Screened at Luna Cinemas Leederville as part of the Trash Classics season programmed by VHS Tracking.
There was a period of time when I was younger when I would rent the two 1980s Martin Scorsese comedies, The King of Comedy and After Hours, over and over again from the video store. The VHS tapes weren’t available to buy, and there was something comforting about their representation of New York City, the idea of late night bars open that you would wander into and see Rupert Pupkin on TV, or ask for a favour from bartender John Heard. Even though they weren’t violent or disturbing like Scorsese’s other classics, there is violence within them, underwriting social interactions, the anxiety and hostility behind everyday conversation.
When I was younger, After Hours appealed to me because it depicted a guy feeling out of step within social situations, out on a date, or in a bar situation, trying to navigate uncertain waters and constantly failing. That, and the anxiety of trying to get home, particularly the period where I didn’t drive and was reliant on public transportation. And Paul Hackett’s character seemed initially hapless to me. But over the years rewatching it, and growing older, and maybe for a 2024 audience it hits differently, but as he begs the heavens, “What do you want from me?!”, the butt of some random cosmic joke, it does seem more and more like he sows the seeds of his own misery. Driven by horniness to go out on a date after midnight, his misadventures a complete deconstruction and destruction of his polite persona. Even as he describes his encounters as people “yelling at me”, the people living in SoHo are completely themselves and don’t pretend to be any different. It’s Paul Hackett who subscribes to some “normal” idea of behaviour and is completely taken aback, particularly the succession of blonde women who reveal their own insecurities and obsessions that he doesn’t anticipate or know how to deal with. It’s a testament to Griffin Dunne’s excellent lead performance how he can go from an uptight square to a desperately unhinged. Someone else had pointed this out, but when he recounts the events of the night to the man he has picked up (only to use his phone or to crash at his place), Paul stands in front of a brick wall with spotlights, and is framed as if performing a stand-up routine to a bored audience of one.
I had programmed this under the banner of Trash Classics really as an excuse to see it on the big screen, and not because it’s “trash” (the thin reasoning was that it was underrated). Great to see it in Cinema 1 with a big audience turn-out who laughed throughout and applauded at the end. Delightful to hear knowing laughter near the last part, no doubt from first time viewers, when Cheech and Chong open that sewer hole and what that means for poor Paul Hackett…
VHS Tracking 