Film festivals serve a vital function in giving unknown,
unheralded, and/or undistributed movies a platform to get support from critics
and find an audience. But through the vetting process, they also serve an
equally vital function: They generally help keep abysmal work like Madonna's
directorial debut, Filth And Wisdom, from seeing the light of day. Given the Madonna name, of
course, there was no doubt—or at least, less doubt—that there would
be some interest, however limited, in her stupefying cinematic vision. With any
other name behind it, her pseudo-philosophical ode to Kabbalah teachings would
get cast into the enormous slushpile of festival rejects that only a few
intrepid selection-committee members have been forced to sit through. Paying
audiences aren't usually subjected to projects this amateurish.
Taking a cue from Revolver, the worst film by her husband, Guy
Ritchie, Madonna bookends Filth And Wisdom with bits of philosophy aimed directly at viewers.
But instead of offering epigrams from the likes of Machiavelli and Julius
Caesar, she breaks the fourth wall and has her lead actor speak vaguely of
dualities. Eugene Hutz brings a scummy, Vincent Gallo-like magnetism to the
role of a loveable scoundrel who makes his living in leather boots, leading
clients through private S&M; scenarios. His roommates are also dabbling in
sin: Holly Weston is a ballerina who goes to work at a strip club, and Vicky
McClure is a good-hearted pharmacist who cares about African strife, but also
sneaks pills from the shelves.
The film's prevailing idea is reflected in the title: You
have to muck around in filth to achieve wisdom, and they're two sides of the
same coin. (How is this demonstrated? With a coin, naturally.) Madonna presents
the three leads as flawed but essentially decent and redeemable, but they're
bound up in a story that's meant to affirm a vague set of values. If she needs
to justify the Sex
book by charting her own contrived path from filth to heavenly wisdom, that's
fine. But she should do it on her own time.