Griffin Dunne’s CV as a producer (in tandem with Amy Robinson) started very strong with Joan Micklin Silver’s Chilly Scenes of Winter, John Sayles’s Baby It’s You, and this film. Their next was Sidney Lumet’s Running on Empty, which I’ve never seen, but have meant to for some time.
Oh absolutely. I very nearly brought up Eyes Wide Shut when I was talking about the emptied-out city after dark, though obviously Scorsese's interest in real NYC locations does not align with what Kubrick was attempting in EWS.
I always hoped Griffin Dunne was going to become a major actor. He added so much heart to what could have been a nothing burger of a role in American Werewolf in London that I was sure he had the juice for better things. Well his matinee period turned out to be brief but he did score a lead role in a Scorsese film, the aspiration for every actor all the world over.
I haven't seen After Hours in years but iI remember being underwhelmed. It's nothing I wanted to revisit but given this writeup, perhaps I shall. It does have one of my favorite one liners in a Scorsese film: "they'll probably blame that on me!" -- Paul after witnessing a random murder.
Thanks for the spotlight on After Hours. I saw this on the big screen in 1985, as a teenager. It was my first Scorsese, and it’s still one of my favorite films ever. It’s also a film that I feel helped prepared me in a strange way for moving to New York City ten years later. I rewatched it again very recently. The clockwork image on the poster is very apt, given the way the story unfolds.
The cast is so good in this, right down to the surreal inclusion of Cheech and Chong. Always great to see John Heard show up. A terrific double feature with this might be the cheerfully dark noir The Last Seduction with, again, Linda Fiorentino.
The Last Seduction holds up brilliantly. Fiorentino is a treat in this movie, too. That voice, that confidence. Just the way she casually removes her bra and slings it over her shoulder in front of Paul is so funny. There's nothing sexual about it-- it's just another weird, uncomfortable situation for him to deal with.
I wish Fiorentino had had a bigger career - she has some real-deal movie star presence where she never seems like she's acting, she's just existing and it's fascinating.
This was my first Scorsese in the theater and I watched in an almost empty theater in West Texas two years before moving to NYC. There was a little subgenre of movies where the hero is at the mercy of the city; this one was probably the best. (The first hour of BEAU IS AFRAID is maybe the current champ, though.) At the time it felt like a little entrance to the club of heading to the big city (where I proceeded to write a series of terrible versions of AFTER HOURS in school). But it nailed that feeling of isolation and alienation in a giant city. I'm not sure I ever really recovered from those feelings.
I've watched this a number of times - maybe my fav Scorcese and prob the closest he comes to feeling 'modern' in a way a lot of his other movies can't (because they more directly informed the bigger shape of mainstream cinema).
I've never really thought about how it's not just our (sort of?) protagonist who isn't listening to anyone - really, just about everyone isn't listening to ANYone in this, which causes so much of the trouble. That right there, that's an insight and now I guess I gotta watch it AGAIN.
I'm pretty love-hate with Scorsese, which I understand is not a normal way to feel about Scorsese. I owe After Hours another try, because there's so much in there that I enjoy on a moment-to-moment basis, but then it doesn't...gel? Maybe it's not supposed to?
I'm there with you, about Scorsese in general, and After Hours specifically, which I watched for the first time recently. My first thought was that it was Scorsese trying to do David Lynch and failing, until I realized that this came before Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks, so maybe Lynch saw this and thought "I can do this better."
I do remember this being compared with Blue Velvet, Into the Night, and Something Wild as "yuppie nightmare" movies — a little mid-'80s micro-trend. Different flavors of nightmare, for sure.
I have a lot of affection for this movie - I think because I saw it when I was first getting into film. So much so that sometimes I consider it my favorite Scorsese movie, though he’s made greater films. Criterion just issued a 4K restoration. So of course I had to buy it. : )
Just watched “After Hours” for the first time earlier this week (thanks in large part to the new Criterion Collection blu-ray release). Not only did I find that it lived up to its cult status within Scorsese’s filmography, but I was captivated by the director’s return to small-scale filmmaking. Very much a down and dirty picture of 80s era Downtown Manhattan replete with a wide variety of subcultural representation. I found myself wondering if Scorsese could do something similar today: Pull back on the production size and get out in the streets of New York again with a skeleton crew. I’d pay to see it in any case!
If you’re looking for that sort of thing, your best bet is Scorsese’s documentaries with Fran Lebowitz: Public Speaking and the miniseries Pretend It’s a City. Two of my favorite things Scorsese has done this century.
You raise a great point here. I really don't need any more of *needle drop* "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be an I HEARD YOU PAINT HOUSES."
This movie made a huge impression on me as teenager in the late ‘80’s. I think Color of Money was my first Scorsese (I had certainly heard of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull but hadn’t seen yet) and I was curious to see more of his work. This is one of the first films I really felt that directorial stamp - this was certainly the work of a particular artist and the twisty camera work was mesmerizing. I’m excited to revisit in 4k on Criterion.
(I love we get to discuss this because it ended up on Criterion this year..)
one of the things I really liked about the movie is how it doesn't make the city (or SOHO) the clear bad guy. The setup is the cliched "one crazy night in the city", where something like Adventures in Babysitting has the innocent protagonists dealing with all the weirdoes and dangers of the CITY.
in After Hours, Paul is an active agent of his own problems. He encounters multiple people who are willing to help him. (in fact, who are downright very nice to a stranger who isn't being nice in return) but his self-centeredness and his not listening/caring keeps getting him in deeper. he could have gotten home so much sooner if he was more honest and more sure of himself.
Saw this in a theater when it was released in 1985 and have had it on DVD for some time. Paul’s so-called date seemed like the sort of night I’d have if I ever dared to venture outside of my comfort zone. Peggy Lee’s “Is That All There Is?” stuck with me for years, and I included it in my ongoing Facebook project where I post and write about songs that either please or fascinate me. A bit of a miracle that both Cheech AND Chong appeared in this film without ruining it.
Scott, thank you so much for writing this up. I've long been an admirer of Scorsese more than a fan, but wow, I absolutely straight-up adore this movie!! Just saw it for the first time, and it just made me laugh and laugh. How many manic pixie nightmare girls are in this movie? I think it's safe to say every woman here is a variant. I think Teri Garr is my favorite, though they're all great (BTW, it's such a pleasure seeing the Teri Garr humor again -- the earliest of her prototypical performances I still recall is her turn in an episode of the original Star Trek).
Huge kudos to Griffin Dunne, who IS the movie. When he recounts his nutty night to the eyeglasses-wearing rando he meets (and the rando, who thought he was gonna get some action, is bored!), I just about lost it. Also just love seeing old, scary NYC...this was the city that I was told again and again to be afraid of, growing up.
I have another pairing suggestion with this -- Aronofsky's mother! :)
Looking back, I think this might've been my first Scorsese movie, seen on VHS at a friend's place while I was in high school. That's a seriously weird introduction. I went from this to Goodfellas.
Griffin Dunne’s CV as a producer (in tandem with Amy Robinson) started very strong with Joan Micklin Silver’s Chilly Scenes of Winter, John Sayles’s Baby It’s You, and this film. Their next was Sidney Lumet’s Running on Empty, which I’ve never seen, but have meant to for some time.
Oh man, you *have* to see Running on Empty. Incredible film. So moving.
Rewatched that last year and it's so good.
Ditto! Saw it after somebody recommended it post CODA, as a better version of that film, and I quite agree.
This movie pairs well with Eyes Wide Shut.
Oh absolutely. I very nearly brought up Eyes Wide Shut when I was talking about the emptied-out city after dark, though obviously Scorsese's interest in real NYC locations does not align with what Kubrick was attempting in EWS.
I always hoped Griffin Dunne was going to become a major actor. He added so much heart to what could have been a nothing burger of a role in American Werewolf in London that I was sure he had the juice for better things. Well his matinee period turned out to be brief but he did score a lead role in a Scorsese film, the aspiration for every actor all the world over.
I haven't seen After Hours in years but iI remember being underwhelmed. It's nothing I wanted to revisit but given this writeup, perhaps I shall. It does have one of my favorite one liners in a Scorsese film: "they'll probably blame that on me!" -- Paul after witnessing a random murder.
It's definitely worth another look. Love that moment, too, which follows up another Rear Window-esque shot earlier of a couple making love.
Thanks for the spotlight on After Hours. I saw this on the big screen in 1985, as a teenager. It was my first Scorsese, and it’s still one of my favorite films ever. It’s also a film that I feel helped prepared me in a strange way for moving to New York City ten years later. I rewatched it again very recently. The clockwork image on the poster is very apt, given the way the story unfolds.
The cast is so good in this, right down to the surreal inclusion of Cheech and Chong. Always great to see John Heard show up. A terrific double feature with this might be the cheerfully dark noir The Last Seduction with, again, Linda Fiorentino.
The Last Seduction holds up brilliantly. Fiorentino is a treat in this movie, too. That voice, that confidence. Just the way she casually removes her bra and slings it over her shoulder in front of Paul is so funny. There's nothing sexual about it-- it's just another weird, uncomfortable situation for him to deal with.
I wish Fiorentino had had a bigger career - she has some real-deal movie star presence where she never seems like she's acting, she's just existing and it's fascinating.
As a teenage viewer, she scared the shit out of me, but I fell a little bit in love with her at the same time.
This was my first Scorsese in the theater and I watched in an almost empty theater in West Texas two years before moving to NYC. There was a little subgenre of movies where the hero is at the mercy of the city; this one was probably the best. (The first hour of BEAU IS AFRAID is maybe the current champ, though.) At the time it felt like a little entrance to the club of heading to the big city (where I proceeded to write a series of terrible versions of AFTER HOURS in school). But it nailed that feeling of isolation and alienation in a giant city. I'm not sure I ever really recovered from those feelings.
I've watched this a number of times - maybe my fav Scorcese and prob the closest he comes to feeling 'modern' in a way a lot of his other movies can't (because they more directly informed the bigger shape of mainstream cinema).
I've never really thought about how it's not just our (sort of?) protagonist who isn't listening to anyone - really, just about everyone isn't listening to ANYone in this, which causes so much of the trouble. That right there, that's an insight and now I guess I gotta watch it AGAIN.
I'm pretty love-hate with Scorsese, which I understand is not a normal way to feel about Scorsese. I owe After Hours another try, because there's so much in there that I enjoy on a moment-to-moment basis, but then it doesn't...gel? Maybe it's not supposed to?
I'm there with you, about Scorsese in general, and After Hours specifically, which I watched for the first time recently. My first thought was that it was Scorsese trying to do David Lynch and failing, until I realized that this came before Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks, so maybe Lynch saw this and thought "I can do this better."
I do remember this being compared with Blue Velvet, Into the Night, and Something Wild as "yuppie nightmare" movies — a little mid-'80s micro-trend. Different flavors of nightmare, for sure.
I have a lot of affection for this movie - I think because I saw it when I was first getting into film. So much so that sometimes I consider it my favorite Scorsese movie, though he’s made greater films. Criterion just issued a 4K restoration. So of course I had to buy it. : )
Just watched “After Hours” for the first time earlier this week (thanks in large part to the new Criterion Collection blu-ray release). Not only did I find that it lived up to its cult status within Scorsese’s filmography, but I was captivated by the director’s return to small-scale filmmaking. Very much a down and dirty picture of 80s era Downtown Manhattan replete with a wide variety of subcultural representation. I found myself wondering if Scorsese could do something similar today: Pull back on the production size and get out in the streets of New York again with a skeleton crew. I’d pay to see it in any case!
If you’re looking for that sort of thing, your best bet is Scorsese’s documentaries with Fran Lebowitz: Public Speaking and the miniseries Pretend It’s a City. Two of my favorite things Scorsese has done this century.
You raise a great point here. I really don't need any more of *needle drop* "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be an I HEARD YOU PAINT HOUSES."
This movie made a huge impression on me as teenager in the late ‘80’s. I think Color of Money was my first Scorsese (I had certainly heard of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull but hadn’t seen yet) and I was curious to see more of his work. This is one of the first films I really felt that directorial stamp - this was certainly the work of a particular artist and the twisty camera work was mesmerizing. I’m excited to revisit in 4k on Criterion.
(I love we get to discuss this because it ended up on Criterion this year..)
one of the things I really liked about the movie is how it doesn't make the city (or SOHO) the clear bad guy. The setup is the cliched "one crazy night in the city", where something like Adventures in Babysitting has the innocent protagonists dealing with all the weirdoes and dangers of the CITY.
in After Hours, Paul is an active agent of his own problems. He encounters multiple people who are willing to help him. (in fact, who are downright very nice to a stranger who isn't being nice in return) but his self-centeredness and his not listening/caring keeps getting him in deeper. he could have gotten home so much sooner if he was more honest and more sure of himself.
Also great Marty cameo running the lights in the club while Bad Brains blasts on the soundtrack!
Wearing what looks like a military uniform?!?! Love it.
Saw this in a theater when it was released in 1985 and have had it on DVD for some time. Paul’s so-called date seemed like the sort of night I’d have if I ever dared to venture outside of my comfort zone. Peggy Lee’s “Is That All There Is?” stuck with me for years, and I included it in my ongoing Facebook project where I post and write about songs that either please or fascinate me. A bit of a miracle that both Cheech AND Chong appeared in this film without ruining it.
Scott, thank you so much for writing this up. I've long been an admirer of Scorsese more than a fan, but wow, I absolutely straight-up adore this movie!! Just saw it for the first time, and it just made me laugh and laugh. How many manic pixie nightmare girls are in this movie? I think it's safe to say every woman here is a variant. I think Teri Garr is my favorite, though they're all great (BTW, it's such a pleasure seeing the Teri Garr humor again -- the earliest of her prototypical performances I still recall is her turn in an episode of the original Star Trek).
Huge kudos to Griffin Dunne, who IS the movie. When he recounts his nutty night to the eyeglasses-wearing rando he meets (and the rando, who thought he was gonna get some action, is bored!), I just about lost it. Also just love seeing old, scary NYC...this was the city that I was told again and again to be afraid of, growing up.
I have another pairing suggestion with this -- Aronofsky's mother! :)
Looking back, I think this might've been my first Scorsese movie, seen on VHS at a friend's place while I was in high school. That's a seriously weird introduction. I went from this to Goodfellas.