Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)

"Desperately seeking Susan. Meet me, four o'clock, Battery Park. Keep the faith. Love, Jim."

Though the story line has been done so many times it's a great film. I'd seen this several times as a teenager and still think of it the same way. This movie really has less to do with Madonna and more to do with Rosanna Arquette.

It's hard to imagine anybody not coming across this film but if you haven't it starts out with Roseanna Arquette who plays Roberta Glass, a bored New Jersey housewife, who constantly follows the on-going relationship of Jim and Susan. One day, Roberta decides that she would really like to meet Susan, so she places an add in the paper, telling Susan to meet Roberta at Battery Park in New York City. Susan (played by Madonna) shows up, but is arrested because of cab fair. Roberta is being harassed by some lunatic. After a bump on the head and a bout of amnesia, turns Roberta into Susan. Susan's boyfriend Jim (played by Robert Joy) asks his best friend Dez (played by Aiden Quinn) finds Roberta, but thinks she is Susan. The two become lovers.

It's not all that great of a storyline, but the characters are charming enough and the music, of course, is '80's perfect. This film captures perhaps better than any other New York & general American pop culture of the early-to-mid-1980s. Madonna is at her best/(worst?) here, and we get a full helping of the clothes, hair, quirky characters, and great pop music of the era. The supporting actors are great, including Laurie Metcalf as Roberta's uptight sister-in-law and John Turturro as a sleazy night club host. The acting is understated and not over the top- including Madonna, who just seemed to be reading her lines very carefully, but to good effect. Susan Seidelman did an excellent job at directing, too bad she has not done much more! The settings are used to great effect as well, giving you a taste of the exciting East Village and it's suburban opposite Fort Lee, NJ.

This great 80's flick will include running audio commentary by the director as well as deleted scenes and an alternate ending, which to me wasn't all that great. Keep your expectations low and you'll have a good time with this one.
February 12, 2008

A Fun, Romantic, Escapism Movie

I've always loved this movie. Cute, silly, and fun. Cracks me up every time I watch it.

I'm a fan of Thomas Newman's soundtracks and have this one. If you like the music, you'll want to check out his many other movie scores. One of the rarer ones is "Josh & S.A.M." which is another cute movie and one of my absolute favorite movie scores. July 8, 2007

It made Madonna a star

I remembered seeing this movie when I was a kid, when Madonna was new and exciting and innovating. It's twenty years later and she's still new and exciting and innovating. She had made a name for herself with her music, and she has always flirted with a movie career. While this was her first effort, to this day, this maintains to me as her best movie work. Because she was, after all, playing herself.

Madonna plays Susan, a punk rock / New Waver in the 80s who travels all over the world in her pursuit of a good time. She and her boyfriend, Jim, keep up through the personal ads in the paper (way before the Internet and text messaging - think about what an effort they had to make!). Their ads have attracted the attention of a lonely New Jersey housewife named Roberta. Unhappy in her own marriage and the mundane pattern of her existence, Roberta finds Susan's to be exciting and is curious to see the woman behind the print ad. She follows Susan to a quick meeting in the park with Jim, and through a series of semi ridiculous coincidences and semi screwball comedy antics (mostly on Arquette's part), she ends up being mistaken for Susan and due to her questionable amnesiac condition gets to switch places with her. If only she could remember it all.

It was a somewhat romantic if not feminist comedy without having any gay undertones to it. Roberta realizes her marriage to Gary was weak at best (the best laughs come from the interaction between Gary and his sister, Laurie Metcalf pre Roseanne) and breaks free from him in the end. Susan doesn't change, but realizes maybe she should curb her wild ways just a tad. If not to avoid another murder / stolen antiquities scandal. And Aiden Quinn is a lovable handsome prince for Roberta to fall for. July 6, 2007

Great Movie!

This movie has always been one of my favorites, so it makes sense that I made it a part of my collection. On the disk's special features there is an alternate ending which puts an intersting perspective to the movie. April 4, 2007

The Only 4 Star She'll Ever Get

...Though she didn't earn it.
"DSS" is probably the only movie Madonna-neutral people could ever sit through. We are blessed and should give thanks because she does not try to act. Madonna plays Madonna, forget Susan. In one part she wears a top with the initials MC on the front, as she used some of her own clothes in the film.
If you haven't read the tired plot by now, it's the usual amnesiac thing. A higher class housewife follows the misadventures of a homeless floozy type chick through the personals columns. The floozy had a one-nighter with a stranger, robbed him of his cash while he slept, and stole some earrings from his jacket for the heck of it as well, not knowing they were priceless and that a nasty gangster stereotype was after them. Housewife gets bump on nogging, thinks she is Susan, er, Madonna the floozy, Madonna is without her trunk of bras and other stolen junk, freeloads off of housewife's hubby, and after a nailbiting gun wielding scene, the two gals are heros. Housewife decides she would rather live in an empty studio apartment with poor schmuck than rich one in fancy house.
OK, I can tolerate it because the music is fun, the clothes are hideous but great to look at because I remember those things we wore. It makes me miss the 80s. It's a silly movie, and we see the old Madonna. She was certainly a snooty young tramp, but tolerable. This was the last bit of fun before the Monroe Reincarnation belief took over completely, and it was about this time that her rabid current fan base was born, and if you say she's anything less than the Messiah they threaten you with death. I miss it, having fun with junk jewelry and the shock of dark roots and maybe a peek of lingerie under a top. How did we go from the fun of the 80s to dirty Adidas pants and flip-flops?
Anyhow, if you miss the 80s, watch it again. If you didn't live the 80s, check out this movie. We had a lot of fun before people started taking themselves too seriously.
Oh, the DVD worked fine for me!
I remember more bloopers from the movie, they were on TV in the 80s one time, maybe they will show up. They weren't funny, but I do remember them. February 6, 2007

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