"Maddie’s Secret" is kind of an astonishing piece of work, appearing as though it’s made up of layer upon layer of irony, but somehow coming all the way back around and showing itself to be full of sincerity, real emotion, and a love of the art of filmmaking.
The movie’s written and directed by the comedian John Early, and he stars in it, too, as Maddie, who finds fame as a vegetarian food influencer, but who also secretly struggles with bulimia. Maddie is the kind of woman who never seems to be engaging in emotional subterfuge, and who always seems to want to see the best in people—her abhorrent, narcissistic mother even refers to her as “Pollyanna” at one point. But this secret is crushing her, and bringing her close to mortal catastrophe.
You might be tempted to think that Early is making fun of… something here, but good luck finding exactly what that is. And the way he presents this is almost jaw-dropping—his extreme lighting creates a look like a made-for-TV, late-night Cinemax version of a Douglas Sirk melodrama, his dialogue is often intentionally stilted in a way that suggests a cheapness that doesn’t actually exist, and he moves his camera with direct intention at all times, occasionally swooping around Maddie or rapidly pulling in closely on a character’s face.
His entire cast is tremendous, pulling off this arch tone by throwing themselves wholly into their roles, but it’s Early’s performance that holds the film together, and it’s close to perfect. He somehow plays Maddie as if he, himself, is not a terribly good actor, which is exceptionally difficult to pull off when you actually can act, and is exactly the sort of performing you’d expect to see in a movie like this if it had been made without comedy in mind. He never, ever winks at the camera or presents Maddie with anything but complete sincerity, and he never wavers.
I’m not sure everyone who sees "Maddie’s Secret" will be entirely sure what to make of it, but the more I think about it, the more I’m realizing that it’s actually, incredibly, secretly, one of the best movies so far this year.
"Maddie’s Secret" is on VOD.
