After Hours
Just the coolest.
Most of my experience with ol' Marty has been with his newer stuff, with a few classics here and there, but man After Hours feels like something else entirely. I feel like this is a side of him I've never seen in the best way.
One of my favorite aspects of this is that Paul is just some guy. Not some machiavellian schemer, not part of a crime empire, not a famous boxer, or anyone really of note, just a city slicker office worker who enjoys a good book and a night out that gets caught in this never-ending tirade of misfortune that feels like a nightmare you simply can't wake up from. It's almost Safdie-esque in that regard, as the tension builds and builds with each passing false accusation or horrible coincidence. It's absurd and darkly funny, and also weirdly feels almost like a parable of some sort with Paul's ability to attract all these strange women that make things ultimately worse for him.
On a technical level it's of course fantastic, with beautiful shots of rain-drenched New York and its many weird side communities and archetypes of people adding a lot to the absurdist nature of the whole affair, performances are great, there's so many fantastic minor and bit parts here, I just really enjoyed this.