After Hours

After Hours

The nightmarish plot of 1985′s After Hours — one of Martin Scorsese’s lesser lauded movies — is an allegorical masterpiece entirely devoted to the concept of rotten luck. Perhaps this is what makes us feel so uncomfortable watching it. The story begins and ends at work; but the between time documents one man (the worker) confronting an increasingly ill-fated chain of events — from having insufficient money to ride the subway, to the suicide of a young woman, to being pursued by a murderous mob. The seemingly cyclical, claustrophobic nature of the situations in which the protagonist (played by Griffin Dunne) finds himself is way less comfortable than any movie starring Cheech and Chong should ever be (they both appear as burglars), but just as funny. In these times, though, it’s hard to watch the film without musing on how the contemporary ATM card might have negated its entire premise.