Proper release date is July 11! Very excited to see it all put together (including my essay).
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Catching up on all your news and oh my god!!!!!!!!!! I only saw this for the first time a couple months ago, in the middle of moving house which was itself nested in the middle of four or five extremely stressful events – I felt watching it like I was going OUT OF MY MIND, I can’t wait to read your essay!
Sheila on the horn with Marty for 40 minutes!!!! Brilliant. So happy for you.
// I only saw this for the first time a couple months ago //
No way!!! Perfect timing!!
and wow, yeah, watching in the middle of something stressful would make it even more stressful – when you’re that stressed, After Hours feels like a documentary! ha!!
It’s such a weird movie and it was challenging to write about it – especially since I knew it had to be approved by Marty! But one good thing was that … there really isn’t a lot of writing out there about After Hours. Not like his other movies, where there’s way too MUCH. The reviews are mostly dismissive – it just wasn’t taken seriously at the time … nobody just trusted that maybe Scorsese could just do what he wanted to do and not do what you THINK he should be doing?
And then it’s never really had a resurgence of critical interest – even though I know so many critics who adore it. There just isn’t a ton of stuff out there. So I was kind of starting from scratch – which was fun and challenging!
Interestingly, my nephew Cashel who is … 23 now? He told me that among his peers – and Gen Z in general – many count this as their favorite Scorsese. I thought that was so interesting!! I asked him why and he said something about how – life feels so confusing and you’re so anxious all the time and like everybody else knows what’s going on and you’re supposed to be an adult but you don’t feel like one – and the world just feels really really unfriendly and ganged up against you. You can’t win. I wish he would write about it – I thought that was so cool and interesting. (I told “Marty” this when we spoke – and he loved it!).
Marty is in with the Gen Z-ers!
I love After Hours as an entry in anxiety cinema that speaks directly to Gen Z. That feeling of being swept up in events outside of your control and surrounded by people who know the rules you don’t. This is a tangent, but I think you will get how my brain made the connection — when I was watching the In-Laws all I could think about was Bringing up Baby, and how Arkin turned Cary’s expressive stress into a more internalised stoic anxiety (that obviously is still very funny and leads to a wonderful crack-up) appropriate to the style of the times. Squint hard enough and After Hours is Marty’s Bringing up Baby, haha.
I think it’s great that you’re getting to enter a relatively clear field. I felt this when Criterion released The Black Stallion – because I genuinely rank it as one of the greatest movies ever made, even the positive contemporary reviews aren’t enough critical recognition, reflection, and explication. I was desperate for someone to look at it with the ‘right’ amount of passion and care, and so Michael Sragow’s rapturous essay really meant a lot to me! I think fans are going to be so pleased to read it – especially knowing it passed the Marty test haha.
// ow Arkin turned Cary’s expressive stress into a more internalised stoic anxiety //
Yes!! It makes me laugh just thinking about it.
and oooh The Black Stallion!! I was so EXCITED when Criterion decided to bring it out – and I agree about Sragow’s essay.
The opening half of the film – or, at least it feels like the full half – is an absolute masterpiece. I still don’t know how they did it.