20
Ineptly written and helmed story of three Londoners, although quite bad, does have a few redeeming features.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
50
A charming but silly love letter to a vanished era of urban bohemia?
10
The New Yorker by Anthony Lane
Madonna's mess of a movie grabs at the rub and rancor of multiculturalism, which it proceeds to squash into a litter of clichés, or, more simply, insults.
50
Madonna's directorial debut, Filth and Wisdom, feels more like a collection of scenes than a fully drawn film.
0
New York Daily News by Joe Neumaier
An atrocious mess.
30
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
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.
50
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
The movie is short on wisdom, but it might have gotten by if it had had better filth.
20
The Hollywood Reporter by Ray Bennett
Ragged, uneven and potholed with some dire dialogue and performances.
25
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.