Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
Directed by Susan Seidelman
A bored New Jersey suburban housewife's fascination with a free-spirited woman she has read about in the personal columns leads to her being mistaken for the woman herself and into a chaotic adventure of amnesia and self-discovery.
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What critics compared Desperately Seeking Susan to
When Ally freshens up in Jackson’s hotel room by rubbing a towel under her arms, audiences will be reminded of Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan , blasting her armpits with an upturned hand-dryer.
She follows in the footsteps of the Madonna of “Desperately Seeking Susan” vintage or Marilyn Monroe in “How to Marry a Millionaire.”
Like Madonna in "Desperately Seeking Susan" — the only movie to truly capture her lazy, fox-eyed allure — he brings to his screen debut the confidence of an already-established star, shambling around in his baggy clothes like a not-quite-lost boy.
Hudson, in the pivotal role of Penny Lane, a groupie who insists on being referred to as a "band aid," has the same nonchalant, unaffected air Madonna displayed in "Desperately Seeking Susan" before life with Sean Penn and the tabloid press made her brittle and inaccessible.
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For she’s been living out of her car and resorting to public bathrooms to manage her various “personal grooming” affairs (it’s very Madonna as Susan in Desperately Seeking Susan [there’s even a hand dryer scene in The Housemaid, too], except less glamorous).
Patton, who seems to have been cast as heavies ever since "Desperately Seeking Susan," seizes the opportunity to play a man whose comfortable world is jolted by societal change and he's sensational in the role.
For decades, the suburbs have been the ultimate cheap-shot movie punchline — not just a location but a state of mind, a place to thumb our noses at in films from “The Stepford Wives” to “Desperately Seeking Susan,” from “Heathers” to “Happiness” to “American Beauty.”
Unfortunately, director Michael Caton-Jones ("Doc Hollywood") and writers Leora Barish ("Desperately Seeking Susan") and Henry Bean ("Internal Affairs") view the situation as a chance for a meaningful discussion of a psychological condition they keep referring to as "risk addiction."