From visionary filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, After the Hunt is a gripping psychological drama about a college professor (Julia Roberts) who finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when a star student (Ayo Edebiri) levels an accusation against one of her colleagues (Andrew Garfield), and a dark secret from her own past threatens to come into the light.
The Garden Cinema View:
Luca Guadagnino continues his prolific run with this campus-set ethical dilemma. Ever gripping, After the Hunt is powered by a tremendous central performance from Julia Roberts (occasionally slipping into Cate Blanchett/Tar mode). It’s slick filmmaking, but perhaps lacks that magic spark of the director’s best work.
It slots into this current Hollywood zeitgeist, with surprising echoes of Eddington’s critique of performative protests, and stands as a rather misanthropic counterpoint to Eva Victor’s wonderful Sorry, Baby. But ultimately, you get the impression that Guadagnino is less interested in the moral thicket of higher education safeguarding and public shaming than he is with the melodramatic swerves of the narrative. The result is both more entertaining and a little more superficial than you might expect.
