After Hours

Movie Name: After Hours
Year of Release: 1985
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Teri Garr, Catherine O'Hara, Linda Fiorentino, Verna Bloom, John Heard, Victor Argo, Cheech Marin, Will Patton, Tommy Chong, Dick Miller, Robert Plunket, Bronson Pinchot
Genre: Comedy
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 8
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Synopsis and Review:

After the wonderful "King of Comedy" fizzled at the box office, director Martin Scorsese took a brief hiatus, before bouncing back with "After Hours", which premiered in October of 1985 and later on went to the Cannes Film Festival where it eventually won the award for Best Director (in 1986). The film follows the story of Paul Hackett, a word processor who lives in Manhattan. While in a coffee shop he starts a conversation with the beautiful Marcy, who invites him to come downtown to a place she shares with an artist friend of hers, who creates sculptures. Later in the evening, after giving it some thought, Paul calls Marcy and decides to come for a visit. On his way downtown, he loses all his pocket money (save for a few cents). Once at Marcy's place, he meets Kiki the artist, however the more he chats with Marcy, the more he realizes there's a lot going in her life, and his interest dwindles. When he tries to go home using the subway, he discovers the fare has gone up, and he doesn't have enough money to pay for it. He goes to a nearby bar in the hopes of getting enough change, but once there, he catches the eye of Julie, the waitress, while the bartender, Tom who actually tries to help him, can't due to the cash register being locked. As the evening goes Paul continuously meet more people, and the situations become increasingly more surreal, with him eventually being confused for a burglar, and having to escape a furious mob hot on his trail.

"After Hours" may be one of the most singular films in director Martin Scorsese's career, in the sense that is a dark comedy, but one where his more typical themes and universe are largely absent. Something that still pervades throughout the film though, is the central character and his journey, a hero much like many in his films, a man who is flawed and who is attempting to get home, and yet everything seems to be conspiring against him. What is so incredibly comical about the narrative, is the layer of despair Paul increasingly exhibits, with his attempts to getting home constantly being thwarted by these offbeat characters he comes in contact with. And also how so many of these situations end up being tied to each other. It's a film that makes New York just as much of a character as the small microcosms of artists and irreverent characters the film is populated by. If anything, the film ends up leaving without much information on those supporting characters, some of whom are truly fascinating. The cast is uniformly great, with Griffin Dunne making for a great central hero, with wonderful support from Catherine O'Hara, Teri Garr, John Heard and Rosanna Arquette. The camera work from the late Michael Ballhaus is formidable, as is the great production design from Jeffrey Townsend. A great film always worth revisiting.