After Hours (Scorsese, 1985): Prince Charles Cinema, 8.45pm
Chicago Reader review:
Martin Scorsese transforms a debilitating convention of 80s
comedy—absurd underreaction to increasingly bizarre and threatening
situations—into a rich, wincingly funny metaphysical farce. A lonely
computer programmer (Griffin Dunne) is lured from the workday security
of midtown Manhattan to an expressionistic late-night SoHo by the vague
promise of casual sex with a mysterious blonde (Rosanna Arquette). But
she turns out to be a sinister kook whose erratic behavior plunges Dunne
into a series of increasingly strange, devastating incidents, including
encounters with three more treacherous blondes (Verna Bloom, Teri Garr,
and Catherine O'Hara) and culminating in a run-in with a bloodthirsty
mob of vigilantes led by a Mr. Softee truck. Scorsese's orchestration of
thematic development, narrative structure, and visual style is stunning
in its detail and fullness; this 1985 feature reestablished him as one
of the very few contemporary masters of filmmaking.
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