This year marks the 40th anniversary of Desperately Seeking Susan, the movie that helped Madonna go from a singer to a Hollywood sensation almost overnight. It’s one of several classic movies that arrived on Max this month. This film is also our top choice for the one (HBO) Max movie that you have to watch in January.
Susan Seidelman directed this rom-com from a script by Leora Barish, and it’s far from conventional. Susan (Madonna) is the title character, but she’s not the main character. Instead, the focus falls largely on Roberta Glass (Rosanna Arquette), a woman in a loveless marriage who becomes obsessed with Susan’s public affair with Jim Dandy (Robert Joy), as relayed in the newspaper’s personal ads. That obsession sends Roberta on a wild journey of her own that forces her to reinvent herself as she tries to find someone to love.
When Desperately Seeking Susan was released in March 1985, it was widely acclaimed. But in the ensuing four decades, it’s been overshadowed by the celebrity of Madonna herself. Now that the film has resurfaced on Max, it’s time to look back at what made it a classic.
Two stars are born
As noted above, Desperately Seeking Susan is widely known for being Madonna’s major film and the one that established her as a star even as her music career was reaching new heights. It’s arguably the best role that Madonna ever had, and she’s very funny in it as well. But as much as this movie did for Madonna, it’s not her film. Instead, most of the story follows Rosanna Arquette’s Roberta Glass, the woman who is obsessed with Susan.
Arquette had smaller roles before Desperately Seeking Susan, but this was her breakout leading role. The vast majority of the story centers around her character and the choices she makes. At one point, Roberta even gets to transform herself into Susan, or at least who she believes Susan to be. Those are some of Arquette’s best moments, as Roberta sheds her old identity and becomes someone new. Despite their shared appearance on the film’s posters, Arquette and Madonna don’t actually have a lot of screen time together in this film. Yet the premise probably works better because the script keeps Susan and Roberta apart.
It’s a great snapshot of New York in the ’80s
Looking back at this film 40 years later, it’s easy to see that the world of Desperately Seeking Susan feels very removed from our own. People don’t post messages in the newspaper about their desire to hook up anymore. That’s what the internet is for. Some viewers may find the very idea unbelievable, but the thing to keep in mind is that email, text messages, and social media weren’t a thing in the ’80s. That never stopped people from looking for romance with strangers.
The story also takes Roberta and Susan on separate journeys throughout New York City, and it’s striking to see how much NYC has changed … and how much it hasn’t. The ’80s as seen in this film feel like a reality removed from our own, but not so dissimilar that it isn’t fun to look back at the way that people spoke and dressed.
It resurrects the screwball comedy genre
Desperately Seeking Susan is also a rom-com that feels like it could have been one of the screwball comedies from an even earlier era of cinema. It’s fast-paced, largely dialogue driven, and not afraid to get ridiculous. Case in point, the reason why Roberta becomes Susan is that she is stricken with amnesia and really believes that she is Susan. Never having actually met Susan, the implication is that Roberta’s new Susan persona is how she imagines she would be. This also opens the door from her loveless marriage to a potential new romance with Jim’s friend, Dez (Aidan Quinn), who also believes that she’s Susan.
Conversely, the real Susan gets to briefly step into Roberta’s domestic life, much to the shock of Roberta’s husband, Gary Glass (Mark Blum). Gary can’t easily get rid of Susan, so he just kind of goes along for the ride. Meanwhile, Susan becomes convinced that Roberta is trying to frame her for a murder. There is some minor jeopardy from Wayne Nolan (Will Patton), a criminal who is chasing Susan because she has something that he wants. This subplot is a little out of place, but the film culminates in a humorous way that brings all of the main characters together for the end.
Watch Desperately Seeking Susan on Max.
