Joyce Carol Oates weighs in on the brutality in Blonde adaptation: "Not for the faint of heart" - The A.V. Club

Marilyn Monroe is addicted to barbiturates, and she’s suicidal; she’s losing her mind.

That being said, Oates argues that Blonde, which vividly depicts miscarriages, abortions, and sexual assaults, is “probably closer to what she actually experienced” than other films about Marilyn Monroe; “The last few days of her life were brutal,” Oates asserts

Asked about the film’s controversial NC-17 rating, the writer didn’t “have any particular feelings,” but claims, “The real things that happened to Marilyn Monroe are much worse than anything in the movie.” Monroe isn’t here to dispute that account, but the novelist’s and filmmaker’s decisions to portray her life as unending misery will live forever