Movie Review: After Hours (1985)

After Hours is perhaps the strangest, or at least the least Scorsese-like Scorsese picture I’ve seen. It’s set in New York, of course, but that’s about all it’s got in common with a lot of his other movies.

The movie follows Paul Hackett (Griffin Dunne) as he meets a beautiful young woman and arranges a date with her, only to go on to have one of the worst nights imaginable.

It all starts innocuously enough, but eventually gets quite weird.

It has its share of laughs, but is never hilarious. And despite getting pretty crazy, it remains mostly grounded, and never an all-out farce.

I’m not sure if that’s a positive or negative, since I could see a movie with this premise being a bit more imaginative and creative in how crazy it gets. But it could also be more dramatic than it is. Instead, it’s this kind of weird dark comedy.

I enjoyed it, but I didn’t love it. I think I’m unlikely to revisit it anytime soon.

Rating: 6/10