and Megan Stalter for Hacks
• Out Joel Kim Booster covers Out Traveler to promote Fire Island
• Deadline in unexpected news A Simple Favor is getting a sequel with original stars Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick. If you'll recall we truly really loved...
• TFE ...and it made our top ten list of 2018
• El Diario Pedro Almodóvar writes another diary. This one is about the Met Gala, Marilyn Monroe (he has seen the upcoming bio Blonde) and "feminized" men

More after the jump including a viral Broadway rant, a new Cronenberg, Sutton Foster on PBS, and a film that pairs Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway...

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Three Questions in the News

by Murtada 

As Carrie Bradshaw would say, some of today's movie news got us thinking. The news offered more perplexion than usual. We'll present you with the questions and maybe you can help with the answers. Or just join in the bewilderment:

How many franchises can one actor be in?
You’d think being Superman would be enough. But no Henry cavill is joining Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible 6. No details about who he’s playing. Simon Pegg, and Rebecca Ferguson are expected to be back for the new adventure.  Jeremy Renner is not.

Who is starring in Jennifer Kent’s follow up to The Babadook? We know who Sam Claflin is, as we’ve seen him in a few films including The Hunger Games. But he’s not the lead, the new film titled The Nightingale is set in Tasmania in the 1820s, and follows a young Irish female convict whose family is murdered by a British soldier. With the help of an Aboriginal tracker, she heads for the wilderness in hope of exacting revenge. Have you heard of Aisling Franciosi? Well she nabbed the coveted lead role. Digging into her IMDB we found out that she played Lyanna Stark in Game of Thrones, you know in that famous flashback scene. She was also in Ken Loach’s Jimmy’s Hall (2014). Can’t say we remember either performance, but we are very excited to see whatever Kent chooses to show us.

And finally buried in a news item announcing Andrew Dominick's new film; War Party which is billed as an action-adventure movie about Navy SEALs that will star Tom Hardy, is this nugget about his long gestating Marilyn Monroe project, Blonde:

he has been trying to get his Marilyn Monroe movie Blonde off the ground [], but has struggled to find a leading lady everyone can agree on

Hmmm. The names that have been publicly shared so far were Naomi Watts in the first iteration and then a few years later Jessica Chastain. We wonder who else was up for playing Marilyn and was deemed not appropriate?