Madeline's Madeline (2018)'s comments

Do you want to let us know what you think? Just login, after which you will be redirected back here and you can leave your comments.

audiopile

Where did I leave my brain soap.

5 years 3 months ago

I don't properly have a theater background, but my improv background means I know a lot of theater folk and what they've been through, especially at drama school. Madeline’s Madeline may just be the most accurate depiction of the toxic relationship that can sometimes develop between actor/student and director/teacher. Madeline (well played by newcomer Helena Howard) is a teenager who has had mental health issues, caught between her mother and director, two maternal figures who are possibly more on edge than she is, but can't admit it. Her very pretentious director wants to exploit Madeline's story, make her feel things in relation to her personal problems, as meat for the play they are workshopping and if you think that's going too far, let me tell ya, it's very much business as usual in drama school, and many more vulnerable students allow themselves to be abused in this fashion while ironically, those who refuse and stand their ground often have more profitable careers afterwards. The film starts with Madeline acting like a cat (Madeline's cat, if you will) for her mother played by Miranda July, the casting of whom seems like a inside joke (at least to those who have seen The Future). But what is Madeline's Madeline? At 16-17, still trying to find herself, trying to meet duelling expectations, playing a role that increasingly becomes like herself, or a third-party version of herself. A lot of this is a metaphor for the way we treat a loved one with mental health issues, putting them in a box that only seems to fit for the uninformed. The reversal at the end is a coming of age revenge of the highest order.

11 months 1 week ago

ucuruju

Though I think the ending would be more effective if kept away from allegory-- spoiler

-- I still think this movie is really powerful. It works as a cringe comedy about up-their-own-ass artists; as a celebration of theatre and acting as therapy; avoids the eye-rolls by satirizing it; raises questions about the ethics of using someone else's story to tell your own; and absolutely destroys emotionally as a drama about difficult mothers and daughters.

1 year 7 months ago

maarow

Heard great things about this movie, but it just didn't work for me. I admired aspects of it (the claustrophobic cinematography most of all), but the ending felt like, "Well, we're making an arthouse movie, so we can just do something weird that makes no sense in terms of story and it'll seem brilliant."

2 years 9 months ago