Madonna directs 1st movie, and it's false and empty

Madonna may be married to British film director Guy Ritchie, but for her directorial debut, "Filth and Wisdom," she turned to Eugene Hutz of the band Gogol Bordello. The mustachioed, fun-loving Hutz recently became Madonna's mascot - he joined her onstage during last year's Live Earth concert, and her current tour features a Bordello-ish fiddle-and-accordion segment - and now he seems to be her muse.

Hutz plays A.K., a Ukranian rocker who pays the rent on his London flat by working as a gay S&M callboy. His roomies are Holly (Holly Weston), a ballerina moonlighting as a stripper, and Juliette (Vicky McClure), a pill-popping pharmacist who dreams of helping children in Africa. Madonna's camera lingers most lovingly on Hutz, who often merely sits and smokes and acts the street-poet: "Filth and wisdom," he muses, "they are two sides of the same coin."

The aimless script, by Madonna and Dan Cadan (a sometime assistant for Ritchie), tries to evoke an atmosphere of underground cool, but it lacks authenticity and courage. The filth is scrubbed clean - A.K. barely touches his customers - and there's not an ounce of wisdom in these shallow characters. Not even the excellent Richard E. Grant, as a blind poet, can save this false, empty film. *

Directed by Madonna, written by Dan Cadan, distributed by IFC Films.