After Dark, My Sweet (1990)

3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

A Man Stops Caring

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

James Foley's After Dark, My Sweet came out the same year as Stephen Frears's The Grifters; both were based on pulp novels by Jim Thompson, but the latter became a hit and an Oscar-nominee, while the former was mostly forgotten. Both are great, but it can be argued that After Dark, My Sweet is subtler, more character-driven. Collie (Jason Patric) is an ex-boxer who begins the movie drifting into town, looking a bit disheveled. In a bar, he meets Fay (Rachel Ward), and she gives him a ride and puts him up in a trailer on the back of her property. Fay is tangled up with Uncle Bud (Bruce Dean), who claims to be an ex-cop and is cooking up a scheme to kidnap a rich family's boy. It's really not much of a scheme, but the point here is not the kidnapping, but rather the way the characters play against one another in nearly imperceptible ways. It's a modern noir that, rather than merely cheerfully copying the genre conventions, understands despair from the inside.

In 2023, Kino Lorber released a long-awaited Blu-ray edition, with a beautifully upgraded image and sound. (The last time I saw it was on VHS.) It includes a commentary track by director Foley, and sit-down interviews with Patrick (18 minutes) Dern (13 minutes), who rambles all over the place in a most entertaining way. The disc also includes a trailer for this film, plus seven other trailers for various 1990s movies. This is highly recommended.