Filth and Wisdom

Co-written and directed by Madonna (who apparently learned everything she knows about moviemaking from watching filmmaker Jim Goddard on the set of Shanghai Surprise), Filth and Wisdom centers on three London roommates—A.K. (Eugene Hutz), a voluble Ukrainian musician who pays the bills by running an S&M business; Holly (Holly Weston), a young ballet diva who is learning to pole dance to make ends meet; and Juliette (Vicky McLure), a drugstore clerk who steals pharmaceuticals in order to help starving African children. Richard E. Grant costars as Holly's friend Flynn, a blind, gay poet who lives downstairs. As A.K. informs the audience in monologues delivered directly to the camera, the trio's experiences are about the yin and yang of the universe, which connect the titular filth and wisdom, good and bad, etc. Unfortunately, the Material Girl isn't adept expressing her message cinematically: besides those awful monologues, the film boasts terrible dialogue exchanges and a number of lame montages modeled on music videos. Not recommended. (F. Swietek)