I want to live in the 80's of Desperately Seeking Susan

After being surprised last week by the absurdly dated Working Girl, I dipped back into that offending decade with Desperately Seeking Susan. Set in the same New York, only 3 years earlier, it paints a much wilder, more exciting picture of the times and the place. The story follows Roberta Glass (Rosanna Arquette): a bored New Jersey housewife who I guess is a kind of proto Facebook stalker. She gets curious about Susan, a woman very popular in the personal ads. Curiosity gets the better of Roberta and she ends up stalking the woman, who turns out to be a young and totally badass Madonna.

To try and explain the rest of the movie is utterly pointless as it ends up being a twisty turny case of mistaken identity, mobsters, and amnesia, with such a complicated plot that it’s really best to sit back and let it wash over you. It’s a screwball comedy of manners, with a lovely, oddly calming rhythm to the scenes of the various colorful characters getting up to no good in wonderful punk era New York.

Desperately Seeking Susan is directed by Susan Seidleman, written by Leora Barish, produced by Sarah Pillsbury and Midge Sanford, with Barbara Boyle as executive. It was almost unheard of to have so many women pushing a film back then (and sadly would still be rare now). The result is a movie where the female characters truly drive the action and are masters of their own destiny. Roberta changes her situation herself, not through the guidance of some dude (as in Working Girl). Through her misadventures she finds the strength to step out of an oppresive marriage and start again on her own.

Roberta’s fascination with Susan felt sharply recognizable. If, like me, you’ve ever sat on the bus feeling as about as interesting as a gas station turkey sandwich when you’ve glanced some crazed rainbow haired beauty being exciting on her way to someplace fabulous. Actually, fuck the bus. Now we can all compare and contrast our lives to other more intriguing ones through the endless head fuck of the Internet. This movie made me feel I was not alone, that people have been snooping on each other for ages in an attempt to get a glimpse at the type of person they secretly would like to be. Just as hazy instagram filters might hide a multitude of sins, Roberta soon finds that being drifter Susan isn’t always as cool as it looks. She seems to be banned from most establishments in New York, and she is being hunted by a murderous jewel thief. But Roberta also sees another kind of life: one that is free and fun and much, much happier.

The curiosity that drove her to peer into someone else’s life also allowed her to make positive changes to her own. I will remember this next time I lose an hour to looking at pics of Joanna Newsom & Andy Samberg’s new pad (OMG look at it though). This is probably not a great example, but what I’m trying to say is the kind of people we are curious about holds clues to how we feel about ourselves and what we want from our lives. The “be yourself, everyone else is taken” approach is actually kind of limiting. Maybe the internet has made lazy creepers out of all of us, but there can be value in comparing yourself to others, in that it can inspire you to make some much-needed adjustments. As well as causing me to consider the benefits of aspirational voyerism in personal growth, Desperately Seeking Susan entertained the hell out of me. It comes highly recommended as a stylish, mad cap comedy with a great cast, and a right on feminist message. The 80’s, you are mostly forgiven.

First published on strongfemalelead.wordpress.com