Picture Credit: Magnolia Pictures
One of the more talked-about indie comedies of the year is about to get a much bigger audience. Maddie’s Secret, the satirical directorial debut of comedian John Early, is set to make its SVOD premiere on Netflix in the United States on November 27th, 2026.
Distributed by Magnolia Pictures, the movie first played at the Toronto International Film Festival back in September 2025, before Magnolia picked it up a month later. It then got a limited theatrical run in the US from June 19th, 2026, and went on sale and rental on digital platforms from July 31st. Netflix will be its first subscription streaming home in the US.
It’s the second Magnolia Pictures release to take this exact route to Netflix this month. Samara Weaving and Kyle Gallner’s Carolina Caroline, which also premiered at TIFF in 2025 before a June theatrical release, made its SVOD debut on Netflix on November 6th. As we noted in our best new movies on Netflix in November roundup, Magnolia has been licensing a lot more to Netflix over the past year, from library titles like Support the Girls and I Love My Dad to fresher first-window releases like these two. As far as we’re aware, there’s no formal pay-1 output deal in place like Netflix has with Sony and Universal, so these appear to be picked up on a title-by-title basis.
What is Maddie’s Secret about?
Written, directed, produced by, and starring John Early (Search Party, Would It Kill You to Laugh?), Maddie’s Secret is a campy comedy-drama that takes its cues from John Waters’ Female Trouble and gets its title from the 1986 TV movie Kate’s Secret.
Early plays Madison “Maddie” Ralph, a dishwasher at Gourmaybe, a trendy Los Angeles food content company, who dreams of becoming a chef. When a vegetarian recipe video shot by her devoted husband Jake goes viral, Maddie is suddenly thrust in front of the camera as Gourmaybe’s newest star. But the newfound fame brings her body insecurities roaring back, and she struggles to hide a relapse into bulimia from everyone around her.
Expect plenty of digs at the food content world, including a parody of FX’s The Bear by way of a show called The Boar. It’s worth flagging that while the movie is very much played for laughs, it deals directly with eating disorders throughout.
Who stars in Maddie’s Secret?
Early leads the cast as Maddie, and he’s joined by his longtime collaborator Kate Berlant as Deena Michaels, Eric Rahill as Jake, Kristen Johnston as Maddie’s mother Beverlee, Claudia O’Doherty as Maddie’s rival Emily, Conner O’Malley as Zach, Vanessa Bayer as Julie, and Chris Bauer as Dr. Kronenfield.
Rounding out the cast are Dominique Witten, Pat Regan, Emily Allan, Leah Hennessey, Ruby McCollister, Nate Varrone, Mariah Robinson, Frankie Quiñones, and Merrick McCartha.
Is Maddie’s Secret any good?
By most accounts, yes. The movie holds an 85% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes from 89 reviews and a “generally favorable” 74 on Metacritic. It wasn’t a big box office draw, taking around $1.2 million, but it’s exactly the kind of movie that tends to find its audience once it lands on streaming.
The timing of the Netflix arrival is also pretty neat. Early is nominated for two Gotham Awards for the movie, Breakthrough Director and Outstanding Lead Performance, with the ceremony taking place on November 30th, just three days after the film hits Netflix.
Maddie’s Secret joins what’s shaping up to be a busy end of November on Netflix in the US. We’ll have it included in our full rundown of what’s coming to Netflix for the remainder of the month closer to the date.
Will you be checking out Maddie’s Secret when it hits Netflix on November 27th? Let us know in the comments down below.
