Madeline's Madeline

source: Madeline's Madeline

I. AM. SHOOKETH!! This is easily the most unsettling, transporting, and densely-packed art pieces I've ever seen this year. It's one of those rare movies where it takes multiple themes - about artistic integrity, exploiting pain for profit, mental illness, family stability, overcoming the struggles of being a female, and mother-and-daughter dynamics - and blends them into one ambiguous, anarchic whole. It's one of those movie where it makes the case not whether or not you get it, but whether we trust our subjectivity to make us care nonetheless. The movie is centered around Madeline, a young teenager diagnosed with a mental illness that triggers her to commit multiple episodes at almost everyone she sees, one of which is her single mother played by a wonderful Miranda July. She feels trapped and frustrated with her domestic life so she attends a theatre class, where she's allowed to lash out and act as outlandish as she wants, instantly fostering a niche of channeling her disability for what should or should not be considered as "talent". Along the way, because it still is a coming of age movie, we see her come of age as she questions her sexuality, the weight of how her actions affect those around her, and her place in the world going forward. Josephine Decker, a indie curiosity that for sure gained my attention, frames the movie in her perspective, regulating the camera firmly locked onto our heroine, tuning the music as pandemonium of the senses, and often cutting randomly through multiple shots and images. It's a fascinating example of modern abstract cinema, one that delves into the characters potential insanity yet trusts that we empathize with a broken soul in need to express herself. The movie also commentates on how we package and sell someones emotional pain and call it art. Thankfully, the movie is so free-wheeling that it never bothers to become too didactic or preachy. In one of the films best moments, Madeline reenacts an argument she had with her mom that not only might be the most harrowing cases of self-revelation but one of the most honest and achingly tangible view of her life. It's then followed by the theatre director stunned by the performance, but wishes to adapt the performance in her vision in well-intentioned but wrongheaded means. And THATS followed by a anxiety-driven performance act that further highlights the main point of what art is supposed to be. Art, like MADELINE'S MADELINE, isn't meant to be deciphered or filtered through a simpler perspective, but interpreted as what it is by many other perspectives. We live and breathe and experience in our own way, and analyzing art through our own lens crafts something truly special. We feel the artists happiness, pain, and self-expression in some way or another and we don't need someone spelling it out for us. MADELINE'S MADELINE is a wonderful film to behold. It's no doubt what I'm saying is a cliche, but this is one of those film that makes me point my finger and shout "This! This is why I love film". An achievement in bold filmmaking as well as a magnifying showcase for newcoming actress Helena Howard (I mean all I gotta say is Elsie Fisher should eat her heart out) it's one of those movies jam packed with interpretations and emotional rapture that I'll never forget it for quite a long time. One of the best of the year. Believe the hype.

Think of the worst piece of crap you have ever seen...now take it down a notch. If I saw this in the movies I'd ask for my money back.

This film demands work from the viewer but ultimately pays off with a haunting portrait of a teenager's mental illness being exploited by a local theater director. It's often confusing but everything comes together to make this a successful art film. The three lead females performers are all superb.

A challenging film. As a child of the seventies this movie resonated with me. My childhood was ordinary for the times (the 1970s), but would be considered child abuse in the 21st century. Still, I don't agree with this "western societal viewpoint." Madeline is all of us. When we are born, we immediately experience life in purely sensory terms. It's BRIGHT out there. It's LOUD. It's COLD. It STINKS of alcohol and other antiseptics. Anxious energy suddenly fills the room. How do we respond? We cry and scream and squirm and kick. We resist being pulled out of our warm home. We close our eyes to the unfamiliar. It is only through the rigid and repetitive teachings of our "tribe" that we acquire language, manners, morals, ethics. Madeline's Madeline shows us how we might more effectively communicate, if only we could get the rest of the human race on board. This movie is difficult. Discordant, dissonant. Musically and rhythmically atonal. At times it is an assault on the senses. But it is also a luminous visual portrait of a supremely talented young woman. I want to be her.

The shifting relationships between intimacy, need and power in both interpersonal and socio-political structural relationships are wisely staged in this movie. Not unlike a feminine multiracial reinterpretation of Sartre's Nausea, the "grossness of closeness" coexists in the same home as dazzling creativity. Retrobution and tenderness mutate to form constant relational negotiation - this movie may be called surreal, but it feels mighty real.

During the first few minutes of this film, I found myself ready to be disappointed, thinking it was going to essentially be "Theatre Kids: The Movie", which it really isn't. About ten minutes in, I got more used to the film and started to kind of see what parts of it were going for and it became a much more enjoyable experience. Throughout my time watching this movie, there was both very much and very little for me to say. 'Madeline's Madeline' is a very challenging film on multiple levels, and I'm not exactly sure how I feel about it. My time watching it was certainly mostly positive, but whether or not it achieves true greatness is totally lost on me. It is especially difficult for me to pinpoint my exact feelings on the film's ending, which may or may not be both lacking and overflowing with ambiguity. However, there are a few things about this film that are for certain. For starters, it is (in my opinion delightfully) weird, oozing with absurd humour, surrealistic imagery, and an ever increasingly uncomfortable atmosphere. The editing and camerawork go hand in hand to make this a visually fascinating and impressive work. The psychological depths explored in the film are perfectly portrayed thanks to director Josephine Decker's incredible vision and talent for realizing said vision. Equally impressive is the acting. Miranda July is surprisingly intimidating and unsurprisingly awkward and Molly Parker is able to juggle likability with a strange undercurrent of suspicion on the part of the viewer extremely well. However, the real highlight of the film's performances comes from Madeline herself, played by newcomer Helena Howard. If the visionary visuals, editing, and score aren't enough to convince you to watch this film, her performance should. There is a particular sequence towards the end that was legitimately breathtaking due to her emotive and powerful performance. In many ways, it is an extremely pronounced performance, and in many other ways it is extremely subtle. To see such a young actor display so much incredible talent makes me excited to see her future career, and makes this film all the better.

I failed to get onside with this experimental style which too often focused away from the plot's most intriguing moments

The movie critic of The New Yorker said it was head and shoulders the best new movie out there so I gave it a shot. I knew from the first minute it was a piece of pretentious twaddle. I am trying to watch but it is so reminiscent of a student production and not a very good one that I am giving up after 15 minutes. I feel like the little boy in The fairytale The Emperor's New Clothes who can see what the rest of society can't, that they have all been duped.

Perfect demonstration of dissociation through camerawork and sound design and terrific performances. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I especially loved how the film was not about a mentally ill person facing a catastrophic event, but instead a mentally ill person facing common teenage stressors. This brought the film an authenticity that most films about mental illness seem to lack. July and Parker were exquisite. Howard's performance was also very good, but she had a lot to chew. An excellent debut, and I'm excited to see more from her. The climax wasn't the most bone-chilling thing I've seen in the theaters this year, but it was still a fun and intriguing end to a movie. Everything fell into place and ended in the way it should. Very satisfying. Lastly, I'd like to give some credit to the trailer's creators. I'm a firm believer that there has never really been a good trailer in the history of film, and Madeline's Madeline comes pretty close to disproving that. Going into the theater, I really didn't know what this movie was about. It was so refreshing to be excited for something and still surprised by it when it came out. I hope that whoever made this trailer makes many, many more.