Amazon.com video review:
This well-regarded cult film is a tense Kafka-esque tale concerning what
happens to a likable computer guy who is in the wrong place at the wrong
time in the city that never sleeps--New York. This is a New
York infested with bizarre characters vividly brought to life by a
once-in-a-lifetime cast. Griffin Dunne's wonderfully controlled comic
performance as Paul Hackett is the glue that holds this increasingly
surreal
film together.
Scorsese utilizes a full array of
independent and underground film techniques, including special film speed
manipulations, angles, and edits, deftly capturing the strange rhythms of
an
after-hours New York City. Many will find the jokes clever, and
occasionally laugh-out-loud funny. Some, however, will find the film an
excruciating series of staged circumstances setting up a sadistically cruel
dark nightmare of horrors. And there are a few lines of dialogue so poorly
written they remind
you how unbelievable the thin story really is.
But forgive the film these
few lapses--overall it's a wild, surreal ride. The most offbeat character
is the beehive-sporting, Monkee-obsessed neurotic played to perfection by
Teri Garr. And the moment when Griffin Dunne uses his last quarter to
play Peggy Lee's "Is That All There Is" and dances with Verna Bloom while
an
angry mob searches SoHo for him is an inspired bit of
lunacy. --Christopher J. Jarmick
