Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)

[Edgy MD]

Disenchanted nouveau riche New Jersey housewife lives vicariously through newspaper personal ads, obsessing in particular upon romantic exchanges between a post-modern gamine and her punk-rocker boyfriend. When she decides to crash a planned rendez-vous of theirs, circumstances (and the old amnesia plot twist) conspire to throw her into their story, with her taking on the persona of the gamine.

Action, romance, and the 1980s downtown New York scene come clashing together.

[FIMG=350]https://www.cinemaclock.com/images/posters/1000x1500/58/desperately-seeking-susan-1985-us-poster.jpg[/FIMG]

[Frayed Knot]

Never saw it.

My aversion to all things Madonna-related started early.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I saw this when it was new in the theater. As I recall you could do worse trying to impress your movie date but altogether not great.

It might be time-capsule fun today.

[Edgy MD]

It is a very fun time capsule, as it is chock full of remembered and forgotten downtown scenesters in bit roles. Steven Wright appears in a larger role, but mostly (mostly) plays it straight, and kind of is funnier than he would have been had he been laying down his stage persona throughout.

What makes this shine in particular is that Madonna isn't the protagonist. She is a subject and an image and an absurdity, but in her first (and best) feature, she is challenged to neither show depth nor growth, and her character is no more fleshed out than in one of her videos.

The film belongs in a festival of movies set in downtown Manhattan of the eighties, along with After Hours, Married to the Mob,

The Pope of Greenwich Village, and others.

[whippoorwill]

Never saw it.

My aversion to all things Madonna-related started early.

 

Ditto

[Edgy MD]

I understand, but if you look at as a Susan Seidelman movie that Madonna appears in, instead of as a Madonna vehicle, it may warrant a different level of consideration.

You may find, forty years later, her persona is little more than an anachronism, like the Tab in the fridge.

[YOUTUBE]wt0_m5mUsbo[/YOUTUBE]

[MFS62]

The dad of my wife's BFF appeared in one of Madonna's videos. He was the old man on the subway in the "Papa Don't Preach" video. I happen to like her music, but have never seen this movie. After reading this thread I might check it out.

Later

[roger_that]

One of my favorite films to re-watch. Simply delightful, and I'm no Madonna fan, but in this film she plays herself, a smug jerk who thinks highly of herself and her selfish values so that's fine. Good plot, some funny scenes, a lot of good acting in small parts (Giancarlo Esposito, Richard Edson, Steven Wright). Aiden Quinn and Rosanna Arquette at their best. A gem.

[MFS62]

"Take a Valium like a normal person !"--Laurie Metcalf, "Desperately Seeking Susan"

Later

[ashie62]

Saw it when it came out

It was a good companion to the "new music" of the era