There are very few iconic figures in Hollywood as big as Marilyn Monroe and Ana De Armas‘ biopic on Monroe tries to show us the real Marilyn Monroe behind all the shining lights and cameras. Netflix’s biopic Blonde starring Armas is not the only content about America’s biggest sex symbol as there have been countless movies and documentaries that try to decrypt the alluring and mysterious Marilyn Monroe.
Blonde is directed by Andrew Dominik, who promised that the biopic will be the freshest take on the tragic rise and fall of Marilyn Monroe, and in some way it is. While Blonde is a biopic, it in no way depicts the true story of Marilyn Monroe because it is a fictional reinterpretation of the iconic figure’s life and it is based on a novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates. So, if you enjoyed Netflix’s Blonde here are some more movies like it you can watch after completing the tragic tale told in Blonde.
Spencer
Synopsis: The marriage of Princess Diana and Prince Charles has long since grown cold. Though rumors of affairs and a divorce abound, peace is ordained for the Christmas festivities at the Queen’s Sandringham Estate. There’s eating and drinking, shooting and hunting. Diana knows the game. But this year, things will be profoundly different. SPENCER is an imagining of what might have happened during those few fateful days.
The Assistant
Synopsis: The Assistant follows one day in the life of Jane (Julia Garner), a recent college graduate and aspiring film producer, who has recently landed her dream job as a junior assistant to a powerful entertainment mogul. Her day is much like any other assistant’s – making coffee, changing the paper in the copy machine, ordering lunch, arranging travel, taking phone messages, onboarding a new hire. But as Jane follows her daily routine, she, and we, grow increasingly aware of the abuse that insidiously colors every aspect of her work day, an accumulation of degradations against which Jane decides to take a stand, only to discover the true depth of the system into which she has entered.
Killing Them Softly
Synopsis: Boston , the fall of 2008. While the banking crisis grips national news, two young slackers rob a high-stakes poker game. The local Mob attorney brings in Jackie to clean things up. He’s a hit man who likes to kill his victims softly. There’s a code at work: Jackie surmises that he has to kill Trattman, even though he’s innocent; then Jackie brings in Mickey from out of state, because one of the people who has to die knows Jackie. Can Jackie’s methodical, cheery approach to his work put the local underground’s finances back in order?
My Week With Marilyn
Synopsis: Michelle Williams plays the iconic Marilyn Monroe alongside a fantastic British cast including Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, Dominic Cooper, Emma Watson and Julia Ormond. The film chronicles a week in the life of Marilyn Monroe in which she escapes the shackles of her Hollywood career and embraces British life with Colin Clark. In the early summer of 1956, 23 year-old Clark, just down from Oxford and determined to make his way in the film business, worked as a lowly assistant on the set of The Prince and the Showgirl, the film that famously united Sir Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe, who was also on honeymoon with her new husband, the playwright Arthur Miller.
Nearly 40 years on, his diary account The Prince, the Showgirl and Me was published, but one week was missing and this was published some years later as My Week with Marilyn – this is the story of that week. When Arthur Miller leaves England, the coast is clear for Colin to introduce Marilyn to some of the pleasures of British life; an idyllic week in which he escorted a Monroe desperate to get away from her retinue of Hollywood hangers-on and the pressures of work.
The film is directed by Simon Curtis, produced by David Parfitt for Trademark Films, and distributed by The Weinstein Company. The screenplay by Adrian Hodges is based on Colin Clark’s diaries The Prince, The Showgirl and Me and My Week with Marilyn.
Judy
Synopsis: Winter 1968 and showbiz legend Judy Garland arrives in Swinging London to perform a five-week sold-out run at The Talk of the Town. It is 30 years since she shot to global stardom in The Wizard of Oz, but if her voice has weakened, its dramatic intensity has only grown. As she prepares for the show, battles with management, charms musicians and reminisces with friends and adoring fans, her wit and warmth shine through. Even her dreams of love seem undimmed as she embarks on a whirlwind romance with Mickey Deans, her soon-to-be fifth husband. Featuring some of her best-known songs, the film celebrates the voice, the capacity for love, and the sheer pizzazz of “the world’s greatest entertainer.”
Being The Ricardos
Synopsis: Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) and Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem) are threatened by shocking personal accusations, a political smear and cultural taboos in Academy Award®-winning writer and director Aaron Sorkin’s behind-the-scenes drama Being the Ricardos. A revealing glimpse of the couple’s complex romantic and professional relationship, the film takes audiences into the writers’ room, onto the soundstage and behind closed doors with Ball and Arnaz during one critical production week of their groundbreaking sitcom “I Love Lucy.”
Elvis
Synopsis: A thoroughly cinematic drama, Elvis’s story is seen through the prism of his complicated relationship with his enigmatic manager, Colonel Tom Parker. As told by Parker, the film delves into the complex dynamic between the two spanning over 20 years, from Presley’s rise to fame to his unprecedented stardom, against the backdrop of the evolving cultural landscape and loss of innocence in America. Central to that journey is one of the significant and influential people in Elvis’s life, Priscilla Presley.
I’ Tonya
Synopsis: Based on the unbelievable but true events, I, TONYA is a darkly comedic tale of American figure skater, Tonya Harding, and one of the most sensational scandals in sports history. Though Harding was the first American woman to complete a triple axel in competition, her legacy was forever defined by her association with an infamous, ill-conceived, and even more poorly executed attack on fellow Olympic competitor Nancy Kerrigan. Featuring an iconic turn by Margot Robbie as the fiery Harding, a mustachioed Sebastian Stan as her impetuous ex-husband Jeff Gillooly, a tour-de-force performance from Allison Janney as her acid-tongued mother, LaVona Golden, and an original screenplay by Steven Rogers, Craig Gillespie’s I, TONYA is an absurd, irreverent, and piercing portrayal of Harding’s life and career in all of its unchecked––and checkered––glory.
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Synopsis: THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE is an intimate look at the extraordinary rise, fall and redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker. In the 1970s and 80s, Tammy Faye and her husband, Jim Bakker, rose from humble beginnings to create the world’s largest religious broadcasting network and theme park, and were revered for their message of love, acceptance and prosperity. Tammy Faye was legendary for her indelible eyelashes, her idiosyncratic singing, and her eagerness to embrace people from all walks of life. However, it wasn’t long before financial improprieties, scheming rivals, and scandal toppled their carefully constructed empire.
Jackie
Synopsis: OSCAR® Winner Natalie Portman leads an acclaimed cast in this powerfully stirring drama as First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. As she grapples with unimaginable grief and trauma following President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, “Jackie’s” faith and strength lead her to a new life with her children. While she honors her husband’s remarkable legacy, she also leaves her own indelible mark.
