Film - Filth And Wisdom

Reviews, By Travis de Jonk, 20th March, 2009

Madonna belongs on a list of queer talking points somewhere between abs and Ab Fab. Filth and Wisdom, her debut film as writer and director, is both consciously removed from expectation and wildly self-referential.

The film follows three characters on their quest to rise above circumstance in contemporary London. Ever the cultural bower bird, Madonna has cast weirdly sexy Indie rock darling Eugene Hutz from Gogol Bordello at its centre as both narrator and chief protagonist. Speaking direct to camera in the opening and closing moments, his thoughts are clearly intended to frame the characters passage through their struggles to understanding, or from filth to wisdom. The wisdom, however, is pretty perfunctory, and it’s undercut by the irony of a narcissistic musician with limited acting ability serving as the director’s proxy.

Visually, the film has a sort of washed out realism, possibly influenced as much by Madonna’s spell as a UK resident and the company she kept as by the long British tradition of kitchen-sink dramas. It only pulses with real energy when music becomes its focus, as in a strip club scene that bleeds Erotica into Hit Me Baby (One More Time). Perhaps unsurprisingly, the film seems most strongly influenced by those music videos from MTVs late ’80s heyday that imposed dialogue and a quasi- narrative around a few moments of ace pop (a la Material Girl).

The closing Gogol Bordello performance is a fine money shot, but it only goes so far in making up for the seventy-odd minutes leading up to it. Unfortunately, the film’s characters are largely uninvolving, and the little that does transpire is stilted and overly labored. While offering a snapshot of multicultural post-Blair London, it also veers uncomfortably close to stereotype and, although much of the drama revolves around the sex industry, even the desire on show is largely straight and sexless.

It does seem somehow less ponderous in hindsight, enlivened by the vitality of its climax and, in large part, by Hutz, who has a bemused charm on stage and off. It’s worth remembering that it’s a debut feature, and it conveys a voice confident enough to challenge and assimilate new influences and a willingness to cede the spotlight and pursue a less than mainstream narrative. There’s also more than enough reference to identity politics and aberrant sexual behavior to reaffirm Madonna’s place in popular queer discourse.

Filth And Wisdom screens at the ACMI Cinemas, Federation Square, on Saturday 28th March at 7:30pm as part of MQFF 2009. Click here to buy your tickets.

Filth And Wisdom is available through Semtex Films.