After Hours
Greetings, ‘After Hours’ is a dark comedy film from 1985 that was directed by Martin Scorsese and was written by Joseph Minion who would later write ‘Vampire’s Kiss’ which became the source of a few well known memes. Now considered something of a cult classic, ‘After Hours’ was released at a low point in Scorsese’s career after his previous movie, ‘The King of Comedy’, bombed at the box office and Paramount Pictures had bailed on his ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ passion project. The sizeable cast consists of Griffin Dunne as the protagonist Paul Hackett, Rosanna Arquette, Verna Bloom, Teri Garr, Catherine O’Hara and John Heard among the primary roles. Comedy duo Cheech and Chong, known for their stoner comedies, have minor appearances throughout the film as a disreputable pair. Industry stalwart Howard Shore composes an impressive score that perfectly encapsulates the mood, incorporating the ticking of a clock into each theme which becomes increasingly frantic as the night progresses.
The story is set in New York City and begins with Paul Hackett, a simple word processor, showing a new employee named Lloyd the ropes. Lloyd explains to an uninterested Paul that this is only a temporary gig for him until he can go on to bigger and better things. The work day comes to a close and Paul, who lives a fairly dull life, decides to go to a café late in the evening to grab something to eat. He is minding his own business as he eats alone and reads a book when a woman sitting at a table across from him strikes up a conversation about the novel. The woman introduces herself as Macy and the two converse for some time with underlying flirtations. Before the two part ways, Macy says that she lives in an apartment with a sculptor that sells artistic paperweights shaped like bagels. She leaves her number with Paul with the pretence that he should get in touch if he ever wants to buy one.
A bored Paul goes to back his apartment and after lazing about in front of the television, he decides to spice up his monotonous existence by calling the number. The phone is answered by Kiki, the sculptor roommate, and Paul is given her address which is a great number of blocks away in SoHo. Paul, excited by the prospect of a one night stand with Macy, hails a cab which is driven at outrageous speed by the cab driver. Such is the reckless pace that Paul’s $20, which is all the money he had to pay the driver, flies out of the window mid-journey. He tries to warn the driver of this but he is unheard until the taxi comes to a stop outside of his destination. When Paul does explain the situation, the driver gives him an uncomfortable deathly glare before charging off once again. Little does Paul know as he rings the buzzer for the apartment, that would be the first unfortunate occurrence in a very extensive list of horrid experiences that will befall him that night.
I was drawn to this film by its premise of an everyday man experiencing a long and increasingly surreal Kafkaesque night as he haplessly stumbles from one bad circumstance to another when he simply wants to return to his apartment. Despite a slow burn beginning, the movie does pick up and I found myself enjoying it when the misfortunes started to stack up. I thought ‘After Hours’ was very well plotted out with small and seemingly unimportant throw away lines becoming major plot points later on that come back to bite Paul. I also like that Paul isn’t a particularly moral person. He comes across as shallow as he is only out for some tail and the cosmos decides that his punishment is to be desperately in the thrall of one woman after another as they becomes gradually more unhinged. I’ve seen a good number of Scorsese’s films and while ‘After Hours’ is rarely discussed among his works, I would consider it as one of the best in his filmography.
Plot=10/10
Characters=10/10
Special Effects=10/10
Overall=10/10
Quote of the Day
Sonny'll come after you with everything he's got.
Tom Hagen
The Godfather
