John Early’s feature debut, Maddie’s Secret, is a gleefully precise riff on ’90s TV melodramas that refuses to sneer at its heroine. Premiering in the Toronto International Film Festival’s Discovery program, the film marries candy-coated parody with genuine feeling—an unusually tender blend that lets its jokes land without puncturing the character at the center.
Camp with compassion, not contempt
Early co-writes, directs, and stars as Maddie Ralph, a would-be chef whose lifetime of people-pleasing collides with the ruthless metrics of modern food media. The movie has all the markers of the era it’s lampooning—earnest speeches, portentous music cues, and villains who announce themselves from the doorway—yet it wields them with affection. The target is the form’s excesses, not Maddie’s pain.
That warmth is crucial. Parodies of Lifetime-style dramas often flatten their protagonists into punchlines. Maddie’s Secret instead honors the genre’s emotional sincerity, using it to explore self-image and addiction without sacrificing the delirious fun of camp. It’s closer in spirit to the lovingly straight-faced A Deadly Adoption than to wink-heavy spoof.
A shape-shifting star turn
Early’s performance is the film’s North Star—unshowy, specific, and deeply humane. He’s not playing “drag” so much as calibrating a character who’s learned to survive by being soft, agreeable, and impossibly “good.” The gag is never womanhood; the gag is how society rewards a certain performance of it until the mask calcifies.
As Maddie’s culinary channel clout rises, the algorithm-friendly polish begins to corrode her. The movie tracks her slide into disordered habits with clear eyes, gently revealing how perfection culture masquerades as care. That theme feels ripped from our feeds: reports from the Center for Countering Digital Hate and advisories from the U.S. Surgeon General have tied social platforms to heightened body-image stress, particularly for young users. By setting Maddie’s struggle in a kitchen-content ecosystem, the film grounds its camp in a recognizable pressure cooker.
An ensemble that crackles
Kate Berlant, Early’s long-time partner in mischief, plays Maddie’s fiercely loyal best friend with deadpan bravado and a sly payoff to her over-the-top flirtations. Claudia O’Doherty is a scalpel-sharp nemesis as the studio’s resident star, all brittle smiles and crocodile compliments, while Conner O’Malley leans into a grubby producer archetype with relish.
At home, Eric Rahill offers a disarmingly warm turn as Maddie’s husband—the rare comedy spouse who’s neither oblivious nor a scold. And when the story detours to treatment, Vanessa Bayer steals scenes as a sunny, heartbreakingly naïve roommate whose crush on a kindly nurse (Pat Regan) is doomed before it begins. A trio of chaos agents (Ruby McCollister, Emily Allan, and Leah Hennessy) completes the rehab chorus, channeling the “bad girls with great lines” energy of vintage cable dramas without tipping into cruelty.
Tone control worthy of a veteran
The trick of this material is balance, and Early has it. He modulates performances across registers—some stiff by design, some gloriously big—so that the movie feels like an artifact of the era it’s parodying while still operating as a modern character study. The comedy blooms from behavior and structure, not just punchlines, which gives the dramatic notes room to resonate.
That confidence didn’t come from nowhere. Early’s genre elasticity in Search Party and his acclaimed special with Berlant, Would It Kill You to Laugh?—honored by the Peabody Awards—forecasted a talent for making left-field forms feel lived-in. Here, as a first-time feature director, he proves he can shepherd a full narrative without losing his taste for mischief.
Why this parody lands now
We’re in a moment that loves capital-C Camp but often treats it like an accessory. Maddie’s Secret remembers that camp is also a survival tactic—a way for marginalized or anxious people to name a feeling too slippery for realism. By taking Maddie’s vulnerability seriously, the film makes room for both catharsis and cackle. It’s a joke with a pulse.
Verdict
Maddie’s Secret is a rarity: a parody that cares. John Early delivers a star performance and a sure-handed debut, surrounded by a cast who understands exactly how far to push and when to pull back. It’s silly, seductive, and unexpectedly moving—proof that melodrama, handled with love, can still slice cleanly through the noise.