After Hours (1985)

After Hours

After Hours (1985) is a darkly comic, nightmarish urban fable about Paul Hackett, a meek word processor who impulsively goes to SoHo for a late‑night date and finds himself trapped in a surreal, escalating labyrinth of misfortune. What begins as an awkward meeting turns into a succession of improbable coincidences and farcical catastrophes — angry cab drivers, eccentric artists, criminals, unstable strangers and an increasingly hostile neighborhood — that strand him in the city until morning. Visually kinetic and tonally off‑kilter, the film blends comedy, crime and drama into a claustrophobic, absurd ride: tense and sometimes chilling, yet frequently laugh‑out‑loud funny. Watching After Hours feels like being pulled through a fever dream of New York nightlife — the suspense builds as incidents pile up, the humor is black and bizarre, and the city itself becomes a character. By the end viewers are likely to feel exhilarated, unnerved, and oddly relieved, having witnessed a tightly wound late‑night odyssey that turns everyday encounters into a surreal, unforgettable ordeal.

Actors: Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Verna Bloom

Director: Martin Scorsese

Runtime: 97 min

Genres: Comedy, Crime, Drama

Filmaffinity Rating 7.2 /10 Metacritic Rating 89 /100 IMDB Rating 7.6 /10 Bmoat Rating 7.9 /10