About Last Night... 1986

Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune: This is the yuppie drama that St. Elmo`s Fire wanted to be but wasn't. Read more

Sheila Benson, Los Angeles Times: Writers DeClue and Kazurinsky have created a recognizable geography for every age; you suspect that About Last Night will set off pangs of identification everywhere. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Homework assignment: Is the decision to change both the title and the thrust of Mamet's play evidence of perversity or of perversion? Due tomorrow. Class dismissed. Read more

Vincent Canby, New York Times: You've a right to wonder why anyone would want to work so hard -- with such an expenditure of imagination -- to transform a play with such a distinctive voice into a movie that sounds like any number of others. Read more

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader: The shocks of recognition are largely absorbed by the standard narrative structure that replaces Mamet's blackouts; the characters, instead of functioning as archetypes, look underwritten, half alive. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: A marriage between the creative talents of David Mamet and Edward Zwick might seem to be an unlikely union but, in the case of 1986 feature About Last Night..., it is surprisingly effective. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It has an eye and an ear for the way we live now, and it has a heart, too, and a sense of humor. Read more

Time Out: The screenwriters work many nice little observations into their occasionally over-quippish script, but this is considerably smaller than the sum of its parts. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: Film lacks much of Mamet's grittiness, but is likable in its own right. Read more