After Hours (1985) with Trailer

A little known film directed by the great Martin Scorsese, released between The King of Comedy (1982) and The Color of Money (1985), It was another one of his forays into the comedy genre. Though it isn't a straight comedy, it is very offbeat and blackly comical in tone and situations. It zips along at such breathless pace you just don't know what's going to happen from one scene to another. It's a shame that only Crime/Gangster genre seems to be his regular output of films of late and that you can see a marvellous and assured piece of comedic genius on display in this picture.

Griffin Dunne (An American Werewolf in London) stars as Paul, a mild mannered office worker in the New York. One night in a coffee shop, he has a chance encounter with Marcy (Roseanna Arquette), a kooky strange character whom he gets her phone number off (he pretends to be interested in buying her friends sculptural work...), and he decides to contact her later that night. His impulsive behaviour leads him to a night he will never forget.

Griffin Dunne and Roseanna Arquette

On the phone she tells him to come up to see her and so off he goes in what he hopes to be a night of passion but when he gets in the cab, that's when his troubles begin. As the taxi cab zips around the streets of New York, the kinetic camera work and fast paced editing leads us into a whole series of weird and wonderful characters and situations. Whenever you think things can't go wrong for Paul, things take a turn for the worst. His first mishaps occurs when his money flies out of the cab...thus leaving him with no cash to get home.

His supposed date goes awry and he leaves on a sour note, he tries to make his way home but fate has other plans for him. With each and every character he encounters, he gets more and more embroiled and increasingly irate at his inability to find a way home. Everyone he comes across has a slightly askew view on his situation (or not really paying him much sympathy to his plight) and he ends up upsetting or offending them. The only man to offer any sign of help is the bartender but unfortunately he turns out to be Marcy boyfriend, which leads to more complications. As the night wears on, you wonder how he gets out of his predicament. Does he make it back home....well you just have to wait and see.

Teri Garr as Julie the waitress

Griffin Dunne display the right amount of paranoia and anguish. The supporting cast play their parts well and the numerous quirky characters all come across just on the right side of believability. From the waitress (Teri Garr) to the ice cream van owner Gail (Catherine O'Hara), they all display a little bit of kooky craziness. The only sane one is probably Tom (John Heard) the bartender even then, he can't help our protagonist (we even get Cheech and Chong in on the act as a pair incompetent of burglars).

Catherine O'Hara as the Ice Cream Van Owner Gail

With such a remarkable and resounding weird look into New Yorks' bizarre night life it's like a story you get hooked into and watch to see the madness unfold with ever evolving situation. Scorsese fabulously captures the stranger side of New York and is brilliant lit up by Michael Ballhaus cinematography (It was their first collaboration together and they have gone on since to make Last Temptation of Christ, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York amongst others). The quick speed in which the film took to complete is what Scorsese was aiming for. His latter films became a long and arduous shoot and this film harks back to his early methods and it's not overblown or over polished. It's a wild and wondrous ride which still feels as fresh and unique as it did when it first came on to our screens.

17/20