Madeline's Madeline

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1:35

Madeline's Madeline

2018

1h 34m

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

88%

Tomatometer

126 Reviews

43%

Popcornmeter

250+ Ratings

Madeline has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop's ambitious director pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and goes through all three women's lives.

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Critics Consensus

Madeline's Madeline proves experimental cinema is alive and well -- and serves as a powerful calling card for Helena Howard in her big-screen debut.

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Simran Hans

Observer (UK)

May 12, 2019

4/5

Is it fair to ask someone to traumatise (or retraumatise) themselves for the sake of art? Rather boldly, it seems as though Decker is also asking the question of herself.

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Ian Freer

Empire Magazine

May 9, 2019

4/5

If for no other reason, see it now to be on the ground floor at the unveiling of a new star: Helena Howard.

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Manuela Lazic

Little White Lies

May 9, 2019

4/5

Overwhelming at first, Madeline's Madeline only gains from repeat viewings.

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JD Duran

InSession Film

Aug 7, 2024

A

Madeline's Madeline will not be for everyone. Some will find it pompous. Others will see it as mundane and empty. I find it fearless. Decker's ambition and inventiveness establishes her voice in ways that are stunning.

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Dan Schindel

Vague Visages

Dec 6, 2023

At the risk of succumbing to the Sundance hype atmosphere, writer/director Josephine Decker may be offering a new form of altered cinematic consciousness with Madeline’s Madeline.

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Paul Kanieski

KSQD Community Radio

Jul 24, 2023

According to the end credits of Madeline’s Madeline, it was created through the improvisational efforts of a long list of collaborators, and it shows; character interactions feel spontaneous and lifelike. But there’s a rigor to the filmmaking.

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dede w

@RT37612585 Jul 8, 2025

This movie was so emotional, so tensive, so coming of age, this movie was really a home wrecker in my mind! Keep it up Madeline 🔥🔥

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Sam N

@RT61650855 Mar 24, 2025

I watched Madeline's Madeline, mainly because I liked Josephine Decker's later film Shirley. This one's trying to do a lot—race, mental health, coming of age, mother-daughter tensions, plus a whole meta-theatre layer—whilst bold, it often felt like it was trying too hard to be important. That said, Helena Howard is phenomenal. It's a breakout performance full of rawness and intensity; she holds the whole chaotic thing together. Miranda July felt oddly constrained by the direction, somewhat hemmed in a film that encourages improvisation and emotional looseness, which is her bread and butter but denied to her here. There's no shortage of ideas here, and it's definitely interesting. Still, it left me admiring the ambition rather than enjoying the ride.

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Andrei D

@RT74856639 Aug 30, 2023

Experimental dar cam fara miza

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Jun 22, 2020

A terrrific, offbeat movie that teases out issues of art vs. reality, emotional reality, mental illness, courage, and classic "coming of age" themes, treated unconventionally, but very expressively through dance, hallucinatory passages, and exceptional acting. The performance by the young Helena Howard reveals a new and exciting talent. The movie is also a good warm-up for Decker's more recent work in "Shirley" - which is also strange, evocative, and excellent.

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Jun 10, 2020

Maybe the worst movie I've ever seen. Pretentious, annoying. Ugh.

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May 24, 2020

So pretentious with far too much style over substance. This film seemed way more concerned with being cool and painting pretty pictures through a series of Instagram filter style shots rather than telling a story. A shame because the subject is interesting, just wasn't realistic and left me feeling cold and ultimately bored.

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Madeline

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Synopsis

Madeline has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop's ambitious director pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and goes through all three women's lives.

Director: Josephine Decker
Producer: Krista Parris, Elizabeth Rao
Screenwriter: Josephine Decker, Donna di Novelli
Distributor: Oscilloscope Laboratories
Production Co: Bow and Arrow Entertainment, Forager Films
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 10, 2018, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jul 19, 2018
Box Office (Gross USA): $183.0K
Runtime: 1h 34m

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