Martin Scorsese's "After Hours" Blu-ray - Griffin Dunne / Rosanna Arquette @Criterion (Patreon)

BONUS CAPTURES:

Martin Scorsese's "After Hours" Blu-ray - Griffin Dunne / Rosanna Arquette @Criterion 

US Blu-ray: https://amzn.to/3MY8qHs

CAN Blu-ray: https://amzn.to/3MUmbFa

4K UHD US: https://amzn.to/3KRyFwp

4K UHD CAN: https://amzn.to/3NpFDve

OUR REVIEW:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film11/blu-ray_review_173/after_hours_blu-ray_4K_UHD.htm

Desperate to escape his mind-numbing routine, uptown Manhattan office worker Paul Hackett (Griffin Dunne) ventures downtown for a hookup with a mystery woman (Rosanna Arquette). So begins the wildest night of his life, as bizarre occurrences—involving underground-art punks, a distressed waitress, a crazed Mister Softee truck driver, and a bagel-and-cream-cheese paperweight—pile up with anxiety-inducing relentlessness and thwart his attempts to get home. With this Kafkaesque cult classic, Martin Scorsese—abetted by Michael Ballhaus’s kinetic cinematography and scene-stealing supporting turns by Linda Fiorentino, Teri Garr, Catherine O’Hara, and John Heard—directed a darkly comic tale of mistaken identity, turning the desolate night world of 1980s SoHo into a bohemian wonderland of surreal menace.

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Personally I have three go-to Scorsese films: Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and After Hours - all masterpieces and now they are all on 4K UHD. We have After Hours in our neo-noir section - also described as a "surrealist black comedy cult-film thriller" although has also been defined in the "yuppie nightmare cycle" which combine the screwball comedy genre and film noir. Paul Hackett's (Griffin Dunne) misadventures almost exclusively involve women who appear more eccentric the later it gets into his journey - each defeating his normalcy. Mysterious Marcy (Rosanna Arquette) entices him with a wild evening but is emotionally unable to accept his sexual advances; impersonal sculptor Kiki Bridges (Linda Fiorentino) moves toward intimacy before falling asleep during his massaging seduction, waitress Julie (Teri Garr) is stuck in the 60's and expresses desire for him but he rejects her bizarre demeanor, while self-absorbed, Mister Softee truck driver, Gail (Catherine O'Hara) professes a desire to save him but eventually leads the vigilante mob seeking him. Lastly, June (Verna Bloom) encases Paul in plaster circling back to Kiki's 'cowering screaming male' sculpture. Castration is a repeated theme in After Hours (originally entitled 'One Night in Soho') notable in the bathroom wall scrawling of a shark biting a penis. There are so many small delights in After Hours; Marcy's "Surrender Dorothy!" honeymoon story and the sly double entendres to the dialogue between Paul and the large doorman at Club Berlin - "If you're so drawn to it - force your way in." If Rosanna Arquette asks me, in a coffee shop, if I want a plaster-of-paris bagel and cream cheese paperweight - I would naturally say 'Yes'.... without knowing the artist or the price. Paul is defeated and emasculated in his adventure - returning right back at his unsatisfying work. The Criterion Blu-ray (and 4K UHD that includes the Blu-ray) offers a much-deserved, essential, upgrade to a true cinema cult masterwork. We have waited a long time. Our very highest recommendation.