From the outside, Maddie Ralph (John Early) seems to have it all. She’s a natural beauty with a handsome devoted husband, Jake (Eric Rahill), who cherishes and supports her, and an adoring fun-loving best friend and co-worker, Deena (Kate Berlant). With a passion for cooking and a flare for producing inspired vegetarian dishes, often involving improbably fusing multiple international cuisines, Maddie is working in her dream environment at a trendy Condé Nast-owned food content creation company, gourmaybe. While she might be a lowly dishwasher, cleaning up after spiteful and snarky queen bee Emily (Claudia O’Doherty)—who has slept her way to the top with creepy boss Zach (Conner O’Malley)—Maddie doesn’t let that stop her from breezily focusing on the positive and stopping to smell the flowers (literally, on her run to work passing sprawling LA highways).
Before long, Maddie’s culinary talent finally gets some deserved recognition after Jake encourages her to upload a video of her working her magic in the kitchen at home, which goes viral overnight. Even Zach can’t ignore the public’s desire to see more Maddie, handing her a coveted on-camera job. With her profile rising and her videos filling food-lovers algorithms, Maddie is pitted against Emily for a food stylist gig on hit TV show, “The Boar”. As she begins to feel the mounting pressure of expectation on her, Maddie’s teenage issues with food and body dysmorphia resurface combining with her low self-esteem. The mere mention of her self-absorbed mother, Beverlee (a terrific Kristen Johnston), is clearly a trigger. Tellingly, when Maddie calls to share the good news that she has been promoted, all that Beverlee can muster is the warning that the camera adds ten pounds.
Bulimia begins to take hold of Maddie’s life, while she attempts to convince everyone that nothing is wrong, forcing her to lie to those closest to her. When Maddie’s secret is eventually uncovered, the narrative shifts gears from a Showgirls-esque drama to Girl, Interrupted as Maddie finds herself locked up in a strict eating disorder clinic, where the inpatients are closely monitored.
Making his feature debut as writer-director while taking on the lead role, Early pulls off a masterful feat in creating the pitch perfect tone for this deliciously dark comedy melodrama that satirizes our social media obsessed times and the pretentious language around “food porn”. It manages to pull off being both a pastiche of and love letter to the issue-driven afternoon special, with Early deftly harnessing Michael Hesslein’s emotive score and Max Lakner’s expressive cinematography to intensify the drama and thereby the comedy. Hesslein’s propulsive main theme evokes the 70s flavour of Isaac Hayes and J.J. Johnson’s score for Shaft. While Lakner’s handheld work and extreme closeups immerse us in Maddie’s psychological state.
Although the screenplay’s riff on Showgirls is set in the cutthroat world of food social content creation rather than Vegas nightlife, there are some kinetic dance sequences here too which provide some of the highlights of the film. With genius work by choreographer Danielle Polanco, Maddie’s downward spiral is brilliantly captured in a series of increasingly charged dance class scenes as she accompanies Deena to her “radically inclusive queer gym”.
Crucial to the film’s success is Early’s utterly committed performance as Maddie. We believe in this character and invest in her journey because Early does. With only light makeup and a becoming blonde wig, he is hiding in plain sight throughout, but the actor completely disappears as we fall for this endearingly earnest ingénue. Early’s approach and artistry calls to mind some of my favourite screen performances like Divine as Edna in Hairspray, Louie Anderson as Christine in Baskets, and the work of Charles Busch. This isn’t drag, but an actor fully inhabiting a character regardless of gender. The result here is flawless and leads to an unspoken sense of queerness that pervades the film and keeps things captivatingly off-kilter.
With Early playing it straight with a lightness of touch, it liberates the rest of the cast to heighten their performances without things ever becoming self-aware. When we meet Kate Berlant’s Deena we can quickly see her friendship with Maddie is in fact a one-sided dangerous obsession. While Maddie perceives it as a close platonic friendship, Deena is intensely jealous and lustful towards her. Early and Berlant have a long history of collaborating together and the dynamic between these characters is enthralling and hilarious. Though we still care about Deena too.
Eric Rahill puts Jake’s emotions out front and brings a real tenderness to Maddie’s sexy and adorable husband. In a film filled with excellent supporting performances, another standout is Vanessa Bayer as Maddie’s eating disorder clinic roommate Julie who infantilizes herself and has a doomed crush on the clearly gay nurse Kelly (Pat Regan). Again, it works so well because Bayer plays the truth of it.
There is an essence of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest meets But I’m A Cheerleader in the involving clinic scenes, along with an enjoyable high school movie vibe, with nurse Kelly likening Maddie to Grease’s Sandra Dee and the cool girl clique to the Pink Ladies. Despite the strong layer of dark humour, Early does not pull back from the pain and trauma of eating disorders and the real-life health repercussions, leaning into the grotesque at times while keeping us emotionally connected to the characters. Maddie’s Secret is of course always in of the joke of the melodramatic extremes it is playing with, but it is a film that is crafted with love for that genre not cynicism.
While the unlikely blend of ingredients poured into Maddie’s Secret could easily have led to something unpalatable, in Early’s hands it proves to be a recipe for a delectable and richly satisfying treat. It is an impressive showcase for Early’s skill as an actor, comedian and filmmaker with a singular, unwavering vision.
By James Kleinmann
Maddie’s Secret received its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and opens theatrically in New York at IFC Center on Friday, June 19th and in Los Angeles on Friday, June 26th, with select additional cities to follow. Visit magpictures.com/maddiessecret/ for a full list of screenings and to purchase tickets.
