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After Hours (1985)
Martin Scorsese does a bizarre and completely different take on the midnight to dawn atmosphere her created in Taxi Driver with a 1985 cinematic nightmare called After Hours that has gained minor cult status over the years thanks to some striking directorial touches and a terrific ensemble cast.
Paul Hackett is a mild mannered computer typist who meets a flaky woman named Marcy at a coffee shop who gives him her phone number. He calls her about 11:30 PM and she invites him to her loft in Soho. This is the beginning of a bizarre adventure that by the halfway point finds Marcy dead and half the population of Soho wanting Paul's blood, while all Paul wants is to get back to his own apartment on East 91st Street.
Joseph Minion's screenplay is one of those logic-defying stories rich with eccentric characters that is easy to go along with as long as the viewer doesn't think about it too much. Sympathy is quickly established for Paul, but it's difficult to sustain because Paul makes a lot of dumb moves in this episodic nightmare. As each little episode in Paul's nightmare ends, he always seems to go back to the previous episode, which only gets him in deeper trouble and the silliest part is that he goes through all of this because he can't get subway money to get back home. If this reviewer had been Paul, he would have been walking back uptown.
Scorsese's view of midnight to dawn is a little more antiseptic than the one he established in Taxi Driver, but what the midnight to dawn concept makes very clear here is that the crazies come out at night. Scorsese brings the point home with some odd camerawork, that is often off putting...there's a scene where Paul is on the phone and the camera actually stops on the receiver pressed against his ear...why?
The cast does keep the viewer invested in what's happening. Griffin Dunne creates a perfect everyman in Paul Hackett. The ensemble cast that makes up Paul's nightmare, including Rosanna Arquette, John Heard, Linda Fiorentino, Teri Garr, Dick Miller, Cheech and Chong, and Catherine O'Hara is on the money. If you don't blink, you'll also catch brief appearances from Bronson Pinchot and the director. Not for all tastes, but there is entertainment value if you don't think about it too much.
Martin Scorsese does a bizarre and completely different take on the midnight to dawn atmosphere her created in Taxi Driver with a 1985 cinematic nightmare called After Hours that has gained minor cult status over the years thanks to some striking directorial touches and a terrific ensemble cast.
Paul Hackett is a mild mannered computer typist who meets a flaky woman named Marcy at a coffee shop who gives him her phone number. He calls her about 11:30 PM and she invites him to her loft in Soho. This is the beginning of a bizarre adventure that by the halfway point finds Marcy dead and half the population of Soho wanting Paul's blood, while all Paul wants is to get back to his own apartment on East 91st Street.
Joseph Minion's screenplay is one of those logic-defying stories rich with eccentric characters that is easy to go along with as long as the viewer doesn't think about it too much. Sympathy is quickly established for Paul, but it's difficult to sustain because Paul makes a lot of dumb moves in this episodic nightmare. As each little episode in Paul's nightmare ends, he always seems to go back to the previous episode, which only gets him in deeper trouble and the silliest part is that he goes through all of this because he can't get subway money to get back home. If this reviewer had been Paul, he would have been walking back uptown.
Scorsese's view of midnight to dawn is a little more antiseptic than the one he established in Taxi Driver, but what the midnight to dawn concept makes very clear here is that the crazies come out at night. Scorsese brings the point home with some odd camerawork, that is often off putting...there's a scene where Paul is on the phone and the camera actually stops on the receiver pressed against his ear...why?
The cast does keep the viewer invested in what's happening. Griffin Dunne creates a perfect everyman in Paul Hackett. The ensemble cast that makes up Paul's nightmare, including Rosanna Arquette, John Heard, Linda Fiorentino, Teri Garr, Dick Miller, Cheech and Chong, and Catherine O'Hara is on the money. If you don't blink, you'll also catch brief appearances from Bronson Pinchot and the director. Not for all tastes, but there is entertainment value if you don't think about it too much.