Review of After Hours (1985) by Knox M — 28 Nov 2017

Suspense, as Alfred Hitchcock put it, is an audience knowing that a bomb is under the table while the characters don't. This has been the rule of thumb ever since, and most films who have tried to divert from this formula fall flat on their face.

To my knowledge, there has only been one exception: After Hours, a 1985 film by Martin Scorsese that nobody ever talks about. Here's a movie that tightens the figurative knot of tension to an almost unbearable level.

It's advertised as a comedy, and while funny in retrospect, it is one hell of a thriller, and I mean that literally. While not quite dreamlike enough to qualify as Kafkaesque, the infinite sense of urgency crafted by director Scorsese is some of the best since Rear Window.

However, After Hours is not a vehicle for general excitement, mostly the consequence of our lead character's innumerable misfortunes, which mostly causes the average audience member to become more intrigued and frustrated.

In most films that would spell certain death, however in this case it's instrumental in the movie's success. Scorsese does this simply: by teasing you. He'll build something up, and then cut it off.

What's most remarkable about it is how it's achieved through editing, for which Hitchcock advised as a filmmaker's greatest tool. I can't exactly call him a pioneer in this area, yet even then he draws on such classic suspensers as High and Low without ripping anybody off.

He does with this shots too, keeping them very frenetic and tight, somehow trapping us in the terrifying mare's nest that we can all sympathize with, without honestly ever enduring it at this severity.

It really is an incredible film, unless you're one of those types who find the sight of characters falling into enigmatic, entirely coincidental plights dreadful. In that case, you're sure to walk out of this film feeling very bad.

Even then, I would still would administer it to most, because by avoiding it you are robbing yourself of an extremely entertaining 90 minutes of nervewracking hilarity straight out of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Essential example of nonconformist filmmaking.