Warning: This article contains references to eating disorders.
The 50th Toronto International Film Festival has only been on since Thursday, but I feel confident in declaring that the best TV movie-coded eating disorder comedy will almost certainly be Maddie’s Secret.
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The film was written and directed by comedian John Early, who’s perhaps best known for playing Elliott Goss, one of the compellingly watchable narcissists from Search Party. Early also stars in Maddie’s Secret, donning a wig and prosthetic breasts to take on the title role. Why? Because as the first-time filmmaker has noted in recent interviews, he’s always wanted to play an ingenue.
From the jump, it’s clear that Maddie exists in a heightened reality, not unlike a vintage after school program or a very special ‘80s TV movie. But the story is clearly set in modern times; Maddie works for an online food content factory, and aspires to land a job working as a consultant on the Bear-like TV show The Boar. But Maddie is also recovering bulimic, and her career upswing is soon imperiled by a relapse.
Early doesn’t seem to be interested in the reality of struggling with bulimia, so much as he is the melodrama of old TV movies that told similar stories. During a post-screening Q&A, Early and the cast namechecked a few eating disorder-themed TV movies that informed Maddie’s Secret, including Perfect Body with Amy Jo Johnson, and Kate’s Secret, featuring Family Ties star Meredith Baxter and Ed Asner. The latter clearly served as the inspiration for several very specific jokes in Maddie’s Secret.
Early isn’t making fun of eating disorders, he’s making fun of a very specific cultural presentation of eating disorders, while also exhibiting a genuine love for that antiquated form of storytelling.
But this conceit also allows him to risk offending people by joking about a sensitive subject without necessarily bearing the responsibility of actually having to depict it properly, because the faulty depiction is what interests him. Whether that distinction is acceptable or not is up to each individual audience member.
To the movie’s credit, as the story progresses the characters are afforded some scenes of genuine humanity and emotion. We empathize with Maddie, even after being invited to laugh at her ordeal and the artificiality of her life. It doesn’t hurt that the movie boasts an impressive cast that includes Early frequent collaborator Kate Berlant, the always wonderful Vanessa Bayer, Conner O’Malley and former 3rd Rock From the Sun star Kristen Johnston.
Maddie’s Secret clearly isn’t for everybody, but it would be hard to argue that there’s any other movie quite like it.
