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So instead, I'm choosing to discuss the closing credits of her 1987 movie Who's That Girl?, the movie that gave us both the title song and "Causing a Commotion," and Madonna her fourth acting credit.
And I don't have some great observation about these closing credits, only this: There was an era when the closing credits of a movie were conceived as a review of that movie's greatest hits.
Yes, Who's That Girl? is one of those movies where we see a bunch of stills from the movie we've just watched, images that the movie would like to present as "iconic" -- at least within the context of its own world, if not generally in the larger cinematic landscape. And they proceed in story order, making it a bit of a Cliff's Notes recap of the movie we've just seen, one single frame at a time.
Certainly, James Foley's film is a good candidate for this sort of thing. I don't think Madonna has a lot of costume changes in this movie, but her character is consciously designed as a style icon, though not in the glamorous sense that would appeal to Madonna later in her career. This character is an ex-con and petty thief, and her fashion is sort of in the same punky mid-80s aesthetic as her character in her film debut, Desperately Seeking Susan.
So yeah, we get a lot of good Madonna poses in the closing credits, but also plenty of Griffin Dunne, who is pretty funny as the put-upon lawyer and groom-to-be who is only trying to get Madonna's Nikki Finn on the damn bus to Philadelphia.
If you can't tell, I quite enjoyed this movie. For about the first five minutes, I wasn't sure what its tone would be, and there were certain moments you could interpret as a tonal miss if you didn't know what the film was going for. But pretty quickly you learn it's a screwball comedy, and a successful one at that. In fact, before too much longer -- when a large cougar is introduced into the story -- you realize that this is a loose re-interpretation of one of the great screwball comedies of all time, Bringing Up Baby.
The credits, both opening and closing, made me aware of a number of other noteworthy things about this movie. For instance:
1) As mentioned, this is directed by James Foley. Foley would also direct Glengarry Glen Ross, a personal favorite. And while GGR is more of a writer's movie (David Mamet) than a director's movie, it still reserves a special spot in my cinematic hall of fame for Foley, who also directed the guilty pleasure Fear, and just passed last year.
2) You know who the DP is on this film? Jan de Bont! That's right, the director of Speed and Twister. Given that he was known for filming action, it's funny to see him before that proclivity was established.
3) I was reminded of some familiar faces from films of this era who didn't go on to do much else, and who I haven't thought of in years, but were somewhat important to me back at that time. Such as Haviland Morris, known for her role in Sixteen Candles, where she gets drunk and gets her hair stuck in the door, meaning her friends have to cut her out. Anthony Michael Hall's character's debate about whether to take advantage of her in her compromised state reminds us of an era when potential sexual assault was played for laughs.
4) I didn't notice it during the film itself, but again, the closing credits came through. You know who plays "Second Dock Worker" in this movie? Stanley Tucci! It's his fourth credit on IMDB overall and second film credit. Unfortunately, Google does not have an image of him from the film, and I'm not going to go back and find one.
But I could see myself watching Who's That Girl? again some day. It's a fun movie, and that's in no small part due to what Madonna brings to it.
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