Desperately Seeking Susan

No matter how many times Mr Pinky watches this eighties gem he never gets bored of it. This is what smart film making is all about: well plotted, nicely shot, seamlessly edited. The movie cleverly blends screwball comedy and detective mystery genres. Add in the up and coming Madonna, with her sassy and funny performance as Susan, and you have something new altogether.

This film is also very much an ode to eighties New York, with its new wave punk fashion and street culture. Director Susan Seidelman with her canny eye has a great sense of detail, colour and design. Every shot is like a beautifully constructed image. There's lot of eye candy in this film, despite the novelty value of its subject matter.

What a shame that Seidelman could not come up with a another film of this calibre.

Full marks also to the director for insisting that the 25 year old Madonna play this role. Madonna's film work since Susan has been uneven, to say the least. In this film she seems to have a natural flair for playing the mischievous, 1930s style screwball gal, a la Jean Harlow and Carole Lombard. Madonna seemed a natural for this style of acting.

What went wrong for Madonna's acting career after Desperately Seeking Susan? It seems she was haunted by the ambition to become a 'great' actress. That's a shame, as she could have had a career as a comic actress, say like Goldie Hawn.

Favourite scene: When Roberta and her dove are taken in by the police after she has been mistaken for a prostitute. Another hooker in the back seat with Roberta asks wryly, 'How do you use the birds?'

Fix yourself a bowl of popcorn and enjoy one of Mr Pinky's Cinema Classics


















Check out Mr Pinky's review of Madonna's Confessions Tour.

Madonna - The Confessions Tour

Madonna is quite popular with Mr Pinky's staffers, and with Mr Pinky himself. No matter what your opinion of this controversial performer, one thing cannot be denied, Madonna puts on a knockout show with absolutely NO rivals.

Mr Pinky was not so keen on Madonna's Confessions album, finding it a little turgid, long and repetitive. (Interestingly, Madonna is going back to her American r'n'b roots after a decade of using European producers.) For some reason the Confessions material has translated much better into a live format. I don't know if it's the mixes or what, but the hypnotic techno soundscapes she strived for in the studio have worked much better on this live DVD.

For a woman closing in on 50, Madonna is a knockout. Her fitness and those legs are something to behold. (Move over Dietrich.) The way the DVD is edited makes the way for a new artform - a sort of two hour video clip done live. The results are really, really awesome.

I feel that even for people who are very critical of Madonna, you cannot cannot deniy the hard work and discipline Madonna shows in this DVD. How ironic that she dresses like a slouch when 'hanging' with her dancer-crew of young kids, but her work habits must be extraordinary. And her business acumen!

You have to love her chutzpah though: she invited Pope Benedict XVI to see her show while she was in Rome! Good on her I say. All Christian authority does not reside with the head of the Catholic church. Madonna has a right to express her religious faith how she sees fit. Her and Sinead O'Connor should be seen as modern day feminist-Christian artists and applauded for their independence.

Coming Soon: Mr Pinky revisits Desperately Seeking Susan