After Hours (1985) Film Review by Gareth Rhodes

After Hours (1985) Directed by Martin Scorsese. With Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Verna Bloom, Teri Garr and Linda Fiorentino.

Directed by Martin Scorsese, but striking more of a resemblance to something from the mind of David Lynch, comes this surreal journey through one night in the life of New Yorker Paul Hackett (Dunne), who after a brief coffee shop encounter with an attractive young woman (Arquette) takes up the offer of a late night invite to her Soho apartment.

What follows is a series of bizarre events and oddball run-ins that conspire to lead Paul through possibly the worst night of his life. What’s clear is that director Martin Scorsese is having a tremendous amount of fun, almost as if the shackles are off and he’s allowing himself to enjoy the experimental process. The rain-swept, neon-lit, grimy streets of night-time New York are lovingly captured as our protagonist unwittingly stumbles from disaster to disaster in a way that could only happen in your worst nightmares.

Like being in a dream state, the film offers the possibility of any occurrence taking place at any given moment and thanks to an increasingly frantic display from Griffin Dunne, a sense of justifiable paranoia grows with every new unfolding. Paul’s initial aim of casual sex gradually becomes a desperate bid to escape the weird and not so wonderful people who inadvertently conspire to make him a prisoner for the night. Towards the end, things do tire a little but overall, After Hours plays like a crazy Scorsese trip to the Twilight Zone, fully intent on having a great time. 3.5/5

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About garethrhodes

Full-time lover of all things creative.
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3 Responses to After Hours (1985) Film Review by Gareth Rhodes

  1. cheech & chong both enter in that movie too right ?

    • garethrhodes says:

      Yes, that’s right. They play the two guys who seem to be constantly robbing everyone in the area while everyone else blames the Griffin Dunne character.

      • i think i remember seeing this movie a long time ago, can’t say for sure. either way im going to give it a chance, your reviews are always pretty accurate man. keep up the good work

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