Image courtesy of Magnolia.
“Maddie’s Secret” stars writer-director John Early in drag as Maddie Ralph, an up-and-coming chef on the internet who dreams of sharing her bespoke vegetarian cuisine with the world. But there’s a skeleton in her closet, and its stomach is starting to grumble.
Camp—which defies exact definition, but the Encyclopedia Britannica describes as a “style and aesthetic sentiment that values the extravagant, the ironic and the flamboyant”—is one of the load-bearing pillars of queer cinema. It increasingly seems, in a post-ironic West, that to be culturally fluent is to speak the language of irony and cynicism, to be in on the “Big Joke.” And I think camp has suffered as a result, its irony diluted, and its extravagance cheapened. Cynical camp doesn’t work anymore. That’s where writer-director John Early’s debut film, “Maddie’s Secret,” comes in.
John Early’s work belies intimate familiarity with camp and its intertwined history with queer film, drawing in equal parts from John Waters’ films and sincerely wrought melodrama in the tradition of Douglas Sirk and Todd Haynes. There’s just as much “Polyester” here as there is “Far from Heaven,” but Early works beyond the queer canon to create something truly present that coexists in camp and the sincere—and that had me in tears multiple times.
Early also delivers his own starring performance as complex culinary content creator Maddie Ralph. It’s a gimmick that’s iffy on paper and could translate horribly onscreen if ill-executed, but it works here in spades. I think Early’s earnest portrayal of a flawed altruist figuring out what she wants for herself works precisely because it stands on a foundation of sincere love and admiration for women, culturally, professionally and personally, and each member of the rest of the cast (Kate Berlant and Conner O’Malley stand out in particular) puts real support into being a supporting player.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t include a trigger warning before you watch this film. The plot of “Maddie’s Secret” centrally features its main character’s eating disorder: bulimia nervosa. If you’re currently living with an eating disorder, I’d encourage you to think twice before seeing this film. If the depiction of an eating disorder is something you’re sensitive to, I’d tell you I found “Maddie’s Secret” to be incredibly affirming and encouraging in its loving, caring and ultimately human treatment of its characters, even as someone who’s very sensitive to disordered eating.
“Maddie’s Secret” is so much more than “But I’m a Cheerleader” for disordered eating. It deserves to be a new camp classic and offers a more earnest and loving path forward for comedy, camp and queer film as a whole. We live in a world with harsh truths and hard pills to swallow—why pretend not to care? Sincerity is a dying currency, and Early masterfully uses melodrama and camp to raise stakes and take delicate and intimate emotions seriously, to breathtaking effect.
“Maddie’s Secret” opens at Midtown in July.
Midtown Cinema is located at 250 Reily St., Harrisburg. For more information, visit www.midtowncinema.com. Gabriel Brown serves as assistant manager at Midtown Cinema.
July Events at Midtown Cinema
25FOR25 Series
25 great films celebrating 25 Years of Midtown Cinema
“Inside Llewyn Davis” (2013)
Tuesday, July 7
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” (2014)
Sunday, July 12
“Spotlight” (2015)
Sunday, July 19
“Moonlight” (2016)
Sunday, July 26
Friends of Midtown
Outdoor Film Series
“Superman” (2025)
Saturday, July 11
“Mean Girls” (2004)
Saturday, Aug. 22
“The NeverEnding Story” (1984)
Saturday, Sept. 12
Movies at dusk. Bring your own chair.
Late Night Frights
“The Return of the Living Dead” (1985)
Friday, July 3
3rd in the Burg Movie Night
“Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” (2003)
Friday, July 17, 9:30 p.m.
Down in Front!
Comedy Riffing
“Samson vs. the Vampire Women” (1962)
Friday, July 24
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