Maddie’s Secret

Purging the Past as an Aid to the Present

Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke

I invite you to join me to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I will call either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.  However, due to ongoing COVID-19 concerns on my part I’m focusing on streaming these days with limited visits to theaters.  (Note: Anything here in bold blue [or near purple] is a link to something in the above title or in the review.)  This blog’s been operational since mid-December 2011, often with ridiculously-long reviews from me, but other ongoing responsibilities now require me to be very brief in order to have time to post anything each week, although I’ll include links to informative sites for useful enhancement.

My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”

(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)

However, if you’d like to know more about rationale of my ratings visit this explanatory site.

   Maddie's Secret (John Early)  Not Rated  100 min.

Here’s the trailer:

        (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size; 

        activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)

 This film’s about Maddie Ralph (Early playing this woman [I don’t know why]), a dishwasher in a trendy L.A. restaurant, Gourmaybe, with dreams of being a chef which start to come true when supportive husband Jake (Eric Rahill) shoots a video of her preparing a Philippine vegetarian dish that goes viral; soon she’s the eatery’s video face replacing huffy, snotty Emily (Claudia O’Doherty) who secretly makes fun of Maddie with their boss, Zack (Conner O’Malley), that Maddie overhears resurrecting childhood traumas she’s tried to put aside.  More tension comes when producers of the food-based TV show, The Boar, want to hire either her or Emily, setting them in competition.  Ultimately, it’s all too much for Maddie who reverts to her problem with bulimia, confiding only in her co-worker friend, Deena Michaels (Kate Berlant [on the left above]), lying to Jake that she vomits due to pregnancy.  When she collapses from cardiac arrest in an exercise class she’s admitted to a 6-week food-problem program at a local hospital, but Deena helps her escape so she can audition for The Boar folks which results in another medical episode landing her back in the hospital.  That’s all the time and space for me in this posting for plot details, but you can find plenty more at this site (with Spoilers of course).   This is a very different rendering of a story about a person with talent/drive to be happily successful, yet is held back by a severe emotional/physical situation (initiated by useless-parent Beverly Ralph [Kristen Johnston] when Maddie was just a young girl being harassed by schoolmates due to her plus-size) that’s not treated for comic effect as much of the rest of the story is (although whether there’s supposed to anything funny about notably-male Early in drag is something that eludes me; at least he plays Maddie as a decent, sympathetic character, not some kind of transvestite joke).  Your interest might be further enhanced by a tasteful sex scene early on between Maddie and muscular Jake, as well as some tasty shots of Maddie’s yummy food, but overall it’s mostly a series of unpredictable events tied together nicely at resolution.

 Maddie’s Secret was released in domestic (U.S.-Canada) theaters on June 19, 2026, still seems to be in some of them, has so far made $1.2 million (apparently no international showings yet), can now be found on streaming where it rents for $4.99 on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV.  Despite some dismissals (example coming up soon) the CCAL’s quite strong on it with the Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews at 85%, the Metacritic average score at 74%, which is higher than they’ve been lately on things both they and I have reviewed.  Here’s testimony from someone who liked it even more than I did, Natalia Winkelman of The New York Times (MC 100): “[…] an audaciously sunny psychological drama that is also a perfectly calibrated comedy. [...] the movie has proved weirdly difficult to characterize, variously called a satire, a homage, a critique, even a horror film. Most simply, it is a pastiche of the made-for-TV melodrama, a moribund style jolted back to life with waxy visual polish and a liberal infusion of clever gags.”  However, I’ll always try to find an objecting voice for you, so I’ve gone to the other extreme with a guy from my old Texas hometown, Richard Whittaker of The Austin Chronicle, who wants his 100 min. back: “The very idea of making a spoof of 1980s movies-of-the-week is so incredibly misguided that it’s not even punching down. It’s punching at empty air, and yet that’s exactly what writer/director/star John Early does in Maddie’s Secret. […] Instead of his seeming intention to create something that’s both funny and yet very demure, very mindful, he’s churned out a barely-congealed dish that’s the thinnest of gruel.”  So, Mr. Whittaker and I reside on different planets regarding this quirky film.  With that, I’ll leave you with a Musical Metaphor, Paul Simon’s "Slip Slidin' Away" (1977 Greatest Hits, etc. album), which I pondered for a long time before choosing, mainly based on the lines “ ‘A bad day’s when I lie in bed / And think of things that might have been,’ ” a statement that seems to fit Maddie’s problems as well.  However, I think the song as a whole also fits her deteriorating situation, as it does for many of us.

 (In this photo Pat on left, Ken on eight,)  If you’d like to know more about the Two Guys "wisdom" in this blog you can go here for links to our past reviews, our homepage, our Facebook page, sign-up for a Google account to reply to us, & Ken Burke’s email address if you want direct correspondence,

              

OUR POSTINGS PROBABLY LOOK BEST ON THE MOST CURRENT VERSIONS OF MAC OS AND THE SAFARI WEB BROWSER (although Google Chrome usually is decent also); OTHERWISE, BE FOREWARNED THE LAYOUT MAY SEEM MESSY AT TIMES.

           

Finally, Google says that over the past month the total unique hits at our  Film Reviews from Two Guys in the Dark site were 127,519.  (We thank all of you for your support with hopes you’ll continue as or become regular readers.)  Below is a snapshot of where those responses have come from within the previous week (appreciation too for the unspecified “Others” also visiting Two Guys’ site):

More Two Guys Stuff, Just So You'll Know

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:

 

You can visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviews for our past posts (scroll to the bottom of this Summary page to see additional info about your wacky critic, Ken Burke).  Overall notations for this blog are found at Two Guys in the Dark homepage.  You can also visit our Facebook page. Please note to Post a Comment below about our reviews you need to have either a Google account (https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount if you need to sign up) or other sign-in identification from the pull-down menu below before you preview or post.  You can also leave comments at our Facebook page, although you might have to somehow register with us at that site.

 

If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here at the blog please 

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Mayday plus Short Takes on some other cinematic topics

A Meaningful Thaw in the Cold War

Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke

I invite you to join me to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I will call either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.  However, due to ongoing COVID-19 concerns on my part I’m focusing on streaming these days with limited visits to theaters.  (Note: Anything here in bold blue [or near purple] is a link to something in the above title or in the review.)  This blog’s been operational since mid-December 2011, often with ridiculously-long reviews from me, but other ongoing responsibilities now require me to be very brief in order to have time to post anything each week, although I’ll include links to informative sites for useful enhancement.

My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”

(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)

However, if you’d like to know more about rationale of my ratings visit this explanatory site.

 

   Mayday (Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley)

          rated PG-13    110 min. 

Here’s the trailer:

        (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size; 

        activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)

 Mayday is set back in 1987 when the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (predominantly Russia) were actively antagonistic to each other (a situation we’ve now largely returned to) in what was called the Cold War.  Hot-shot Navy pilot Troy Kelly (Ryan Reynolds) is sent on a spy mission high above/deep within Russia, but his plane is shot down leaving him injured, unconscious; when he comes to he finds himself in the remote abode of Nikolai Ustinov (Kenneth Branagh), an ex-KGB operative who quit his job in support of his lesbian daughter, Anna (Maria Bakalova), because of the harsh Soviet laws against homosexuals; Nikolai also has a great fondness for what he knows of the USA, especially Tom Cruise’s role in Top Gun (Tony Scott, 1986).  Traveling together, involved in a lot of physical violence along the way, they head over thousands of miles to Moscow where Troy will depend on the US Embassy to fly both of them out of the country, even as they’re being pursued by rabid-anti-American KGB officer Alexander Volkov (Marcin Dorociński).  That’s all the plot I’ve got time for, so to get the other massive details (and Spoilers of course) please visit this site.  I found this movie to be a very entertaining blend of well-choreographed action scenes (don’t mess with Nikolai; he’s a martial-arts warrior) and comedy (often based on intercultural misunderstandings, as well as the story behind Troy’s nickname), with the title doing double duty as it refers to both Troy’s intercom call for help as his jet’s hurtling toward the ground and the massive Soviet military parade on May 1 which our heroes ultimately use to their advantage with a commandeered missile vehicle.  Acting by the male leads is superb as they negotiate various levels of trust with each other while Dorociński  makes for a marvelous, determined villain.  I recommend this unless you’re put off by hand-to-hand combat: you’ll find plenty of it here.

 Mayday came to streaming via Apple TV on September 4, 2026 (free to subscribers or you can get 7 days free then decide if you want to invest $14.99 on a by-the-month basis) with CCAL support as the Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews are 82% while the normally-noticeably-lower number comes from Metacritic with a 60% average score (my 3½ stars of 5 is 70%, but I rarely go above 4 so I’m notably-supportive as well).  As an example of someone who was pleased with what he saw we have Todd Gilchrist of Variety (MC 80): “[…] it’s a smart, inventive, well-directed action comedy. Bereft of theatrical distribution, it seems slightly doomed to be relegated to the ‘streaming content’ trash heap, even as it shows the kind of filmmaking personality that should be showcased on the biggest screen possible.”  But you can usually find dissention to anything, as with Roger Moore of Movie Nation (MC 38) who says: “Let’s go with ‘adorably awful,’ because ‘delightfully dumb’ seems like a stretch. […] Just remember, the title has two meanings and Reynolds turns 50 in October and Branagh is 65 and no Liam Neeson, so it’s all kind of a stunt man/makeup team/CGI assisted lark. [¶] And ‘dumb’ becomes a given, right from the start.”  Clearly, I liked it better than that, but the choice is yours.  However, my choice for the usual posting-closure of a Musical Metaphor seemed destined from the start to be The Beatles’ "Back in the U.S.S.R." (1968 The Beatles album [often known as The White Album]) with this version from May 24, 2003 as Paul McCartney (the chief songwriter) and some other guys perform live in Moscow’s Red Square, when Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost (more open government) for a time led to much better relations between Russia and the West (I doubt Paul would try this again under the Putin regime though this fierce dictator might not understand the irony/satire in a song that seems to praise imperial Vladimir’s best Soviet memories).

SHORT TAKES

               

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:

You can visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviews for our past posts (scroll to the bottom of this Summary page to see additional info about your wacky critic, Ken Burke).  Overall notations for this blog are found at Two Guys in the Dark homepage.  You can also visit our Facebook page. Please note to Post a Comment below about our reviews you need to have either a Google account (https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount if you need to sign up) or other sign-in identification from the pull-down menu below before you preview or post.  You can also leave comments at our Facebook page, although you might have to somehow register with us at that site.

If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here at the blog please 

use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work.

          

OUR POSTINGS PROBABLY LOOK BEST ON THE MOST CURRENT VERSIONS OF MAC OS AND THE SAFARI WEB BROWSER (although Google Chrome usually is decent also); OTHERWISE, BE FOREWARNED THE LAYOUT MAY SEEM MESSY AT TIMES.

            

Finally, Google says that over the past month the total unique hits at our  Film Reviews from Two Guys in the Dark site were 127,519.  (We thank all of you for your support with hopes you’ll continue as or become regular readers.)  Below is a snapshot of where those responses have come from within the previous week (appreciation too for the unspecified “Others” also visiting Two Guys’ site):

 

The Whisper Man, Short Takes on other cinematic topics

The Kids Aren’t Alright

Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke

I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.  However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, but better options are on the horizon.  (Note: Anything in bold blue below [or near purple] is a link to something in the above title or the review.)

My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”

(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)

However, if you’d like to know more about rationale of my ratings visit this explanatory site.

                            The Whisper Man (James Ashcroft)

                                             rated R   114 min.

Here’s the trailer:

        (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size; 

        activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)

If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy).  To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows: 

⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.

WHAT HAPPENS: (This is another very busy week cutting drastically into my blogging time so if you’d like more plot details [including Spoilers] please visit this site.)  In Garretton, NJ police Detective Amanda Beck (Michelle Monaghan) leads a crew searching for missing boy Neil Spencer; instead they find the body of another boy raising concerns about the reappearance of the Whisper Man (Michael Keaton), Frank Carter, who killed several children years ago after forcing them to record audio cassette messages to their parents as a further torture, but he’s been in prison ever since, captured by former Detective Peter Willis (Robert De Niro).  Beck wants Willis to talk to Carter about this, yet he refuses as the long-ago case has haunted him ever since especially as he was never able to find one of the victims, even as a new cassette is sent to the cops with Neil’s forced message.  Then we get a parallel plot when successful crime novelist Tom Kennedy (Adam Scott), along with shy 8-year-old son Jake (Acston Luca Porto), moves back to Garretton where he met his now-deceased wife; they move into an enormous rental house where we have easily-disturbing scenes of night and rain, increasing Jake’s inner-retreat as he talks of an imaginary friend, a young girl in a blue sweater; a further complication reveals Tom as Peter’s son, but they’re distant, with Tom still angry about neglect by his work-focused, alcoholic-at-the-time father.  Tom has to seek Dad’s help, though, when Jake disappears leading Peter to work with Amanda, as Tom learns the previous tenant of his house was Dominic Barnett (John Grigley), Frank’s accomplice in his crimes.  

 

 Peter finds Frank’s been visited in prison by Norman Collins (Hamish Linklater) who collects serial-killer memorabilia, was found by Tom rummaging around in Tom’s basement, with the next twist being a tape arriving from Jake’s captor.  ⇒Tom and Peter search the basement, find the skeletal remains of Peter’s missing victim along with murdered Barnett.  Amanda and Peter realize Norman killed Barnett, but he commits suicide to avoid prison.  Peter realizes the new Whisper Man is Frank’s son, trying to gain his father’s respect; Amanda stumbles upon him though he stabs her, takes Jake to his own home where he’s confronted by Tom and Peter who’s fatally stabbed as Francis Jr. (Owen Teague) is subdued.  In prison Frank’s allowed to visit his son but chokes him to death as his long-ago victims were just substitutes for his hate toward Junior.  All’s finally quiet with Tom and Jake as Tom looks through old photos, finds one of his wife as a girl in a blue sweater.⇐ 

SO WHAT? As my COVID-19 concerns continue to be relevant with a reported increase in the virus’ presence in my San Francisco Bay area I’m continuing to stay away from crowded movie theaters even though I want to see such intriguing fare as The Odyssey (Christopher Nolan) and Spider-Man: Brand-New Day (Destin Daniel Cretton)—both of which are cleaning up at the box-office with the former at $1.6 billion globally, the latter $2.3 billion worldwide, or even Coyote vs. Acme (Dave Green) with $20.4 million globally after just one weekend—instead searching for (at least) potential options on streaming, with my subscription to Netflix bringing constant announcements of what they acquired from theatrical releases or what they financed themselves, which is what brought me to The Whisper Man, which I found to be quite watchable with a couple of interesting surprises in the later scenes although the OCCU and I are very far apart (more on that in the next section below), with further encouragement to be in the critical minority here from San Francisco Chronicle guru Mick LaSalle, whom I’m in agreement with as he reviewed it last Friday as it debuted on Netflix: “ ‘The Whisper Man’ is a throwback to that era of vintage thrillers. It’s grim and lurid, with its own scary chained-up psycho offering questionable advice from inside a prison, like Hannibal Lecter. […] The retrospective feeling is more than simply welcome. It’s appropriate, because ‘The Whisper Man’ is all about a string of copycat crimes reprising murders from decades before. In that sense, ‘The Whisper Man’ is a nostalgic movie about a nostalgic serial killer.”  So true!

 

 Despite the OCCU’s lack of enthusiasm I wanted to see this movie if for no other reason than to watch marvelous old-pros De Niro and Keaton, with their 2 shared scenes alone worth the viewing investment.  Many in writing about The Whisper Man make reference to multi-Oscar-winner The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991) which is vaguely reasonable, but there’s not enough true overlap to imply even an homage, although I don’t know what’s in Alex North’s 2019 novel of the movie’s same name, but if you'd want to read much more about it from Ashcroft’s viewpoint go here.

 

BOTTOM LINE FINAL COMMENTS: As noted above, the OCCU’s not collectively-enthusiastic about The Whisper Man given that the Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews are only 46% while the Metacriltic average score is surprisingly higher but only at 52%.  Still, there are some who liked at roughly the same level I did such as Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times (MC 80; my 3½ stars is 70% of my maximum 5): “In the race to replace the notion of  ‘TV movie’ with streaming-only films that could, in another era, compete at the box office, ‘The Whisper Man’ is as good as it gets. […] Eschewing big expositional monologues (or, thank heaven, flashbacks), Jacoby and Palmer allude to rather than lay out the details of Tom and Pete’s estrangement, the horrors of the original Whisper Man case and the origins of Jake’s imaginary friend, who is visible only to Jake and the audience. And in the hands of these performers, less is very much more.” Sounds OK to me.

 

  But an overwhelming number of reviews are more like U.K.’s Tim Robey of The Telegraph (MC 20; I'd have to be at 1 star to match that): “If you’re going to shoot in some dreary suburbs from a script that barely functions, there’s no point splashing out on such an expensive cast: it’s like sticking wagyu in the microwave. […] Given his trade, Tom seems weirdly incurious about a local spate of killings […] Nothing makes sense. […] The young victims’ drawings, with big sad-face heads, feel like outright parodies of what a child in captivity might draw. [¶] Throughout, De Niro trudges around searching, in vain, for an interesting scene. It’s a dingy waste of his time — and ours.”  At least I didn’t have to argue with myself about what to choose for my usual ending Musical Metaphor device, something I remembered from long ago, Dore Previn’s "Mister Whisper" (1970 On My Way To Where? album), where the singer tells of a powerful intrusion in her brain (based on Dore’s stay in a psychiatric hospital where she was given electroshock “therapy” after her famed musician husband, Andre Previn, left her for Mia Farrow) which isn’t the same situation as in The Whisper Man, but in both stories the whisperer takes some kind of command over a specific person or an entire community; in the song she says "Mister Whisper’s / Here again / He’s back / In his apartment / In my head […] I think/ I can control him / But instead / Mister Whisper / Takes control / Guides my heart / And rides my soul,” which resonates with me regarding Frank & Frank Jr.'s acts in Garretton.

       

SHORT TAKES

                

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:

 

We encourage you to visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviews for our past posts* (scroll to the bottom of this Summary page to see additional info about your wacky critic, Ken Burke, along with contact info and a great retrospective song list).  Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage.  If you’d like to Like us on Facebook (yes?) please visit our Facebook page.  We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it unto us!  Please also note that to Post a Comment below about our reviews you need to have either a Google account (which you can easily get at https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount if you need to sign up) or other sign-in identification from the pull-down menu below before you preview or post.  You can also leave comments at our Facebook page, although you may have to somehow register with us there in order to comment (FB procedures: frequently perplexing mysteries for us aged farts).

 

*Please ignore previous warnings about a “dead link” to our Summary page because the problem’s been manually fixed so that all postings since July 11, 2013 now have the proper functioning link.

 

If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here at the blog please 

use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work.

          

OUR POSTINGS PROBABLY LOOK BEST ON THE MOST CURRENT VERSIONS OF MAC OS AND THE SAFARI WEB BROWSER (although Google Chrome usually is decent also); OTHERWISE, BE FOREWARNED THE LAYOUT MAY SEEM MESSY AT TIMES.

         

Finally, for the data-oriented among you, Google stats say over the past month the total unique hits at this site were 127,519.  (As always, we thank all of you for your ongoing support with hopes you’ll continue to be regular readers.)  Below is a snapshot of where those responses have come from within the previous week (appreciation for the unspecified “Others” also visiting Two Guys’ site):