After Hours (1985)

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

A minor work from Scorsese, but remarkably underrated. This mid-80s film is an exercise of style and pure filmmaking from a director who was frustrated when his passion project was delayed again and again. Instead of letting his own disappointments absorb him, he focused all his energy in this low-budget dark comedy about one man's incredibly disappointing and ill-fated night in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan. Working with skillful German cinematographer Michael Ballhaus (a frequent collaborator of R.W. Fassbinder), the film was shot at night with a feeling of strange perplexity and a sense of paranoia that had occupied not only the effective actor Griffin Dunne but also the viewers, using crafty camera improvisations to make that effect.The film is thoroughly engaging and it works like a dream – it has no intention of explaining itself, and as the title suggests; it is meant to be watched after midnight.

Meek office worker Paul Hackett (Griffin Dunne) encounters Marcy Franklin (Rosanna Arquette) at a coffee shop. She tells him that she's staying with sculptress Kiki Bridges (Linda Fiorentino) at a SOHO loft. Later that night, he goes to meet her. She reveals much from her life and he runs out on her. It's a long night struggle to get home.Martin Scorsese does a lot to make this interesting. He makes this a cinematic experience. There are fascinating characters. However, I really don't like the protagonist Paul. There is no accounting for Marcy's tastes. It's partly how Griffin Dunne plays him but mostly it's how he's written. There is something squirrelly about the guy. He lies when he doesn't have to. He's guarded. He's sneaky. He's whiny. He's bitter. It's not fun to be with this guy. I simply don't like him and it's hard to care about what happens to him.

Has Paul Hackett ever stayed up this late before the fateful night in After Hours? My guess is no. He's a middle-class office worker who has little to attract or like about him; even a lowly temp-worker waffles on about his dreams of giving the unknown intellectuals of New York a space for their voices to be heard, and Paul is drifting out of the conversation, focusing on little inane details in the background and lazily lambasting his own lack of passion. But even he isn't dumb enough to turn down an opportunity with Marcy after a spontaneous meet cute in a cafe. The later he stays out, the more out of his element he becomes, and strange, nightime forces begin to morph his encounters. Ballhaus' cinematography seems to blow everything out of proportion, much like Paul does. The first instance of bad luck is the swept away twenty dollar note out the taxi window, captured in this poetic shot as if it was a leaf blowing in the wind. It then turns up again later in the film, taunting Paul on the chaotic, mindless logic that seems to rule the night. In the diner too, as he tries to recover from a slight mishap in wooing Marcy (after zoom-ins on winks that seem to say that everything is moving along nicely), the camera again magnifies every tiny bit of paranoia that drifts into his mind as he witnesses the blatant flirting with the owner and quickly lets go of her hand in closeup. And then as the night goes on and each obstacle stacks on one after the other, Paul becomes desperate at any kind of escape, and the camera frantically moves towards the telephone that will get him back home, and later practically pounces upon Gail's phone. Much of the humour of After Hours is from the fact that these incidents of bad luck keep hurtling themselves at Paul, unrelenting and without reasonable cause. Minion has embedded his script with an awareness of the usual romantic or erotic conventions. He at first tries to woo the artistic and free-spirited Kiki; it seems the opportunity basically falls into his lap as she requests a massage, already half-naked. He assumes that sensual position behind her, and just as he is past whispering and about to make her move...she starts snoring. Later the same mood is ruined; as he and Marcy return from the diner, he pulls her back to him and leans in for the romantic kiss (a move that has been perfected over decades of romantic movies) until she starts sobbing. And then she is on and off - lighting a candle and hungrily kissing him, and then going into vivid detail about a traumatic rape that would sour any sexual encounter. A simple quest for sex has turned into something unbelievably convoluted and unexplainable. Nothing seems to go right for Paul. As he is continually rejected he glances over to the next apartment and the first thing he sees is a copulating couple. Later he does so again and just happens to witness a murder, to which he sardonically remarks he will somehow be caught in the mess and blamed for the act. Toilets overflow, cash registers don't open, fares increase at midnight, and a bouncer, in the vein of Kafka's Before the Law, frustratingly withholds entry to a club. When he returns to find the now dead Marcy, the suicide itself is second fiddle to his unwrapping of her corpse. In a blow of cruel irony, he finds he has blown his chance with someone flawless and beautiful, as her porcelain skin reveals no blemishes. The forces and creatures of witching hour mock him at every turn - their dialogue cackles and reminds him of each misfortune, each turn of bad luck and missed opportunity. He can do nothing but submit to the surreality of the night. In After Hours, a character says he will be back in two minutes, and returns a little more than an hour later.

In terms of films that play on the shtick of all night adventures this feels more like Martin Scorsese then Harold and Kumar. The movie features a man who goes to meet a girl up for a late night date and possible action. The girl Marcy, played wonderfully by Rosanna Arquette,is a weird, spacey, and mysterious girl. Her troubled past and her possession of burn ointment send our protagonist Paul running. Over the course of the night he finds himself running about Soho dealing with everything from an angry mob to two burglarizing Latinos played by Cheech and Chung. The biggest problem I had with this movie was that it felt a little too rushed. I feel like this could have been 20 minutes longer and focused on some of the funny dialogue and crazy set pieces like the hectic, crazy, and loud Club Berlin. By this time Martin Scorsese had already directed the movies, Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, and now he was trying his hand at comedy again. I have yet to see his comedy drama Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore so I didn't have much insight unto how he might deal with the comedic elements. I must say it was a masterfully done. I compared it frame to frame with The Hangover and although one must concede the much stated phrase "apples and oranges", I felt that it was clear who was the master film maker and who was going to lose his touch. Some of the other things I loved about the movie was the appearance of Will Patton as a goth and John Heard as a bar keep. Something about Scorsese I have also noticed in his films is he is able to balance the comedy and drama well and not seek out side bursting humor. He focuses on subtle humor that gets lost among the drama but doesn't kill the comedy altogether. And he manages to have scenes of high drama without losing the comedic edge. I would have to give this movie an 8/10.