Early word on Madonna's 'Filth and Wisdom'

Madonna's directorial debut, "Filth and Wisdom," premiered this week at the Berlin Film Festival, and the early verdict?

The international superstar doesn't embarrass herself.

The Hollywood Reporter's Ray Bennett sort of compliments the film and sort of slams it, writing, "Ragged, uneven and potholed with some dire dialogue and performances, the film's cockeyed optimism and likable leads conspire to bring a smile by the time it's done. Barely feature length at 81 minutes, it will likely appeal to Madonna's fans for its echoes of various threads of her own life story and the grunge style of 'Desperately Seeking Susan.' To many, however, it will remain an oddity."

Sheila Johnston in the Telegraph also has mixed feelings. Her review reads, "Madonna describes 'Filth and Wisdom' as 'essentially my way of putting myself through film school,' and it is an extremely canny assessment. The movie is -- disappointingly, perhaps -- not an outright embarrassment; there are even a couple of intentional laughs in it. It's not an entirely unpromising first effort. But the director would do well to hang on to her day job."

And the trend continues over at the London Times, which ultimately recommends the film. The paper's review concludes, "despite its many shortcomings and an ending so mushy and neat it would embarrass Richard Curtis, Madonna has done herself proud. Her film has an artistic ambition that has simply bypassed her husband, the film director Guy Ritchie. She captures that wonderfully accidental nature of luck when people’s lives intersect for a whole swathe of unlikely but cherishable reasons."

At the very least, the film stands to bring more attention to the music of the eight-piece Gogol Bordello. Lead singer Eugene Hutz plays the narrator/main character in "Filth and Wisdom," a wannabe musician who ends up trafficking in the bondage trade, and falls for his neighbor, a wannabe ballerina-turned-stripper.

The music of Hutz and Gogol Bordello supposedly dots the film, and the band's gypsy punk is a bit removed from the music associated with Madonna. Gogol Bordello mixes songs of politics, religion, sex and booze with an Eastern European flair and a rebel's attitude, and the act's "Super Taranta" is the place to start.

Here's a sample:

Photo: WireImage

Comments

[didier]

The problem is that your article is largely inaccurate. There are postive reviews in the London TIMES, REUTERS and AFP for example.

[Todd Martens]

Hi Didier,
Both of the reviews i quote are mixed, as is the London Times review. But I'll add it.

[kenviro]

http://film.guardian.co.uk/festivals/news/0,,2256320,00.html

"She has made a movie so incredibly bad that Berlin festivalgoers were staggering around yesterday in a state of clinical shock, deathly pale and mewing like maltreated kittens. She is also the producer and co-author of the script. If she’d done the location catering as well, they’d have had a Jonestown situation on their hands."

[Christi]

yeah well this is waaaay better seriously

http://digitalfuntown.squarespace.com/dft-blog/2008/2/14/chicago-series-sweeney-todd.html

[Maria]

The movie would be downright unwatchable without Eugene Hutz. The script is not very good and doesn't resemble any reality I know of, but that doesn't explain how every actor beside Hutz to fails to play a believable and engaging character instead of a cardboard cut-out.

It would be too easy to blame it on the actors (and in the case of Weston and McClure I suspect that they were chosen for being very beautiful rather than being talented actresses) but Madonna really should have found a way to reign in Richard E. Grant hamming it to the max. When he was sniffing his books, it was not like he missed reading the words, but if the page consisted of coke.

[Sally in Chicago]

Why do I feel she's demasculating her husband? (is that a word?)