Late night brilliance. (After Hours (DVD))

Member Name: Rumblefish

Product:	After Hours (DVD)
Date:	04/10/00 (24 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Atmosphere, acting, dialogue, characterisation, plot structure

Disadvantages: None

One of Hollywood's more interesting flirtations in recent years was the cycle of 'Yuppie-in-Peril' movies that emerged in the mid-'80s, examples of which include INTO THE NIGHT, SLAMDANCE, and SOMETHING WILD. In these films a hapless white-collar nerd would be drawn into some surreal and highly dangerous adventure, and emerge as an unlikely hero. Probably the best of these films, and certainly the one that holds up best to scrutiny today, is Martin Scorsese's AFTER HOURS.

In AFTER HOURS we follow the fortunes of Paul Hackett (Griffin Dunne), a bored New York word processing clerk. One night he meets a girl named Marcy (Rosanna Arquette) in a cafe, and arranges to meet her later in downtown Manhattan, using the pretext of wanting to buy a paperweight from her sculptress flatmate. On the way there the taxi goes so fast that his money flies out of the window, and that is but the beginning of a series of bizarre misfortunes that befall Paul over the course of the night, that eventually leave him running for his life.

Probably because his other films include classics like RAGING BULL, TAXI DRIVER, and GOODFELLAS, even Scorsese fans are prone to overlook what a work of genius AFTER HOURS really is. The perfectly structured narrative (the film builds to a very satisfying conclusion), is complemented by a panoply of fascinatingly bizarre supporting characters, and darkly hilarious dialogue (hear the tale of the WIZARD OF OZ fan who moans "Surrender Dorothy" every time he orgasms!). Scorsese brilliantly creates a bohemian New York of dark alleyways and dusty loft apartments, and there are excellent performances from Dunne and the supporting cast (which includes Linda Fiorentino, Teri Garr, and pothead movie stars Cheech & Chong).

The paranoid, off-the-wall humour exhibited in AFTER HOURS may be too unconventional for some, but if you want to see a truly original, intelligent, and exceptionally well-made film, look no f
urther.

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