Readers who have been with me a while know that I try to avoid recommending the things that everyone’s talking about. You don’t need me to tell you that you should watch Parasite or listen to Lizzo; you’ve already heard that a million times. But I take great joy in dredging up movies, music, and books from the past that you may have missed, or occasionally unearthing current entertainment that I think you might not have heard about. This week I’m going back to the ’80s to recommend two films about people having really bad nights.
After Hours (1985)
We’ll start with the darker movie: Martin Scorsese’s After Hours. Shortly after meeting a woman, Paul Hackett decides to visit her, losing his money en route to the place she’s staying… and then things get weird. He encounters a series of people who are connected with each other through a tangled web of relationships. Conversations, seductions, errands, all go uncompleted. Everything seems out of kilter. Paul and the people he meets have wild mood swings and say things you’d never say to someone you’d just met. As the night progresses and his problems escalate, Paul goes from wanting to get home to saying, “I just want to live.”
The cast of this well-crafted movie includes Rosanna Arquette, Linda Fiorentino, Teri Garr, John Heard, Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, and Catherine O’Hara. See it when you’re up for something dark and strange.
Adventures in Babysitting (1987)
Want something lighter? Adventures in Babysitting features a teen-aged protagonist, Chris Parker (Elizabeth Shue). When her boyfriend cancels their date, she accepts a babysitting job for the evening. Her night has barely started when a friend calls, begging to be rescued from the bus station. Chris takes the kids and heads into the city, getting a flat tire along the way. As with After Hours, it’s this initial journey that sets off the string of awful events. Chris, however, has better luck than Paul. She is more effective than he is at solving problems. She also meets up with people who come to her aid like helpers in a fairy tale. (You could say that Paul also meets helpers, but things always seem to go wrong for him.)
Adventures in Babysitting was remade by Disney in 2016, but it looks like the remake is significantly different from the original, and the 1987 version has the better rating on IMDB. See it when you want a frothy, fun adventure with a strong heroine.