By “Camp is art that proposes itself seriously, but cannot be taken altogether seriously because it is ‘too much.’”
– Susan Sontag, “Notes on Camp”
Such is the artistic ethos of John Early’s disarming directorial debut MADDIE’S SECRET, which had its U.S. premiere as the Los Angeles Festival of Movies’ opening night film. A midway point between Waters’ POLYESTER and Haynes’ FAR FROM HEAVEN, with a heavy dose of STRANGERS WITH CANDY for good measure, the film follows Maddie Ralph (Early, in demure drag), a budding Los Angeles food influencer. We meet Maddie on her way to work, where she sunnily embraces the eclectic mix of street characters she encounters with an “oh, gee!” saccharinity only stomachable because of Early’s bold (and wise!) decision to play the character totally straight.
That job is dishwashing for the GourMaybe Test Kitchen, a banal job rife with abuse from head honcho Zach (Conner O’Malley) and star chef Emily (Claudia O’Doherty). Thankfully, she’s got her best friend by her side in the form of Kate Berlant’s acerbic Deena. (It feels like a given to state that Berlant, a frequent Early collaborator, is excellent here, but she is.) Maddie, a passionate chef, tells Deena about her dreams of making her own recipes, a self-fulfilling prophecy that falls right on time for the knowing tropiness to be a comfort. And when she goes home that night to cook dinner for her adoring husband, Jake (Eric Rahill), she comes up with a vegan take on a smashburger, with eggplant inspired by a hookup app mural she’d seen that morning. Jake is an editor, largely working with companies like GourMaybe, so he films his wife’s process and splices it into a social-ready debut. It takes a minute for Maddie to get onboard with being in front of the camera—first, she hates the way she looks, before bemoaning: “I just wanted to make my husband dinner, and now I’m in postproduction!” But of course, the video is an overnight success, prompting an immediate promotion to on-camera recipe developer that quickly places her in contention for a gig as the food stylist for FX’s THE BOAR. I am genuinely not sure how this movie gets away with such thinly-veiled satire, but I am not a lawyer.
If all this sounds bubbly and winky and kitschy, that’s because it is: the first act of the film unfolds at a delightful clip, poking fun at both food influencer culture and the Sirkian melodramas that inspired both Waters and Haynes before it. But Maddie’s relatable, Drew Barrymore-esque onscreen persona quickly starts netting her “compliments” that praise her “realistic” body, and a darkness starts to creep in. Her mother (a glorious Kristen Johnson) reminds her that the camera adds ten pounds. And the next thing we know, Maddie is hunched over the toilet, trying to convince Jake that, no, she’s not purging, she’s actually just pregnant.
MADDIE’S SECRET’s most direct reference point, despite its initial absurdity, is not Waters or Haynes but rather the 1986 made-for-TV Kate’s Secret, in which a seemingly perfect housewife (Meredith Baxter’s eponymous Kate) quietly suffers from bulimia. Much like that film, and similarly earnest melodramas, Early’s film treats its subject matter with a decided seriousness. It’s a precarious tonal rug pull that dominates MADDIE’S’ back half, seemingly one off-color joke away from unraveling entirely at any given point. Much like Sontag, Early knows that the core of camp is not in its absurdity but in its sincerity. To make something ceaselessly gonzo and quippy is to miss the point of camp entirely. Such an act would undermine the genre pastiche, revealing at its center a lack of respect for the canon it seeks to remix.
MADDIE’S SECRET, then, is successful because of its smart aim in the exact opposite direction. It operates on a foundation of clear reverence for the women’s pictures it then takes the piss out of. And similarly, Early’s grand performance deftly sidesteps caricature in favor of realness that belies a genuine love and care for the female experience. Which is not to say that after Maddie first shows signs of bulimia, the film becomes some maudlin affair. Quite the opposite, actually; as new characters pop up throughout the film (including standout turns from Vanessa Bayer and Pat Regan), they begin to take the comedic reins, alongside the always-riotous Berlant, allowing Early the space to fully commit to a performance that feels, above all, truthful.
It is a cliché to claim that “on paper, [something] shouldn’t work.” I have been guilty of leaning on it myself. Watching MADDIE’S SECRET, I kicked myself for the number of times I’ve assigned that adage to work that didn’t merit it. This is a truly insane film, one that multiple cast members admitted during the post-screening Q&A felt possibly too ambitious on paper. It is a collection of bold, disorienting Choices, many of which contradict one another and none of which the film has any intention of apologizing for. When one choice does undermine another—there are perhaps one too many dance class scenes, for instance, a clear attempt to evoke the magic of Early and Berlant’s SHOWGIRLS recreation—it seems briefly like the film’s precarity might get the best of it. But then, without fail, Early will swoop in and remind you that he’s in control. This is his vision, and he’s going to see it through.
To close with another Sontag note, “Camp is the attempt to do something extraordinary. But extraordinary in the sense, often, of being special, glamorous.” More than most of the works that strive for the camp moniker, MADDIE’S SECRET embodies that.
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