After Hours (1985)

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…

Clue (1985)

Screened at Luna Cinemas Leederville as part of the Trash Classics season programmed by VHS Tracking.

“Imagine seeing Clue (1985) when it came out with the three different endings, and NOT seeing the one with Madeline Khan talking about the flames on her face!” a woman remarked to me after the screening. She also talked about having the film on VHS, and on DVD, and that it was something her kids continually rewatched.

The last time I watched Clue, I was at home alone and thinking about it for a future Trash Classics program. Seeing it on the big screen, and with a full audience in Cinema 1, was definitely a greater way to experience it and the best time I’ve had watching it (out of the four or five times I’ve seen it in my life!). Enjoying every actor’s expressions and reaction shots, such as Eileen Brennan around the dining table. Hearing the continual laughter throughout the movie. A screening like that can really reveal what makes a movie have a shelf life, attendees ranging across the generations. Director Jonathan Lynn aiming for screwball comedy pace, but also carrying the 1980s-era’s taste for loudness equals comedy, people running around and bumping into each other, one-liners and verbal routines. There’s irony in a movie being adapted from a board-game and the murder mystery cliches, but there’s also a full-blown commitment to farce. If the long rumoured remake ever eventuated, could it even match the level of commitment? Of Tim Curry hot-stepping around like a mansion like maniac and repeating the whole plot of the movie to the characters across the climax?

For the screening, there was a Murder Mystery costume competition and thanks to those who dressed up, including a French maid, a Mrs White, a Miss Scarlett, a combined Butler, a Columbo and someone who made their own t-shirt with the “flames on the side of my face” quote, which was amazing!

Johnny Mnemonic (1995)

Screened at Luna Cinemas Leederville as part of the Trash Classics season programmed by VHS Tracking.

“The dolphin will take you to the data.”

I remember seeing Johnny Mnemonic when it first came out. I was a kid and thought any movie that I saw at the Greater Union cinemas in the Westfield shopping mall was a good movie. After Johnny Mnemonic, I was unsure: “I think it was good?” Like I was convincing myself. Now having seen it a dozen times in the intervening decades, I do love it, even as it remains imperfect and not good to some degree. Existing as a first draft to what the Wachowskis would later perfect at the end of the 1990s with Keanu Reeves in The Matrix, which is more entertaining and satisfying in every way: better action and special effects, more philosophical, more iconic.

Still, I appreciate the junky and janky quality of Johnny Mnemonic. When I saw the henchman “Baldy,” with his big trench-coat and dark shades, holding a huge machine gun, as if he stepped out of a cheap cyberpunk paperback cover, I was delighted. The crisp dated computer graphics as we enter the pulsating electronic vistas of cyberspace on a big cinema screen was overwhelming. The parade of supporting actors, all bringing their unique and diverse energy to the sprawl: Udo Kier, Henry Rollins, Ice-T (king of the reaction shots in the movie’s last thirds, and giving video game style narration in the hacker climax). The movie throwing weirdness at you, like a woman’s face on a computer screen resembling a new age album cover shouting at an impassive Takeshi Kitano. And the absolute MVP, the reveal of super-hacker Jones as a psychic dolphin strapped into the internet, every close up and cut away and dolphin cry making me laugh with joy.

Thank you to everyone who attended the Trash Classics screening and made it such a fun night, particularly the winners of the Keanu Reeves impression. The performance of “I want room service!” really set the audience up for when that scene happened. Much gratitude to Umbrella Entertainment for providing the giveaway of a Lord Of Illusions blu-ray, and to the Luna staff for all of their help, especially those filming the doco Starring Luna.

And it turned out to be a perfect movie for Good Friday with Dolph Lundgren’s Christ-styled cyber-assassin and his one-liner before attacking Johnny Mnemonic, “It’s Jesus time!”

Streets Of Fire (1984)

Screened at Luna Cinemas Leederville as part of the Trash Classics season programmed by VHS Tracking.

My brother attended the Streets Of Fire (1984) screening because of its trailer: “If the movie is anything like that, it’ll be great!” After the movie, my brother said, “It was good, but it’s like these old movies always run out of budget…“ Referring to Michael Pare as the hero Tom Cody, “And the guy doing the John Wayne impression, it’s like we get it…” For a movie to truly be a cult movie, I think it needs to be imperfect. That there needs to be something missing or something wrong with it. If it had all the elements, and if it was perfect, then it would’ve been a hit, right? Before and after Streets Of Fire, I spoke to people who had seen it at a very young age and thought it was great. A perfect movie. Maybe it’s all about when you see it.

Director Walter Hill was going for a comic book movie, one that would be aimed at teenagers and seemed to be borne from Hill’s own obsessions as a teenager in the 1950s. If you’re at that 1980s comic book age and there’s this Star Wars type adventure but completely separate from science-fiction or mediaeval fantasy, “another time, another place”, mashing up different genres from classic western to neo-noir and finally motorcycle gang movies. Streets Of Fire is at its greatest in the opening sequence which hits the ground running with a hard-charging Ellen Aim and the Attackers concert sequence set to ‘Nowhere Fast,’ matching the bombast of songwriter Jim Steinman’s overblown “rock n roll dreams come true” iconography. Right up to the end of the credits, after Cody’s introduction slapping down a gang of teenage hoods. The lighting of neon scenes and wet streets in the night, and the splash panel scene transitions.

The second act is where the film eases off the pedal and slows down. There is a stop and start pace as the characters switch cars and journey back home after Ellen’s rescue from the Bombers motorcycle hideout. The main engine the movie runs on are our heroes making fun of Rick Moranis’ character, a stand-in the capitalistic producer figure and also a total nerd. Then again, I am a sucker for nocturnal odysseys, and when the motley crew of heroes has to bolt from the shadows of the street to an elevated train platform for salvation, echoing a similar scene in Hill’s The Warriors, I was in heaven!

I keep wondering if the film would’ve been better or more complete with another action sequence included, or a more charismatic star in the lead role of Tom Cody. I like Michael Pare, but he and the character lose their shine around the midway point, the stoic drifter begins to feel like a complete jerk, cold-cocking his sweetheart to keep her out of danger and not even apologising for it afterwards! All the characters are archetypes, and the dialogue is a tough front. There’s no depth to the dialogue or the character relationships. The only depth comes in, alongside listening to the soundtrack songs over and over again, in the closing ballad, ‘Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young,’ another Steinman composition, a finale that provides the sweeping romantic feeling that may not be present between the separated lovers.

The cinema audience was a great crowd, particularly the boisterous applause for whenever Willem Dafoe showed up as Raven, the vinyl leather clad biker villain, providing flair with every saunter and every sneer.