Filth and Wisdom Critic Reviews

Worst of all, the movie's simply not very shocking. Madonna has made a career out of toying with image and ego, but this is a vanity project in the smallest sense possible.Read the full review

A pointless exercise in "shocking" behavior.Read the full review

The movie is short on wisdom, but it might have gotten by if it had had better filth.Read the full review

An irredeemably dull tale.Read the full review

Filth & Wisdom is dead in the water, an excruciating bore even at a compact 84 minutes.Read the full review

Ragged, uneven and potholed with some dire dialogue and performances.Read the full review

Not that Madonna has gone in for originality, which isn't really her thing: rather, instead of repurposing a genre, she has riffled through the art-house catalog for inspiration, as evidenced by the film's intentionally grubby visual texture, jumpy editing, direct-address commentary, freeze frames and other tricks.Read the full review

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.Read the full review

Madonna's directorial debut, Filth and Wisdom, feels more like a collection of scenes than a fully drawn film.Read the full review