A Gritty and Glorious Dumpster Dive Into '80s Punk NYC
SUSAN SEIDELMAN talks directing Madonna, The "Bad Old Days" of NYC, advice from Jonathan Demme, and her debut feature - SMITHEREENS
HOOKER: You sure you don't wanna get it on with me? I got a scar. I show it to you for $5.
PAUL: A scar?
HOOKER: It's in a real interestin' place.
PAUL: Um. I don't think so. Thanks anyway.
“Everyone’s a little weird these days, it’s normal,” Wren snaps with a whiff of defensiveness. She’s the brassy anti-heroine of Smithereens (1982), Susan Seidelman’s lusciously scuzzy debut feature about a Jersey girl scheming her way around the Lower East Side rock scene.
In a pitiful (and prescient?) bid to cultivate mystique, Wren plasters the streets with photocopied selfies captioned, “WHO IS THIS?” Pinballing around the crumbling open city of early-80s NYC, she chases her hollow dreams of fame with the fervor and confusion of an escaped mental patient. Sure doesn’t remind me of anyone I know…
Evicted for unpaid rent, Wren latches onto two hapless men: Eric, a sneering rock star wannabe (Richard Hell), and Paul (Brad Rijn), a naïve photographer from Montana living in a van on the West Side Highway. Eric floats a move to LA, while Paul beckons her to (yawn) New Hampshire. The one place Wren knows she won’t go is back to Jersey. Never again.
Inspired by the messier, more complicated female characters of European cinema, those of Giulietta Masina and Stephane Audran, Wren (a “spark plug in fishnets”) was Seidelman’s answer to the DeNiro / Pacino / Nicholson “bad boy” characters of 70s cinema. Played brilliantly by Susan Berman, Wren is obnoxious and self-destructive, but also resilient and undeniably magnetic.
Seidelman named the character after the bird. “Wrens build nests in old tree stumps, crevices of buildings, parked cars, flower pots, drain pipes, even shoes. They are scrappy survivors,” she explained in her excellent new memoir, Desperately Seeking Something, out now on St. Martins Press.
Shot on 16mm for a shoestring budget of forty thousand dollars, Smithereens is not only a time capsule of New York’s smut-and-squeegee days, but a snapshot of a love-starved, self-obsessed fame-seeker that’s even more relevant forty years later. Co-written by Ron Nyswaner, who would later win an Academy Award for Philadelphia (1993), and scored by The Feelies (recommended by Jonathan Demme), Smithereens was the first American indie film to compete for the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Seidelman went on to direct Desperately Seeking Susan with Madonna and Rosanna Arquette, followed by a string of offbeat comedies (Making Mr. Right, She-Devil) and television projects, including the pilot of Sex and the City.
“You gotta watch who you get mixed up with, ‘cause everyone’s out to get what they can.”
- Eric (Richard Hell)
In the end, Wren won’t make it to Los Angeles or New Hampshire. She seems to be spiritually chained to the New York City, sick with its disease. “I got a million and one places to spend my time!” Wren spits every time she’s kicked to the curb after overstaying her welcome. But as she alienates every last family member and acquaintance, she finds herself alone on the jagged city sidewalks, her salty shell shattering to…
Smithereens (1982)
I had the amazing honor of speaking with Susan Seidelman about making Smithereens, working with Madonna, and her delightful new memoir, Desperately Seeking Something.
Where To Watch Smithereens
Currently streaming on Tubi and available on special edition disc from Criterion Collection.
Order Susan Seidelman’s memoir Desperately Seeking Something here.
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News Reel
I am gutted by the hellish images out of LA this week. For any readers affected, my heart is with you.
reflects: “When I was a teenager I liked to imagine cities being destroyed. Like so many, I dug a dystopian vision. And I was angry towards what was around me. They were childish thoughts. And the worst sort of ignorance. The kind that comes with blinders to the pain everyone would suffer if those visions were not just fantasy. But being in NYC on 9/12, I never wanted to imagine such things again.”In lighter news, the Golden Globes kicked off Award Season this week with some thrilling triumphs. First up was Flow, a Latvian animated film by director Gints Zilbalodis, winning Best Animated Feature - a category that Disney often dominates. I was also thrilled to see Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres win for her performance in Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here. With a career lasting 45 years, Torres won a Palm d’Or at 19 for Love Me Forever or Never (Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar) and has since been a celebrated fixture in Brazilian film and TV.
“So much of criticism now seems written not just for the dinner party but by it,” writes William Deresiewicz in his delightfully scathing essay in Persuasion, “How Art Lost Its Way: An unserious culture lacks the ability to sustain high art.”
Marine-turned-Substacker George Kalantzis pushes back on the “Disappearance of Literary Men” article from the NYT: “The Times thinks we need more Jonathan Safran Foer types writing about childhood trauma through the lens of magical realism. Meanwhile, I've got friends who can't watch fireworks with their kids anymore because the sounds make them taste copper and gunpowder. […] That's the future of male literature. Won't win prizes. Won't get reviewed. But it might keep some guy alive when the silence gets too loud.”
Roy Price of
writes about the troubling demise of the mid-budget movie and its longterm implications: “Theatrical releases in this budget range arguably remain crucial for career advancement. While streaming platforms offer more opportunities to get films made, they tend not to create stars or establish the kind of prestige that transforms careers. We need to be able to make films like Mystic Pizza, Dead Calm, Thelma & Louise, Risky Business or A Bigger Splash, not only to enjoy them and allow culture to move forward, but also so that we can discover Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and Luca Guadagnino, respectively.”
That’s it for the free version of Underexposed. Beyond the paywall, premium subscribers can enjoy a bonus video of Susan Seidelman’s Underexposed Guest Pick. PLUS: My Favorite Films of 2024.
My Favorite Films of 2024
Against all odds, 2024 was a freakishly good year for movies. Here are some of the films I enjoyed most… what did I forget? Let me know in the comments.
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