Madeline's Madeline

Released Aug 10, 2018

1h 34m

Drama

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List

88%

126 Reviews

Tomatometer

43%

250+ Ratings

Audience Score

Madeline has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop's ambitious director pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and goes through all three women's lives.

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Critics Consensus

Madeline's Madeline proves experimental cinema is alive and well -- and serves as a powerful calling card for Helena Howard in her big-screen debut.

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Andrei D

Experimental dar cam fara miza

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

08/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A terrrific, offbeat movie that teases out issues of art vs. reality, emotional reality, mental illness, courage, and classic "coming of age" themes, treated unconventionally, but very expressively through dance, hallucinatory passages, and exceptional acting. The performance by the young Helena Howard reveals a new and exciting talent. The movie is also a good warm-up for Decker's more recent work in "Shirley" - which is also strange, evocative, and excellent.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/08/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Maybe the worst movie I've ever seen. Pretentious, annoying. Ugh.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

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Audience Member

So pretentious with far too much style over substance. This film seemed way more concerned with being cool and painting pretty pictures through a series of Instagram filter style shots rather than telling a story. A shame because the subject is interesting, just wasn't realistic and left me feeling cold and ultimately bored.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

02/02/23

Full Review

wayne m

Madeline's Madeline is a messy, infuriating film that never satisfies in any way at all. I don't like using the word pretentious to describe a film, but sadly I feel it is apt here. I can clearly see it as an artistic statement, but as a form of entertainment it is severely lacking. Madeline is a young student who is performing in an impressionistic play group. Her teacher is striving for things very unique. At the same time she has a poor relationship with her mother. I wish I could say more about the story but there really isn't much of one. It just lurches from scene to scene of basically nonsense. I can't really recommend this film at all.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Decker's usual directing style and artsy-fartsy mannerisms become organic for a story about mental illness, making us share the character's dissociation, but the film is sadly uneven, with almost as many brilliant moments as obvious ones and not really going anywhere in the end.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/14/23

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Josephine Decker

Director

Helena Howard

Madeline

Molly Parker

Evangeline

Miranda July

Regina

Okwui Okpokwasili

Nurse, KK

Felipe Bonilla

Santos, Cousin Elmer

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Madeline's Madeline: Trailer 1

1:35

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Simran Hans

Observer (UK)

Is it fair to ask someone to traumatise (or retraumatise) themselves for the sake of art? Rather boldly, it seems as though Decker is also asking the question of herself.

Rated: 4/5

May 12, 2019

Full Review

Ian Freer

Empire Magazine

If for no other reason, see it now to be on the ground floor at the unveiling of a new star: Helena Howard.

Rated: 4/5

May 9, 2019

Full Review

Manuela Lazic

Little White Lies

Overwhelming at first, Madeline's Madeline only gains from repeat viewings.

Rated: 4/5

May 9, 2019

Full Review

Dan Schindel

Vague Visages

At the risk of succumbing to the Sundance hype atmosphere, writer/director Josephine Decker may be offering a new form of altered cinematic consciousness with Madeline’s Madeline.

Dec 6, 2023

Full Review

Paul Kanieski

KSQD Community Radio

According to the end credits of Madeline’s Madeline, it was created through the improvisational efforts of a long list of collaborators, and it shows; character interactions feel spontaneous and lifelike. But there’s a rigor to the filmmaking.

Jul 24, 2023

Full Review

Vadim Rizov

Filmmaker Magazine

Is this a great movie? With a day to think about it, I’m not sure it is, but Josephine Decker’s feature has ambition and the desire for greatness in spades...

Jan 5, 2023

Full Review

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Synopsis

Madeline has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop's ambitious director pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and goes through all three women's lives.

Director: Josephine Decker
Producer: Michael Decker, Peter Gilbert, Edwin Linker, Matthew Perniciaro, Michael Sherman, Joe Swanberg
Screenwriter: Josephine Decker, Donna di Novelli
Distributor: Oscilloscope Laboratories
Production Co: Bow and Arrow Entertainment, Forager Films
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 10, 2018, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jul 19, 2018
Box Office (Gross USA): $183.0K
Runtime: 1h 34m

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