After Hours (1985) - Martin Scorsese
Related: Kafkaesque - New York - Martin Scorsese - American cinema - 1985
Description
This well-regarded cult film is a tense Kafka-esque tale concerning what happens to a likable computer guy who is in the wrong place at the wrong time in the city that never sleeps--New York. This is a New York infested with bizarre characters vividly brought to life by a once-in-a-lifetime cast. Griffin Dunne's wonderfully controlled comic performance as Paul Hackett is the glue that holds this increasingly surreal film together. Scorsese utilizes a full array of independent and underground film techniques, including special film speed manipulations, angles, and edits, deftly capturing the strange rhythms of an after-hours New York City. Many will find the jokes clever, and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny. Some, however, will find the film an excruciating series of staged circumstances setting up a sadistically cruel dark nightmare of horrors. And there are a few lines of dialogue so poorly written they remind you how unbelievable the thin story really is. But forgive the film these few lapses--overall it's a wild, surreal ride. The most offbeat character is the beehive-sporting, Monkee-obsessed neurotic played to perfection by Teri Garr. And the moment when Griffin Dunne uses his last quarter to play Peggy Lee's "Is That All There Is" and dances with Verna Bloom while an angry mob searches SoHo for him is an inspired bit of lunacy. --Christopher J. Jarmick for amazon.com
After Hours is an American film released in 1985, directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Joseph Minion. It depicts a New York City office worker who experiences a series of baffling and bizarre adventures and several perils in trying to make his way home from SoHo. The film was offered to Scorsese while he was attempting to get financial backing to make The Last Temptation of Christ. It was the first of Scorsese's films for a decade not to feature Robert de Niro. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Hours_(movie) [Nov 2005]
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