{"id":261623,"date":"2026-08-08T13:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T13:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/261623\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T13:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T13:30:12","slug":"maddies-secret-is-a-camp-spectacle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/261623\/","title":{"rendered":"Maddie’s Secret is a Camp Spectacle"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Magnolia Pictures<\/p>\n

4\/5 stars<\/p>\n

“Camp” is a term with a very nebulous meaning, but at its heart, it is a celebration of artificiality and theatricality. It’s often used for comedic effect, but it can also be a powerful way to point out the hypocrisies of society. This is exactly what John Early does in his directorial debut Maddie’s Secret. He uses camp aesthetics to make a statement about the increasing superficiality of our looks-based world and the horrible toll it can have on a person’s mental health. The result is a film that is funny and tragic in equal measure, held together by a truly one-of-a-kind performance.<\/p>\n

Madelyn Ralph (played by director John Early in drag) works as a dishwasher behind the scenes of a famous cooking show, but she dreams of hosting a show of her own. After a cooking video she posts on the internet goes viral, Maddie is offered her own show and becomes an instant sensation. However, the pressure of performing on camera reawakens a long-buried eating disorder, and Maddie’s life begins to spiral out of control.<\/p>\n

Early goes full camp with this story, filling it with garish colors and intentionally over-the-top performances, making it feel like a parody of a made-for-TV movie. The aesthetics heighten the message of the film about the ridiculous pressures that beauty standards place on women. The fact that the main character is played by a man in drag only heightens the absurdity of it all. The film loses a bit of steam in the second half when it shifts from comedy into full-blown melodrama, but John Early’s performance and direction cement him as a unique new voice in indie cinema.<\/p>\n

Maddie’s Secret is currently playing in select theaters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Written and directed by John Early \/\/ Starring Early, Kate Berlant, Eric Rahill, Claudia O’Doherty, Connor O’Malley, Vanessa Bayer, Chris Bauer, Nate Varrone, Ruby McCollister, Gordon Landenberger, and Kristen Johnston \/\/ 98 minutes \/\/ Magnolia Pictures \/\/ Unrated (R equivalent)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Magnolia Pictures 4\/5 stars “Camp” is a term with a very nebulous meaning, but at its heart, it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137,14359,1803,110798],"class_list":["post-261623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-film-review","tag-forest-taylor","tag-maddies-secret"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}