Movie · 1985 · Comedy, Thriller, Drama · 1h 37m · R · English
Curator score: 9.1/10 (495.4K ratings)
When it's after midnight in New York City, you don't have to look for love, laughter and trouble. They'll all find you!
Overview
Desperate to escape his mind-numbing routine, uptown Manhattan office worker Paul Hackett ventures downtown for a hookup with a mystery woman.
Ratings
Curator score: 9.1/10
IMDb: 7.6/10
Letterboxd: 4.13/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 90%
Metacritic: 89
TMDB: 7.5/10
Director
Martin Scorsese
Production
Double Play, Geffen Pictures
Cast
Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Verna Bloom, Tommy Chong, Linda Fiorentino, Teri Garr, John Heard, Cheech Marin, Catherine O'Hara, Dick Miller, Will Patton, Robert Plunket, Bronson Pinchot, Rocco Sisto, Larry Block, Victor Argo, Murray Moston, John P. Codiglia, Clarke Evans, Victor Bumbalo
Curator Review
Verdict
A tense, darkly funny urban nightmare that turns a simple night out into a cascade of escalating absurdity. It’s one of Scorsese’s sharpest genre detours: anxious, inventive, and relentlessly alive to the humiliations of modern city life.
Best for
Viewers who like surreal anxiety and black comedy
Fans of New York movies with a fever-dream edge
People who enjoy one-night-odyssey stories
Audiences drawn to escalating misadventure and social discomfort
Skip if
You want a straightforward thriller with clean plotting
You dislike cringe comedy and prolonged bad-luck spirals
You prefer emotionally reassuring or neatly resolved stories
Overview
After Hours takes a very simple premise and keeps twisting it until the city itself feels hostile, comic, and slightly unreal. What begins as a late-night hookup turns into a chain of misunderstandings, missed connections, and increasingly bizarre encounters that make every block feel like a trap.
Worth noting
The movie’s genius is how precisely it balances panic and deadpan humor. Griffin Dunne’s performance keeps the whole thing grounded even as the night becomes more and more dreamlike, and Scorsese stages the chaos with a restless, almost predatory energy.
Bottom line
It plays like a nightmare about trying to get home, but it’s also a sharp portrait of loneliness, desire, and the humiliations of being out of your depth. Funny, nerve-jangling, and strangely liberating, it’s a cult classic that still feels fresh.
Top Letterboxd reviews
mathew (4★) · 15834 likes
this is what a dream from a 30-minute nap looks like
Karsten (4.5★) · 15374 likes
This guy is really bad at being a person
Muriel (5★) · 14803 likes
this is why i never go out
maria (4.5★) · 10870 likes
just let this little horny bitch go home he just wants to go home why won't you let him go home he's just a word processor! just lend him 53 cents so he can go home he just want to live man home is where it's at people
coffee (5★) · 10415 likes
MY DICK HAS LED ME TO PLACES I WOULDN’T EVEN GO WITH A GUN