After Hours

A coffee shop flirtation with Marcy (Rosanna Arquette) sends hapless office worker Paul (Griffin Dunne) downtown for a date in this zany Kafkaesque comedy set in the artists’ lofts, dive bars, diners, clubs, and streets of a yet-to-be gentrified SoHo—a different kind of underworld for Martin Scorsese. Cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, in his first collaboration with the director, effectively captures the sinister, alien quality of the city at night. Things go from weird to worse for Paul with each subsequent encounter—hilarious scenes with Catherine O’Hara and Teri Garr—as he tries to extricate himself from cascading misfortune.