For those familiar with John Early’s highly theatrical approach to comedy, “Maddie’s Secret” will come as a surprise. While shrill panic and lively, absurdist expression compose the foundation of his most-known roles in “Stress Positions,” “Search Party,” and his mockumentary-style comedy special, “Now More Than Ever,” here, serving as writer, director, and star in his feature debut, Early brings a limber nuance to the film’s style. “Maddie’s Secret” is most certainly a parody, satirizing influencer culture and its impact on self-expression and cultural appetites. But it matches its bite with an embrace, simultaneously cradling the personalities caught in the crossfire of persona-driven capitalism.
Maddie Ralph (Early) is a passionate, ambitious wallflower. She is the embodiment of bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, the kind of girl you wouldn’t be surprised to see indulge in a cartoonish arm-stretch and contented sigh as she wakes up with no alarm, just the golden morning light coming through chiffon curtains. Likely to be described as the sweetest girl you’d ever meet, Maddie is beloved by her doting husband, Jake (Eric Rahill), and hilariously philandering lesbian best friend Deena (Kate Berlant). She’s the subject of her own Cinderella story: working her days as a dishwasher for Gourmaybe (a food-based video website that’s somewhere between Bon Appetit and Buzzfeed), she returns home at night to concoct culinary masterpieces in the privacy and shelter of her own kitchen.
When Jake insists on posting a homemade video of herself cooking, her recipe goes viral, thrusting her into the spotlight after an overnight promotion makes her the new, forward-facing chef for the brand’s video content. Suddenly cast into influencer stardom, this new attention spirals into a relapse of Maddie’s secret bulimia, and when caught over the toilet by her husband, she frantically fabricates a pregnancy.
“Maddie’s Secret” wears its influences on its sleeve. Maddie is swathed in the mawkishness seen in a Lifetime drama (dialed to eleven), as are Jake’s sincerity, Deena’s zaniness, and the villainy of coworker Emily (Claudia O’Doherty) and boss Zach (Conner O’Malley). Further, the archetypal cast of fellow patients she encounters in the hospital’s eating disorder unit feels plucked from John Waters’ cineverse and shuffled through the modern-day translator of Early’s mind and sentiment. “Maddie’s Secret” possesses a tenacious commitment to clichés and stylistic hyperbole, and while it is certainly a parody, it is undeniably delivered with reverence: an ode to the idolatry bestowed upon characters like Rory Gilmore.
With dedication to mawkish authenticity, “Maddie’s Secret” has transformative power as the minutes pass. Initially, the scales tip toward comedy. The majority of this humor comes from the latent atmosphere Early creates: this hypersincere made-for-TV pastiche feels anachronistic, stylistically subversive, and reminiscent of films far more vapid than this debut. The splendor of Early’s departure from the norm lies in using this style as a facade for a deeply moving, tender character study: a film with far more nuance than its aesthetics let on. As the style sets in, the direction pales to the dominance of the writing. The atmosphere becomes cozy amid the film’s evocative rollercoaster through Maddie’s clash between trauma and idealization, feeling more and more real despite the unchanging hyperbole in its delivery.
The screenplay of “Maddie’s Secret” is both delicate and puckish. Tackling the sensitivity of bulimia, the film never trivializes the disorder itself. Rather, it dissects the tragicomedy surrounding our current moment, satirizing the cultural fixations, interests, and institutions we lean on in an era where the internet’s attempt to connect us fractures our communities instead. App-based therapy (a la Betterhelp), ally-welcome queer dance classes, adult K-pop stans, and Hulu’s “The Bear” are all targeted with a comedic eye, but never by means of punching down. These modern comforts are investigated critically while still acknowledging the fact that they are indeed sources of relief. A lesser film would find more cynicism and mockery in the text, but “Maddie’s Secret” is a testament to the art of trying, finding optimism, and approaching life empathetically when life knocks you down.
Refreshingly gracious, Early’s management of humanity in “Maddie’s Secret” is the heart of this film. Bolstered by his always-confident panache and showcasing a new dexterity in nimble storytelling and emotional arcs, Early’s debut is exciting: a debutant ball for a new voice in filmmaking, unafraid of kitsch, camp, and unabashed tenderness riding in tandem with humor. It overflows with affection for everyone, but of course Maddie in particular, the film’s love letter to the contemporary woman: an inheritor of patriarchal and misogynist pressures, a self-starter, a mediator between the real and ideal, and a defiantly passionate figure of resilience.
