Madeline's Madeline (2018)

A nomination for the cinematographer and perhaps Helena Howard. We seldom escape the consciousness of Helena's character, who suffers from bouts of severe dissociation as part of some psychiatric disorder inflected by her mother. The fading into and out of dissociation was genuinely therapeutic for me. For a general audience? Judging from the response last night, I'd say the relentlessly expressive cinematography interferes profoundly with the build-up of emotion and the clarity of narration. Creatives and especially actors will be inclined to forgive the chaos because of a diamond-like sequence toward the end that helps you feel what it's like for someone to turn their life into art. I'm going to see the film again tonight. Maybe on a second viewing I can feel more for the character and her struggle.

//Revelation Film Festival Review//Arthouse films are often labelled with different adjectives that can split audiences. What some might label as pretentious, others might consider as a masterpiece. Madeleine's Madeleine oscillates between both sentiments but through its sheer force of its own conviction proves to be a startling achievement.The story follows Madeleine (an excellent debut from Helena Howard), a young performer recovering from a recent mental breakdown. As her personal life starts taking on a central role in a play she is rehearsing, Madeleine's grip on reality becomes increasingly tenuous. The lingering question is: is it art imitating reality or the other way around? Madeleine's Madeleine is an unconventional take on mental illness, but what part of mental illness is conventional?

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' is one of the most bizarre and incomprehensible films I've ever seen. It's about mental illness, I think. It's probably not a good sign when someone cannot tell you with any certainty what a movie is about after watching it. What I can tell you is the plot mainly revolves around a mentally ill girl named Madeline. She's a young actress who lands a role in a play run by an experimental director who teaches wildly immersive acting methods. The director forces the actors in the play to spend half their time, not pretending to be animals like sea turtles, but "becoming" animals like sea turtles. Cool.As you can imagine, these methods are not helping Madeline's mental illness. The methods aren't helping anyone, really. Since the story is told through the lens of a person with a mental illness, its grasp of reality is erratic and unclear. Actually, it's not at all times even clear who is telling the story. Perhaps it incorporates multiple perspectives, or perhaps we witness the out-of-body experiences of the protagonist. Again, it's unclear.It often seems as if the filmmakers made this movie confusing on purpose. It's intentionally inaccessible, and that's supposed to be part of the experience of mental illness, I guess? But that's a terrible approach to making a movie. Eventually the audience must be keyed in on what is happening, otherwise what is the point? If nothing is ever made clear, the film is just piling nonsense on top of more nonsense. What's most frustrating is that the filmmakers seem to believe all this nonsense is high-end art. It's the epitome of pretentious film making. The film's acting is awful, though I cannot entirely blame the performers. It appears that they were fed absurd direction and dialogue that would make anyone look like a laughable exaggeration of a real actor.Overall, this movie is a disaster. It has no reason to exist, and you have no reason to watch it.