Volatile is the word I'd use when describing the title character in Madeline's Madeline, which I saw last night at the Milwaukee Film Festival. Madeline, a teenager, has a volatile relationship with her mother, who seems overwhelmed by Madeline's shifting personality. At times, Madeline can be loving, but then she'll be provoked into throwing a soda at her mother.
Madeline finds a release (and also some danger) in a performance art troupe. She takes to the Evangeline, the group's leader, and seems to find a relationship more natural than the one she has with her mother. The group is seeking a theme for its new performance, and her relationship with Evangeline grows more complicated when Evangeline uses information Madeline shares as inspiration for new scenes.
I was worried when the film began, because I've never been one for performance art or abstract films. My fears were put to rest quickly, as Madeline's Madeline turns out not to be an abstract film, nor is the performance art the central focus. The central focus is what the world seems like to Madeline. The picture often blurs and the sound cuts in and out as the film takes the audience through life as experienced through this troubled teenage girl.
The only word I can really use to describe Madeline's Madeline is unnerving. Although I had gut reactions to characters, I never could form strong judgments, as everyone is shown to have strong attributes and flaws. At the beginning, Evangeline seems like a godsend to Madeline, but over time her instinct for making a good show leads her to make seemingly manipulative decisions. The film also shows her as just plain overwhelmed. Madeline is clearly traumatized about events in her past, but places some trust in Evangeline as events from the past play out with the troupe.
Madeline's Madeline didn't really let me exhale until the end, and I think the rest of the audience felt the same way.
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