ANA

BOMBSHELL TAKES ON ACTION GENRE AND FLIPS EVERYTHING AROUND AGAIN

by PETER THOMAS BUSCH

Marilyn Monroe was a talented artist, and that artistic achievement was mirrored by the performance of a lifetime by Ana de Armas in the biopic, Blonde (2022).

The artful portrayal of a global phenom dramatizes the important parts of Norma Jeane’s eventful life, with the rocky road in between scene sequences.

Director Andrew Dominik opens the film with Norma Jeane being driven by her mother through a wildfire not yet contained in the California foothills.

Ana artfully creates the California girl, Norma Jeane, from a single mother household, and also the young woman, Marilyn Monroe, from a Hollywood image studio as part of a complex three-dimensional performance.

The character evolves along the film narrative as Marilyn tries so dearly to survive the battles life throws at her. Maybe this struggle is with the son of a Hollywood icon, maybe that one is created by an American sports hero, and then one with finding balance partnering with a very famous author.

Ana shows that in between, the heavens just do not open up enough for Norma Jean to give Marilyn a break from the rough start she got as a toddler with a single mother.

Ana explores the inside of the character as much as the public image along a twisting and turning narrative that flips inside and out several times like reopening the clothing drawer Norma Jeane’s mother used as a crib.

Playing Marilyn was not the first iconic role for Ana. In Blade Runner 2049 (2017) Ana plays a virtual companion for the Blade Runner unit in the long awaited sequel to the seminal science fiction film Blade Runner (1982).

Director Denis Villeneuve portrays the next generation living in a dystopia heavily reliant on artificial intelligence units. The camera goes beyond the dark brooding dystopia of a Los Angeles neighbourhood into a more barren, isolated and thought provoking conclusion for the human species.

Ana also gets cast in a supporting role as a recently trained operative in the much coveted James Bond cast. Paloma has a nervous pleasure about her when her first assignment comes to fruition in No Time to Die (2021). The character draws in the camera with her interest in firearms after six weeks of training and lightening quick Vodka Martini at the hotel bar with James Bond.

Daniel Craig’s franchise exit has Bond being coaxed out of retirement on behalf of his friend in the CIA. Bond finds curious pleasure in meeting his special asset in Cuba. Paloma proves her operational awareness by providing cover in the corners as chaos takes over the set.

Director Cary Joji Fukunaga gives Ana an important scene sequence with Craig during the first plot pivot when everyone finds out who the heroes and villains are, and what was so important to recall 007 from retirement in the Bahamas for.

In the Wasp Network (2019) ‘Ana’ Magarita Martinez unknowingly supports an agent in the Cuban counter-espionage unit in Maimi. For the longest time, her husband’s activities are a mystery to her, and speculates that he is involved in drug trafficking, until she sees him on Television in Cuba declaring his loyalty to Cuban President Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution.

In Sergio (2020) Ana plays an important support person to the work of United Nations diplomat, Sergio Vieira de Mello, following the United States invasion of Iraq. Carolina Larriera must share Sergio with the refugees of the world as he insists on participating on the ground with overseas missions sponsored by the United Nations.

The actor becomes cast in a series of films involving real or fictionalize spy genre narratives in a supporting role – you know as the wife of the revolution.

The supporting roles are highlighted with Ana’s character entering a scene sequence that pivots the plot – more often when significant others exchange updates and negotiate the near future. Ana has this presence entering the scenes that redirects everyone’s attention toward her for a reset of the narrative.

Eventually though, Ana finds herself in the lead role driving the narrative as the protagonist through a hail fire of guns and emotional missiles twisting and turning through mixed martial arts choreography.

Ana proves her muster as a Cuban operative, so much so that she gets cast in a series of ‘agency’ films, including The Gray Man (2022) costarring Ryan Gosling, and Ghosted (2023) costarring Chris Evans. All the effort in the action genre comes to a violent crescendo for Ana as the leading character, Eve, in Ballerina (2025) an action film that is part of the John Wick franchise, starring Keanu Reeves.

That spy agency context within the action genre is just one casting in which Ana has become suited.

In Eden (2024) Ana puts down the guns but turns upper class prejudice into a social weapon. Ana creates a distinct performance next to a star-studded cast that includes Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Daniel Bruhl and Sydney Sweeney.

Director Ron Howard turns the Baroness into a reckless villain who refuses to recognize the consequences of her selfish actions on an isolated island meant to be a utopia of human living.

The Baroness has a dream of building an exotic hotel on the island which almost immediately interferes in diametric opposition to the plans of the four other inhabitants of the island.

Ana turns that charismatic charm into an enemy just as much as into a friend. Marilyn seems to have been overly giving to the detriment of her own psyche, while the Baroness is consumed in her needs to the point of disrupting society and jeopardizing the serenity of the lives around her.

Love and guns on screen and the destiny to become a talented starlit become the narrative devices.