Desperately Seeking Susan
Original post date: 11 April 2019
Rating: ✭✭✰✰
When this movie came out in 1985, it was hip and trendsetting and firmly clutching the zeitgeist. Now it’s a time capsule. It’s a moment frozen in amber that we can study to try understanding something about ancient history. But you know what, ancient history doesn’t look all that different from today after all. The setting is the bohemian demi-monde of hipster New York in which the titular Susan makes references to the completely alien nature of the suburbs that could easily be coming from the mouth of Richard E. Grant in last year’s Can You Ever Forgive Me? Our current media, which think that gender fluidity and the urban/hick divide are new-fangled things, should take a gander at this. The sophomore feature film (after Smithereens) of Susan Seidelman, this is a mixed-up-identities thriller/comedy that now seems strangely prescient about our society’s increasing identity crisis. Susan, as played by Madonna in her 20s (no, kids, not the mother of today’s Madonna but the actual original Madonna), is a liberated free spirit who flits from situation to situation, leaving chaos in her wake. Think a less risk-adverse version of Holly Golightly. Rosanna Arquette is the suburban housewife from Fort Lee who, obsessed by the newspaper personal ads placed by Susan’s off-and-on boyfriend, schemes to meet this fantasy figure and improbably winds up trading places with her. Cute young Aidan Quinn is the nice guy who takes her in after she loses her memory. Will Patton is the murderous (yet strangely non-threatening) thug after her for the MacGuffin artefacts that have wound up in her possession. Other familiar faces encountered along the way include Laurie Metcalf, John Turturro, comedian Steven Wright (as a dentist!) and the real-life separated-at-birth triplets from the documentary Three Identical Strangers. It’s all silly, kind of romantic, and a fair amount of fun. Best line: “What do you do with the birds?”
Rating: ✭✭✰✰
When this movie came out in 1985, it was hip and trendsetting and firmly clutching the zeitgeist. Now it’s a time capsule. It’s a moment frozen in amber that we can study to try understanding something about ancient history. But you know what, ancient history doesn’t look all that different from today after all. The setting is the bohemian demi-monde of hipster New York in which the titular Susan makes references to the completely alien nature of the suburbs that could easily be coming from the mouth of Richard E. Grant in last year’s Can You Ever Forgive Me? Our current media, which think that gender fluidity and the urban/hick divide are new-fangled things, should take a gander at this. The sophomore feature film (after Smithereens) of Susan Seidelman, this is a mixed-up-identities thriller/comedy that now seems strangely prescient about our society’s increasing identity crisis. Susan, as played by Madonna in her 20s (no, kids, not the mother of today’s Madonna but the actual original Madonna), is a liberated free spirit who flits from situation to situation, leaving chaos in her wake. Think a less risk-adverse version of Holly Golightly. Rosanna Arquette is the suburban housewife from Fort Lee who, obsessed by the newspaper personal ads placed by Susan’s off-and-on boyfriend, schemes to meet this fantasy figure and improbably winds up trading places with her. Cute young Aidan Quinn is the nice guy who takes her in after she loses her memory. Will Patton is the murderous (yet strangely non-threatening) thug after her for the MacGuffin artefacts that have wound up in her possession. Other familiar faces encountered along the way include Laurie Metcalf, John Turturro, comedian Steven Wright (as a dentist!) and the real-life separated-at-birth triplets from the documentary Three Identical Strangers. It’s all silly, kind of romantic, and a fair amount of fun. Best line: “What do you do with the birds?”
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