THE STORY – While Maddie Ralph’s life seems picturesque — perfect hubby, wild lesbian bestie, and a cupboard full of women-owned ethically-sourced chili crisp to boot — she simultaneously conceals a dark past with a severe eating disorder. Knowing her history of self-harm conflicts with the perfect image she puts forth to her followers, she continues to hide her bulimic tendencies from friends and family, even when she begins to relapse.
THE CAST – John Early, Kate Berlant, Eric Rahill, Kristen Johnston, Claudia O’Doherty, Conner O’Malley, Vanessa Bayer, & Chris Bauer
THE TEAM – Jon Early (Writer/Director)
THE RUNNING TIME – 98 Minutes
According to everyone around her, Maddie Ralph (John Early) is perfect. Tell her that and she’ll brush it off, seemingly out of modesty. In reality, though, Maddie has deep-seated psychological issues, especially around food. This is becoming a problem, as she has recently been promoted from dishwasher to recipe developer and on-camera talent at Gourmaybe, a social media outlet focused on food content. Maddie’s excitement over her promotion and getting to do what she loves slowly fades away as negative comments about her appearance start coming to her attention, leading to a resurgence of an old childhood problem: Bulimia. With interest in Maddie’s content rising to the point of possibly getting a job on the popular foodie TV series “The Boar,” will Maddie be able to face her problems and rise above them, or will her body give out?
If this plot synopsis of “Maddie’s Secret,” the directorial debut from comedian John Early, sounds vaguely familiar, that’s because it is. “Maddie’s Secret” lovingly recreates the overly glossy melodrama of Lifetime Channel-level social issue movies like “Kate’s Secret” and “Perfect Body,” right down to the plot structure and music cues. Early’s career has been boosted in part by his on-point recreations of film scenes like Nomi’s first rehearsal from “Showgirls.” While returning to that well for his first feature as a writer/director may seem like a gimmick, especially with Early playing Maddie himself, the film is anything but. Although it may feel like a parody, “Maddie’s Secret” takes Maddie’s plight seriously, and despite the fact that Early skewers the films that served as his inspiration as well as influencer culture, he never skewers Maddie or her condition.
Casting himself in the titular role makes the film look like a vanity project, and it’s not not that, but Early’s performance isn’t the self-aggrandizing joke it could have been. He so fully inhabits Maddie’s skin that it never feels like a piece of stunt casting, digging deep to put her vulnerabilities on full display. It’s the definition of a vanity-free performance, which is in many ways the opposite of the performances that inspired it. This is the type of role that would be played by someone like Meredith Baxter Birney or Melissa Gilbert, women who would always be shot in gorgeous soft focus and never be seen vomiting despite its essential place in the narrative. Early plays Maddie with the same earnest good-girl energy that defined those women’s screen presence. This is a finely-tuned melodramatic performance – Maddie isn’t just happy, she’s elated; she’s not merely sad, she’s depressed – and Early’s bone-deep commitment to every high and low erases the stunt-y nature of his casting.
Most cleverly, Early playing the part feels essential to the film’s overall vision. Making something purposefully campy isn’t easy, but Early exerts preternatural control over the film’s tone, and even the most talented female performer wouldn’t bring the same self-aware quality to Maddie that Early brings by sheer virtue of being in the role. He is very obviously Giving A Performance as Maddie, yet the gender-bent casting adds another layer of artifice to the film that allows the audience to recognize the ridiculousness of moments that would otherwise be dead serious. Early’s dead-eyed glare after Maddie’s husband, Jake (Eric Rahill), comments on her “baby bump” after she lied to him about throwing up because she was pregnant is a perfect example of this. The mixture of emotions on Early’s face freezes it into an expression that communicates everything and nothing at the same time, finding emotional truth in the moment while commenting on how unnatural movie moments like this are. It’s both parody and loving recreation, and it’s brilliant.
The ensemble around Early matches his performance level beat for beat. His regular partner-in-crime, Kate Berlant, is a riot as Maddie’s best friend, a lesbian whose connection to Maddie borders on the obsessive. Rahill may seem like an undeserving oaf at first, but his endearing charm shines through, softening the character. The cast of characters at the in-patient facility Maddie goes to are all hilariously funny, especially Vanessa Bayer as Maddie’s girlish roommate and Pat Regan as the snippy nurse she has a crush on. As Maddie’s monster of a mother, Kristen Johnston is having a blast getting in touch with her inner Mo’Nique in “Precious,” hollowing herself out so that her trademark brashness cuts even deeper than usual. All of the performances are broad, but since they’re all playing at the same level, subtle moments of characterization have a massive impact.
Early has always been on a wavelength all his own, and if you’re unable to get on it, “Maddie’s Secret” almost certainly won’t work for you. The references the film makes may not be too niche, but they are incredibly specific, and without the proper frame of reference, the film loses most of its potency. But body image issues still run rampant, even more so on social media, and Early’s commentary on the grind of influencer culture and the pressure the internet puts on us to curate “perfect” lives hits home thanks to the generous heart he gives to Maddie, both in the script and performance. “Maddie’s Secret” confirms Early’s status as a cinephile satirist of the first order.
