in Criterion Month

After Hours (1985)

It’s satisfying to find any connective tissue that exists between our Criterion Month selections, especially well after we’ve drafted them. So imagine my delight when a very particular line in the middle of After Hours triggered me, and I went on Wikipedia and found, against all odds, that one of the inspirations for this movie was The Trial by Franz Kafka, the film adaption of which I just posted about. You see, in After Hours there’s a scene where Paul (Griffin Dunne) is trying to get into a club and its bouncer (Clarence Felder) won’t tell him why he’s not being allowed in. Paul offers the bouncer a bribe and he takes it but claims its only because he doesn’t want Paul to feel he “left anything untried.” That is a direct reference to “Before the Law” from The Trial (and specifically the wording from Welles’ version), a reference Scorsese included because he believed Kafka’s parable reflected his own frustration with trying to get The Last Temptation of Christ made. Fuckin’ A, right?

Considered a minor Scorsese picture (though I’m not really sure what governing body decides what makes cinema important, aside from maybe Scorsese himself) After Hours nonetheless has stamped itself into pop culture as a sort of urban Wizard of Oz (another movie that it directly references). There’s even a wildly divisive Ted Lasso episode that’s openly inspired by this movie. So I won’t overwhelm you with the details of the plot, since you likely already have a pretty good idea of what to expect. And even if you don’t, there’s not too much to tell. It’s an hour and a half comedy movie after all, and it doesn’t even have any CGI young people played by old people.

Paul is a bored computer data entry worker living in what I think is the upper east side of Manhattan. If I’m wrong sorry but jeez New York calm down why does every square block have its own name? Do you really need to have so much history and culture and raw humanity? One night meets a pretty lady, Marcy (Rosanna Arquette), at a cafe and she tells him she’s staying with a friend in SoHo. Later that night, he calls her and she invites him over. Paul takes a taxi down to her place and makes the peculiar decision to put $20 – the only cash he has – in an open container while the car is speeding and the windows are open. As you might expect, the bill flies out the window and Paul’s forced to apologize to the cabbie for not being able to pay. And those are the stakes: Paul is now in SoHo, trying to hook up with Marcy, and no longer has the money to get home. What will happen? And what is it about New York that so many movies are made about people living there who just want to go home but can’t?

It’s hard to imagine a movie having a premise that’s aged worse than After Hours. Basically all the obstacles preventing Paul from getting home have been solved by smart phones. Even the inciting incident of Paul and Marcy meeting in a cafe because she sees the paperback he’s reading is growing increasingly farfetched — nowadays Paul would be reading his Kindle at home while waiting for Postmates. Beyond the technological developments between 1985 and today, there’s a similarly significant cultural divide that has grown as well. I think on paper, this is meant to be the story of a regular guy who just wanted to get laid and ended up in hell. Even though he’s a yuppie, I really do think Paul was intended to be a sympathetic character and the people he meets in SoHo were supposed to come off as lunatics.

Watching it today, Paul is less a relatable everyman and more a selfish creep and most of the people he meets are endearing in their own unique ways. At the very least, they’re all living interesting, bohemian lives while he’s some corporate drone who spends his time rereading Tropic of Cancer in public because he’s just that horny. That said, I’m not 100% sure I’m that far from Scorsese’s intention, because he is a filmmaker drawn to making movies about bad dudes. If After Hours and Killers of the Flower Moon have anything in common, it’s that they’re stories about fascinating women told from the point of view about the dumbest man in the world.

Regardless of all that, Griffin Dunne is really, really great in this role. The increasing desperation in this performance is just delightful and the source of so much of what works here. Paul just can’t believe how badly this night is going for him, and it makes me laugh every time things veer off course. Between An American Werewolf in London and After Hours, Dunne showed so much promise as a leading man but I guess Hollywood or audiences disagreed, given that despite all the other movies he’s made I’m not sure what his next biggest role is… Johnny Dangerously? And this is uniquely a Scorsese movie were most of the other big parts went to women, with Rosanna Arquette, Linda Fiorentino, Teri Garr, Catherine O’Hara, and Verna Bloom all given plenty of time to shine. I could have used more Catherine O’Hara actually. Also I would be remiss if I didn’t mention another primo showing from John Heard in a support role, I’m getting to be a big fan after maybe going a little too hard on him in Cat People. Cheech and Chong are in this too! You never know who you’re going to run into in New York.