John Early's 'Maddie's Secret' Revives 1980s-90s TV-Movie Melodrama in 1 Compelling Homage
Updated
Updated · Vulture · Jun 19
John Early's 'Maddie's Secret' Revives 1980s-90s TV-Movie Melodrama in 1 Compelling Homage
2 articles · Updated · Vulture · Jun 19
Summary
John Early’s “Maddie’s Secret” is framed as a rare straight-faced homage to 1980s and 1990s TV movies, borrowing the moral seriousness of NBC’s 1986 eating-disorder drama “Kate’s Secret” without collapsing into parody.
Early writes, directs and stars as Maddie, a wholesome Gourmaybe dishwasher whose viral eggplant-mango smashburger catapults her on camera, where online fame and food-world pressure retrigger bulimia she believed was behind her.
The review says the film’s key gamble is tonal: despite a cast packed with comedians, including Eric Rahill, Kate Berlant, Claudia O’Doherty and Vanessa Bayer, the laughs serve a melodrama played with almost no wink.
That approach also lets the movie satirize millennial foodie culture—competitive influencer cheer, fetishized “ethnic” flavors and eroticized food content—while keeping Maddie’s downward spiral and eventual treatment as its emotional core.
The result, the review argues, is a strange but resonant work that tests whether outdated TV-movie tropes can still move audiences now that irony and “hipster laughing” often greet older pop forms.