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.

| Original Score: A | Aug 7, 2024

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.

| Dec 6, 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.

| Jul 24, 2023

Is this a great movie? With a day to think about it, I’m not sure it is, but Josephine Decker’s feature has ambition and the desire for greatness in spades...

| Jan 5, 2023

Episode 10: Getting Medicated

| Original Score: 60/100 | Aug 28, 2021

A bold film. Madeline's experiences, both real and imagined, merge creating a dreamy, unsettling pastiche of real life.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Mar 4, 2021

Lunging, woozy, mercurial, the film's highly stylized viewpoint is Madeline's own-what we at first assume to be a heightened version of normal adolescent emotions, but which gradually start looking like something more deeply problematic.

| Oct 15, 2020

If you're open to the experimental side of cinema, Madeline's Madeline is an absolute winner.

| Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 15, 2020

Bold, nightmarish exercise in disorientation, in which the mental state of the enraptured audience unravels every bit as chaotically as that of the eponymous character.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 15, 2020

[G]entle, sensual psychosis.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jul 24, 2020

On the surface, Madeline's Madeline is an uncompromising portrait of a troubled teenage girl who finds sanctuary in an after-school improv theatre troupe. But, look deeper, it provides self-aware commentary about the acting process itself.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 23, 2020

...this really is a superbly made film [...] .The sound design is really fantastic [and] quite disturbing in a way. It takes a while [as a viewer] to find its rhythm, but once you do you'll be with it the whole way.

| May 22, 2020

Steeped in the ideas of theatre, identity, and flawed personalities.

| Jul 26, 2019

The entire film is an exercise in immersion... This could be off-putting to those less adventurous among us, but if you're brave enough to stick with the film into its second act, Decker delivers something quite impressive amidst the chaos.

| May 29, 2019

Madeline's Madeline explores the boundaries between representation and exploitation, a must-see...

| May 28, 2019

Bold, brave and bizarre - Madeline's Madeline is a truly unconventional indie gem with a star performance at its heart.

| Original Score: 8/10 | May 22, 2019

There's no getting away from the fact that it's a Marmite film, but love it or loathe it, newcomer Helena Howard's performance as Madeline is phenomenal and award worthy.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 15, 2019

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.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 12, 2019

With her third feature film, Josephine Decker is cementing herself as an irreplaceable voice in contemporary independent filmmaking.

| Original Score: 5/5 | May 11, 2019

An invigorating original.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 10, 2019