Professional reviews are now out for two of this month’s biggest features, and the reactions have run the gamut.
First up is the direct-to-Disney+ released live-action “Pinocchio” film which landed utterly dismal 32% from critics and 48% from audiences scores on Rotten Tomatoes.
Reactions from critics say it’s nearly a shot-for-shot remake with the few new songs and characters not working and the project offering no real reason to exist.
Faring far better is Andrew Dominik’s Marilyn Monroe biopic “Blonde” at 82% from critics. Reviews for this one are complicated, with unanimous praise for Ana de Armas and for the filmmaking brio on offer – even if almost all state Dominik doesn’t quite hit the mark in some sequences.
Nevertheless, the film scored a standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival with applause lasting around 14 minutes – the longest of any film this year. Here’s a sampling of quotes:
“Anyone expecting an idiot’s guide to Marilyn Monroe will be surprised or even appalled to see the late star’s life presented as a horror movie in the surreal, nightmarish style of David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive” – Deadline
“The movie takes us much closer to Marilyn than ‘Elvis’ did to Elvis, in part because it’s built around a performance, by Ana de Armas, of breathtaking shimmer and imagination and candor and heartbreak. It’s a luscious piece of acting with a raw scream tucked inside” – Variety
“It’s not that Andrew Dominik has made an implausible film about the experience of a poor young beauty haunted by fears of madness who was chewed up by the Hollywood machine, the issue is that he has made a film inspired by Marilyn Monroe where she is monotonously characterized as a victim” – Indiewire
“Pinocchio” is out now on the Disney+ service, while “Blonde” will premiere on Netflix on September 28th.
