After Hours **** (1985, Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Teri Garr, Verna Bloom) – Classic Movie Review 331

Largely forgotten actor Griffin Dunne stars as a computer programmer who finds his casual date with a  young woman exploding in his face. His one rash decision turns immediately into a surreal nightmare of mistaken identity, improbable coincidences and farcical consequences.

Dunne plays meek, ordinary word processor Paul Hackett, who has the worst night of his life when he impulsively agrees to go to Manhattan’s Soho District to meet up again with Marcy Franklin (Rosanna Arquette), the attractive but, it turns out, disturbed young woman whom he met earlier that evening at a coffee shop. He finds himself trapped in the nightmare as New York City crazy folk are dogging his every move. This is the date that he hoped would never end starts to seem that it never will.

In an unusual project for him, director Martin Scorsese makes an impeccable job of filming this eerily disturbing black comedy, which playfully chronicles the ultimate urban misery. Screenwriter Joseph Minion’s story may be a touch predictable and repetitive as expected disaster follows disaster. But the film is very entertaining, it looks a treat in Michael Ballhaus’s striking location cinematography and it’s and perfectly played by Dunne, Arquette and Teri Garr as Julie.

Verna Bloom,  Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, John Heard, Catherine O’Hara, Bronson Pinchot, Linda Fiorentino, Dick Miller (as diner waiter Pete) and Will Patton are also in the choice cast.

This fine 1985 Scorsese movie may not be his best film ever (Goodfellas is!) but it is still way head and shoulders above most other films around. It is a lot of crazy fun and effectively captures the zeitgeist, saying a great deal about the mid-80s time it was made in. seeing it now, it’s like a postcard from 1985 has just arrived through your letter box.

Scorsese won the Best Director award for this at the Cannes Film Festival in 1986.

The building used for Paul Hackett’s office building is the Met Life Tower near Madison Square Park.

The closing credits run over a shot of Hackett’s office, as more and more employees show up for work. When the camera passes Paul’s desk again, he’s gone!

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(C) Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Film Review 331 derekwinnert.com