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“Whatever happened to stuffing everything down like the rest of us?”
With imagery that nods to the past and themes that grapple with the present, Luca Guadagnino’s “After the Hunt” attempts to probe modern feminism and the cultural reckonings of recent social movements. Yet for all its remarkable performances and meticulous character work, the psychological drama ultimately fails to pack a punch by replacing nuance with noise.
“After the Hunt” follows philosophy professor Alma Imhoff (Julia Roberts) as she’s forced to confront institutional misogyny in higher education, personal failures, and a dark secret after Hank (Andrew Garfield) — a longtime colleague and friend — is accused of sexual misconduct by one of her most promising students, Maggie (Ayo Edebiri).
Following cultural hits such as “Call Me by Your Name” and “Challengers,” Guadagnino once again demonstrates his distinct talent for capturing an aesthetic. Instead of “Somewhere in Northern Italy,” his newest project transports viewers to the halls of Yale University — the perfect backdrop for an examination into privilege and moral posturing of upper levels of society, especially in higher education.
Unfortunately, “After the Hunt” finds itself falling prey to the pretentiousness it aims to critique. The screenwriting and cinematography crosses the line a number of times between helpfully directing the plot and talking down to its audience, creating a paradox of an extremely complex subject matter that is delivered with almost no subtext or nuance.
As “After the Hunt” progresses, it is able to escape some of the cliché that weighs down the first hour with a brief yet beautiful exploration of the many forms that abuse, trauma, and feminism can take. The film’s strength comes through in the moments where it strays from familiar tropes and genuinely manages to shine light on untold stories.
Most of this late-inning success is achieved through an Oscar-worthy performance from Roberts, who encapsulates the daily struggles of being a woman in male-dominated field. Alma’s battle to secure tenure effectively introduces her broader confrontation with institutionalized misogyny along with the unrelenting self-regulation she employs, from masking her emotions to maintaining without fail the composure expected of women in academia.
In so doing, Alma perpetuates an unhealthy reality for women that most directly impacts Maggie, resulting in a multi-faceted, tension-filled relationship that stands out as one of Guadagnino’s most notable successes in the film. Roberts works in tandem with Edebiri to beautifully convey the ever-present strife between generations and the ways women are often forced to compete among themselves for respect, acclaim, and power.
A cloak of ambiguity shrouds the film, with the audience struggling alongside Alma to decipher the truth and navigate whom to trust as the actual events behind the accusation are never fully depicted. Compounding this sense of confusion is yet another standout performance from Garfield as the accused fellow philosophy professor who plays with the audience’s emotions throughout. Transforming from a charismatic figure to a volatile antagonist in just a few scenes, Hank keeps viewers perpetually off balance and is the perfect testament to how easily perception can shape judgement.
While certainly not an obvious choice, incorporating elements of a psychological thriller into “After the Hunt” succeeds in being unnerving at points — adding to the growing sense of unease experienced by Alma as her life falls apart around her — but ultimately proves distracting to the serious underlying plot. An unnecessary gimmick used to color trailers and early marketing, this thriller aspect is pushed onto the viewers primarily through an overly jarring soundtrack that includes dissonant piano and an incessant clock ticking sound effect.
Even as early as the press tour, Guadagnino’s film has proven that it is engaging with pressing, timely issues. In a viral Venice Film Festival interview clip from a panel with Roberts, Edebiri, and Garfield, the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements were controversially dismissed by the interviewer as “done,” and Hollywood portrayed as having lost out during the so-called “politically correct era.” Yet in “After the Hunt,” much of the potential to confront systemic misogyny and demand accountability remains untapped, with the narrative repeatedly returning to recycled tropes and predictable moral reckonings.
—Staff Writer Sara R. Eyjolfsdottir can be reached at sara.eyjolfsdottir@thecrimson.com.
