After Hours Movie Review

Actor Griffin Dunne reportedly abstained from sex while making After Hours because director Martin Scorsese wanted to maintain the tension of his character throughout a long Soho night filled with weird experiences and strange prowlers-who-only-come-out-when-it's-dark. Dunne plays a Manhattan computer guy with no money who's confronted first by Rosanna Arquette, Linda Fiorentino, and Teri Garr, then, in rapid succession by Verna Bloom, Cheech and Chong, John Heard, Dick Miller, Catherine O'Hara, Will Patton, Bronson Pinchot, Rockets Redglare, and Scorsese himself in a nightclub sequence (the list goes on and on). Dunne, who went on to direct his father Dominick as a restaurant critic putting a cockroach-infested fork in his mouth no less than 10 times in 1997's Addicted to Love, told US magazine's Amy Taubin that Hours and Love are first cousins. (Except that Love is, in his words, “corny and old-fashioned.” Either that or what was the ultimate Catholic nightmare in 1985 has evolved into aw-shucks romanticism in 1997.) P.S. WHY did it take movie goers so many years (and over 15 flicks!) to appreciate Linda Fiorenti-no?

1985 (R) 97m/C Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, John Heard, Teri Garr, Catherine O'Hara, Verna Bloom, Linda Fiorentino, Dick Miller, Bronson Pinchot, Will Patton, Rockets Redglare; Cameos: Richard “Cheech” Marin, Thomas Chong, Martin Scorsese; D: Martin Scorsese; W: Joe Minion; C: Michael Ballhaus; M: Howard Shore. Cannes Film Festival ‘86: Best Director (Scorsese); Independent Spirit Awards ‘86: Best Director (Scorsese), Best Film. VHS, LV, Letterbox, Closed Caption