I was really excited about this book and it didn't disappoint. I have loved the early films of Susan Seidelman, such as, Desperately Seeking Susan and Simithereens for decades. This book was a chronicle of the filmaker's early life in suburban Pennsylvania, her MFA in filmaking at NYU, her career, motherhood, and beyond. Susan Seidelman has a very approachable, honest, and self-deprecating style that hooks you and makes you feel like an old friend is talking to you.

The time period that Susan was documenting in her early films in New York City, is a period that I find truly fascinating. This may have been the last great period where art, music, and fashion criss-crossed and germinated. This was a time in New York where ideas were abound, not knowing that the dual spectres of AIDS and gentrification loomed around the corner.

While Susan discusses her struggles as a female filmmaker, there are lots of triumphs and upbeat moments as well. While this is not a particularly difficult read, I found it very enjoyable and truly led me to like Susan Seidelman even more.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

This was a great memoir of that rariety in Hollywood--a woman who directs movies about women! I don't think you have to have been around in the '80s and '90s to appreciate the book--I saw the movies years after they came out--but it might help set the scene a little. Really a fun snapshot into an important part of film history.

I really enjoyed reading this memoir, it had everything that I was hoping for. It was written well and I enjoyed the stories going on through this book. Susan Seidelman does a great job in writing this and I really enjoyed getting through this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this memoir. I’ve loved all of Susan Seidelman’s movies. It felt like I was on set with her.

Desperately Seeking Something is a fascinating memoir by Susan Seidelman, a brilliant and trailblazing movie director (including a movie I remember watching in theaters when I was ten, and then endless times when it was retired on tv, Desperately Seeking Susan). This book is so much more than a behind the scenes peek into the movies though. It's also a time capsule of NYC in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Highly recommend!!!!!!

I got this book from Netgalley so I can read and review it before its published.

The only thing I knew about her was she directed the movie, Desperately Seeking Susan that starred a very young Madonna. This book, though, was much more about her life growing up and how she got started as a director in a male dominated profession. She not only did movies, but also the pilot for Sex and The City on HBO.

I kind of now want to watch her first movie, Smithereens.

I liked was how each chapter was titled after a specific song, and throughout the chapter, you can understand why. I enjoyed all the stories she told, even how she met her husband and her pregnancy.

Overall, I am glad I read this as I love reading about strong willed independent females.

Is Susan Seidelman a household name?

Probably not. She should be.

Starting out in the 70s, Seidelman was determined to become a filmmaker at a time when the industry was still dominated by men. When her student film was nominated for a Student Academy Award, it became readily apparent that Seidelman was immensely talented. She followed that up with "Smithereens," a 1982 film that was the first American indie to compete at Cannes. She would solidify her place in Hollywood history three years later with "Desperately Seeking Susan," a Rosanna Arquette/Madonna starring film that became a smash hit and paved the way for Seidelman's 40-year filmmaking career.

"Desperately Seeking Something: A Memoir About Movies, Mothers, and Material Girls" is quintessential Seidelman - hilarious, brash, brutally honest, insightful, and surprisingly playful. "Desperately Seeking Something" isn't simply a rehashing of Seidelman's films - it's a journey through Seidelman's life from childhood "through the Women’s Lib movement of the early 70s, the punk scene of the late 70s, Madonna-mania of the 80s, to the dot-com “greed is good” 90s, and beyond."

Seidelman is fiercely honest, unafraid to call out the bad experiences and rave about the good ones. Unsurprisingly, her biggest successes get the most print but she also shares the challenging times with films that didn't quite hit like "Cookie," "Making Mr. Right," and "She-Devil," the latter featuring the glorious teaming of Meryl Streep and Roseanne.

Seidelman is also a glorious storyteller, enlightening us with everything from Hollywood insights to her long-time relationship with Jonathan Brett to motherhood to 9/11.

Fun facts about Seidelman that you may not realize:

She shared an Oscar nomination with Brett for the live-action short film "The Dutch Master."

In 2013, she directed "Musical Chairs," a film featuring a cast of non-disabled and disabled actors.

Seidelman directed the very first episode of "Sex and the City."

There's so much more. An engaging and entertaining memoir that goes outside the usual biography/memoir box, "Desperately Seeking Something" is a must-read for fans of movie history and for those who want to celebrate the growing presence of female filmmakers and the early pioneers who paved the way.

Synopsis (from Netgalley, the provider of the book for me to review.)
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The funny and insightful first-person story of the trailblazing movie director of the 80s and 90s whose fearless punk drama, “Smithereens” became the first American indie film to compete at Cannes, and smash hit "Desperately Seeking Susan" led to a four-decade career in film.

Starting out in the mid-70s, a time when few women were directing movies, Susan was determined to become a filmmaker. She longed to tell stories about the unrepresented characters she wanted to see on screen: unconventional women in unusual circumstances, who needed to express themselves and maintain their autonomy.

Her genre-blending films reflect a passion for classic Hollywood storytelling, mixed with a playful New Wave spirit, informed by her years living in downtown NYC.

Seidelman continued to shape American pop culture well into the nineties, directing the pilot of the iconic TV series “Sex And The City,” focusing her sharp lens on the changing place of women in American society and helping to fundamentally reshape our self-image in ways that are still felt today.

BOOK DETAILS:

Raised in the safe cocoon of 1960s suburbia, Susan Seidelman wasn’t a misfit, an oddball, or an outlier. She was a “good girl” with a little bit of “bad” hidden inside. A restless teenager, she dreamed of escape and reinvention, a theme that would play out in her films and in her own life. Because she loved stories, a high school guidance counsellor suggested she become a librarian, but she had her sights set further afield. In 1973, she left the Philly suburbs, enrolled at NYU’s burgeoning graduate film school and moved to NYC’s Lower East Side. There, she found herself in the right place at the right time. New York City was falling apart, but out of that chaos came a burst of creative energy whose effects are still felt in American pop culture today. Downtown became a vibrant playground where film, music, performance and graffiti art cross-pollinated and where Seidelman chronicled the lives of the colourful misfits, oddballs, dreamers and schemers she met there.

It’s all in DESPERATELY SEEKING SOMETHING. Seidelman not only has a keen perspective on the times she’s lived through -- from her Twiggy-obsessed girlhood, through the Women’s Lib movement of the early 70s, the punk scene of the late 70s, Madonna-mania of the 80s, to the dot-com “greed is good” 90s, and beyond--she tells great stories.

An overall interesting autobiography whose chapter titles are songs from the era she was in - and I said more than once OH THAT IS WHO SANG THAT SONG?? (I am one of those weird people who dislike music.). Honest to a fault, it is enjoyable to anyone who lived through the early Madonna years before she became a caricature of herself. Great read. #shorbutsweetreviews