Dark comedy is turned pitch black in Martin Scorsese’s most under-rated picture. This is a tour de force of cinematic tension – it crawls under the skin, kicking and biting and never letting go. A lonely numbers-cruncher named Paul (Griffin Dunne) becomes trapped in a labyrinthine SoHo neighborhood, leading to an oddball odyssey of freak encounters, uncomfortable silences, and bad luck of the worst kind. The pacing is relentless, with Scorsese masterfully balancing the tension and the humor with exhaustive energy. Our only defense is to laugh when we should be screaming.