Craving yet another biopic? The next Marilyn Monroe biopic, Blonde, premiered on Netflix Friday, September 16th! Directed by Andrew Dominik, and produced by Brad Pitt, Blonde is an NC-17 rated biopic with Ana De Armas starring as the icon herself, Norma Jean AKA Marilyn Monroe. This is Netflix’s first NC-17 rated movie, and based on the reviews, it may be the last. This movie goes in depth into all of the trauma Marilyn experienced in her short life. It’s almost three hours long, and is based on a fictional novel written about her life. So take the “truth” of this film with a grain of salt. The beautiful and glamorous cinematography glosses over her traumatic experiences. This diminishes the rawness and realness of her tragic story. This movie strictly exploits Marilyn’s life and trauma, including graphic scenes of sexual assault. We get many intimate scenes and shots of Marilyn; it feels as though for most of the movie, Marilyn is topless. As a movie that frames itself to be against the exploitation that Marilyn endured, completely romanticizes and glamourizes her trauma. With a big focus on two of her husbands Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, and how these men saw her as someone who was an object and property that they owned. On top of that, she is infantilized, with her calling her husbands’ “daddy” with them calling her “baby”.  Although the movie is technically fictional, there is no doubt that Marilyn was abused and taken advantage of as a woman in the male driven entertainment industry. She was never taken seriously as an actress, and was endlessly stereotyped in her films. We also get graphic insight on Marilyn’s infamous affair with John F. Kennedy. Overall, this movie was unnecessary. It exploits the hardships Norma Jean experienced and makes her tragic life seem glamorous.