“One of the most underrated films of the ‘80s, this is as fresh, quirky and downright romantic as it was back when Madonna hadn’t even become Mrs. Penn yet.”
Our first contribution to this year’s Scalarama festival and Directed By Women celebration is an 80s classic whose brilliance many people may have forgotten.
Bored suburban housewife Roberta Glass (Rosanna Arquette) lives vicariously through the New York personal ads of the eponymous Susan (Madonna). When one of Susan’s ads proposes a Battery Park rendezvous with her suitor, Jim (Robert Joy), Roberta secretly tags along. But when her voyeuristic jape ends in permanent memory loss and a new jacket, Roberta begins to gather a lot of unwanted attention from some unsavoury characters… Set in the boho downtown scene of 80s NYC, Susan Seidelman’s no-wave comedy of errors remains Madonna’s best big screen outing to date – and greatly contributed to her worldwide cultural domination.
