Madeline's Madeline (2018) Reviews

• Portrait of emotionally disturbed teenager egged on by Improvisational acting class instructor proves pretentious and unfocused

  Turfseer2018-12-09

  If you're into indie "art" pictures, then maybe Madeline's Madeline is for you. It's one of those Sundance creations that actually garnered a very respectable critics' rating of 76 on Metacritic. For someone like me who usually likes solid historical fare, "Madeline" simply features material in which I have little to no interest. It's a bit difficult to describe. In a nutshell, the protagonist (I'm sure you can come close to guessing this) is a 16 year old named Madeline who has emotional problems. One might surmise that she is bipolar but I'm not exactly sure of the diagnosis. She is played by newcomer Helena Howard. I had assumed that Howard was actually playing herself until I saw an interview promoting the picture on Youtube. Indeed her Madeline is strictly fictional so I suppose you can say she does a pretty good job in depicting someone who's emotionally disturbed. Nonetheless, Josephine Decker, the writer and director ensures that Madeline is an insufferable one-note character. What the plot boils down to is this: Madeline is in constant conflict with her mother Regina (Miranda July) who has placed her in an improvisational acting class run by Evangeline (Molly Parker), who sort of becomes obsessed with the teenager and encourages her to "act out"; as a result, the acting piece she's been developing is scrapped for a new one starring Madeline, illustrating her life and relationships. The other students in the class become resentful, including Madeline, who gets back at Evangeline by attempting to seduce her husband at a party she throws at the teacher's apartment. Evangeline's obsession with Madeline is illustrated to the extreme when their images merge, both fantasizing about burning Regina's face with a hot iron. Is supposed it to be a character study about a pretentious, authoritarian instructor who is so narcissistic that she is unable to see that she's not helping her emotionally disturbed charge at all and possibly making her worse? Simi Horwitz, writing in the Film Journal International, asks, "Nobody asks-even thinks to ask-Evangeline what she's talking about (or what purpose it serves) when she instructs her students to 'act out metaphors' as they shape-shift into sea turtles or cats. 'Don't be a cat,' she prods Madeline. 'Be in the cat.' Madeline's Madeline culminates in a bizarre street dance by the class which I am still trying to figure out what exactly is the point of the film's climax. Again, if you like weird indie "art films," this could be for you. A mainstream audience (as well as the more critical, including myself) will find little of interest here.

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• One-Line Review: Madeline's Madeline (3 Stars)

  TejasNair2018-11-08

  It is easier to bear, and perhaps even cure, the passive-aggressiveness of two of the central characters (induced by mental illness and its exploitation) in Joesphine Decker's drama Madeline's Madeline than it is to complete watching it. Gosh, the exasperating background score made of vocal percussion just forces me to use another line here. TN.

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• Pretty good

  frasay2018-07-21

  I disagree with the 1 Star review who says this movie has no reason to exist. Everyone is different right? I'd say mental illness is one of the more worthy themes to explore in a film. It's really well edited and shot. It's got some laughs. It's a bit erratic and dark and anxious, like the main character. The music and sound design is great. I'd say the 3 principal characters (Madeleine, her mum, the director) all give performances worthy of an Oscar nom. Yep, it's got an experimental vibe, it's kinda weird, but it's not eraserhead weird. Enjoy.

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• A Unique Perspective

  EvanAcreeFilm2018-09-03

  If Helena Howard-who plays the main character, Madeline-doesn't get nominated for an academy award, we boycott. She by far gives the most visceral performance of the year right next to Hereditary's Toni Collette's. She is seriously someone to look forward to in the near future of cinema. She's a hidden talent that's career just got its blossoming. You feel psychotic throughout this. You really do. You feel as if you are in the head of this mentally ill character Madeline, and you begin to come to terms with her in-visionary perspective behind her life, and the beauty but also the terror within it. I've never seen a film approach such a fascinating charactorial perspective. Film enthusiasts should be encouraged to study such a unparalleled take on "point of view." Of course, the filmmaking is exquisite in its own unusual design. It's dreamy, dozey, and surreal, and I adored it. Like a natural high. If you want me to mention any flaws, I guess the pacing is a bit droog (it's kind of a b at times). It's hard to stay focused all the time since the story-I don't want to say doesn't go anywhere-takes a while before its resolutions are presented. Besides this (and maybe some nitpicks with the finale that I won't get into it) this doesn't contradict how mesmeric the experience was. It's hard to rate this one, since I'm a bit conflicted with what I have watched-there's really nothing like it; it's undoubtably the most experimental film of the year-but in terms of the filmmaking power and the overall core themes/matter that had me in this film's grasp, I feel somewhat comfortable giving these aspects of Madeline's Madeline: (Verdict: A-)

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• Most Bizarre and Intentionally Confusing Movie I've ever Seen

  Jared_Andrews2018-06-28

  'Madeline's Madeline' is one of the most bizarre and incomprehensible films I've ever seen. It's about mental illness, I think. It's probably not a good sign when someone cannot tell you with any certainty what a movie is about after watching it. What I can tell you is the plot mainly revolves around a mentally ill girl named Madeline. She's a young actress who lands a role in a play run by an experimental director who teaches wildly immersive acting methods. The director forces the actors in the play to spend half their time, not pretending to be animals like sea turtles, but "becoming" animals like sea turtles. Cool. As you can imagine, these methods are not helping Madeline's mental illness. The methods aren't helping anyone, really. Since the story is told through the lens of a person with a mental illness, its grasp of reality is erratic and unclear. Actually, it's not at all times even clear who is telling the story. Perhaps it incorporates multiple perspectives, or perhaps we witness the out-of-body experiences of the protagonist. Again, it's unclear. It often seems as if the filmmakers made this movie confusing on purpose. It's intentionally inaccessible, and that's supposed to be part of the experience of mental illness, I guess? But that's a terrible approach to making a movie. Eventually the audience must be keyed in on what is happening, otherwise what is the point? If nothing is ever made clear, the film is just piling nonsense on top of more nonsense. What's most frustrating is that the filmmakers seem to believe all this nonsense is high-end art. It's the epitome of pretentious film making. The film's acting is awful, though I cannot entirely blame the performers. It appears that they were fed absurd direction and dialogue that would make anyone look like a laughable exaggeration of a real actor. Overall, this movie is a disaster. It has no reason to exist, and you have no reason to watch it.

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