Madeline's Madeline

I had no idea what to expect from this, but it turned out to be such a visceral, well-done atmospheric and experimental film.

We were able to get this movie on DVD from our public library. My wife chose to skip it, not her kind of movie.

Watching it I didn't expect to "enjoy" it. In fact there is nothing enjoyable about it. However there is something compelling about it, maybe in the same way that we can be fascinated watching a train wreck. I couldn't stop watching it.

Don't take my comment wrong, I believe the filmmaker made exactly the movie she wanted to make. But she is of the experimental camp, a quote from her is "The beautiful thing about making art is the enormous possibility of failure." In other words make a movie you want and don't worry whether anyone will actually like it. Woody Allen is also that way but to me Allen makes much better movies.

Nothing seemed authentic to me and maybe that is the point. While I can give it reasonably high marks for the quality of what was produced, the movie, I cannot consider it a good movie. I watch movies mainly for a good story and and characters that I like. This one doesn't have either. It is more like watching a train wreck and marveling at the debris.

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.

'MADELINE'S MADELINE': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

An experimental indie drama about a teenage girl with severe mental issues, who begins bringing her personal drama into her theater performance. It was directed and co-written by Josephine Decker, and it stars newcomer Helena Howard. The film also costars Molly Parker and Miranda July, and it's gotten mostly positive reviews from critics. I really enjoyed it's bizarreness, and it's sensitive depiction of mental illness, but it's also really slow-paced and somewhat hard to follow (because it's so strange). The performances are all more than decent though, and the directing is more than adequate as well.

Dec 10, 2018 It's not difficult to see and appreciate the intent of director Josephine Decker's Madeline's Madeline, an artsy, indie movie about artsy, indie people, but it is difficult to become immersed in their world when the message about the process and the craft-no matter how vital the performances or justified the feelings-fails to be intriguing to anyone beyond this realm. I love to write, I love the creative process, and while acting terrifies me I find a person's ability to give themselves over to the confidence it takes to embody something other than who they're already trying to work up the confidence to embody completely admirable. And yet, Helena Howard's titular Madeline never comes off as a performer authentic in her love of the craft, but more a young and impressionable soul struck by the mystic intangibility of what being an actor means. Madeline's Madeline tries its damnedest to sidestep ones expectations of any kind of formula within its filmmaking, but in the process of avoiding such trademarks it forgets to create one of its own that both demystifies and enlightens the audience as to why they should care as much about the method as they should the final, prepared version presented on screen. In other words, I just didn't get it.