After Hours

This splendidly nerve-wracking, blackly comic nightmare is among Martin Scorsese's most entertaining and overlooked films. Wall Street businessman Griffin Dunne meets a girl in a diner and follows her to SoHo, for an endless night -- which begins when his money flies out the window of a taxicab and gets progressively worse from there. Eventually, Dunne's troubles become so horrible and convoluted that it seems he has wandered into a secret antechamber of Hell. All he wants to do is to get home, but events conspire against him in hilariously appalling fashion. Although some viewers will be covering their eyes and most will be squirming with sympathetic discomfort, the film is absolutely terrific, aided by a talented all-star supporting cast and Scorsese's ultra-dark humor. More than just another yuppie nightmare movie, this is an almost surrealistic tour-de-force, and great filmmaking.