My expectations for Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt were, I confess, moderate, but they leaned toward cautious optimism. I like most of his films, with Challengers being my favorite, and I generally admire his work, even if I don’t consider myself an unconditional fan. However, the initial reception of this new piece at festivals was already signaling division, which inevitably created a certain apprehension in me and the sense that something problematic was about to unfold. Unfortunately, the reality I faced in the theater was far worse than any premonition, resulting in one of the most bewildering and frustrating cinematic experiences I’ve had this year.
The psychological drama unfolds in the academic environment of Yale, following Alma (Julia Roberts, Pretty Woman), a respected Philosophy professor who finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads. This is triggered when her protégé student, Maggie (Ayo Edebiri, The Bear), makes a serious accusation of sexual harassment against Alma’s close colleague and friend, Hank (Andrew Garfield, The Amazing Spider-Man). Directed by Guadagnino and written by newcomer Nora Garrett, After the Hunt focuses on how Alma is forced to navigate this moral minefield, all while a dark secret from her own past threatens to surface and destroy her life.
Getting straight to the point: this is, quite simply, one of the movies that most provokes the question, “what the hell is happening?” that I’ve seen lately. It’s a disheveled mess, an authentic fiasco that fails in virtually every technical and storytelling department. The narrative is a total muddle, the editing (Marco Costa) seems random, and even the score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (Soul) and the performances suffer from the inconsistency of the material. The filmmaker attempts to tackle such an overwhelming variety of subject matters — all of them complex and urgent — that they trip over each other, resulting in a deafening noise without any real reverberation or impact on the viewer.
Guadagnino’s ambition to be provocative and relevant runs straight into a wall of superficiality. After the Hunt is derivative and proves incapable of offering any profound analysis, contenting itself with the laziest and most insipid attitude: to throw easy shade based on the simplification that “people are too sensitive these days.” This is an incredibly ineffective and diluted way to approach topics that deserve serious scrutiny.
This is a disorganized, incessant descent into a bottomless pit of potentially sensitive issues. From misogyny and xenophobia to racism, transphobia, gender equality, identity, sexual harassment, and victimization, the screenplay amounts to little more than a spectacle of ‘name-drops’ of literally every term capable of generating debate in contemporary culture. Yet, the movie proves completely innocuous, lacking the necessary bite or conviction to tackle any of these issues effectively. The result is a series of empty intellectual references, where the focus is more on seeming clever and current than on actually being so.
As mentioned, this same disarray spread to the musical score, a creation I can only classify as equally chaotic. The extreme transitions, which jump from high, tense strings to a calm piano, then to a crashing orchestra, and, in a particularly bizarre moment, to a random Brazilian ballad, demonstrate an incomprehensible lack of tonal coherence. This is the audible equivalent of a screenplay that doesn’t know what it wants to be: a psychological thriller, an academic satire, or an existential drama.
And it’s this inconsistency in After the Hunt that irreparably damages the performances. There’s a constant dissonance between what the characters and the topics at hand demand — seriousness and thoughtfulness — and the sudden, vaguely comedic or exaggerated scenes that pop up out of nowhere, breaking any engagement the audience might have. The main problem, however, is that, in the end, we’re left with a group of figures who are almost universally despicable. They’re petty, shallow, lying, selfish, and explicitly hypocritical.
The academic characters, whether Alma, Hank, or Maggie, are engaged in constant philosophical discussion, acting with an almost messianic conviction, as if they were “the next Jesus Christ.” But this façade of morality and integrity collapses at the first sign of adversity, as their opinions and principles shift according to their personal circumstances and career ambitions. There isn’t a single protagonist one can latch onto as a pillar of trust or empathy, which makes the experience of following them for 139 minutes feel like torture.
It’s fair to say the cast dedicated themselves. I can’t accuse the actors of not trying their best. But the problem lies in the fact that, as an audience member, I couldn’t figure out what I was supposed to feel for these messy individuals, trapped in such a confused feature film with so many contradictory messages. Roberts’ dedicated effort to convey Alma’s inner anguish or Garfield’s menacing intensity are swallowed up by the screenplay’s inconsistency.
The only truly redeeming element of this movie is Michael Stuhlbarg (Call Me By Your Name). The actor delivers a genuinely sweet and hilarious performance as Alma’s psychiatrist husband, a figure who, though relegated to the periphery, manages to inject some humanity — or at least genuine comic relief — into the spiral of madness around him. Unfortunately, even this high point is inevitably contaminated and damaged by everything surrounding it.
Final Thoughts on After the Hunt
After the Hunt is an overburdened and miscalculated attempt to address the major moral dilemmas of our age, but it ultimately fails to say anything new or useful. It’s a chaotic, inconsistent experience that focuses on displaying philosophical terms and conflicts without giving them body or soul, with an ending that reaches the peak of the fiasco by raising even more nonsensical questions and leaving loose threads untied, underscoring the futility of everything that came before. It’s a huge disappointment for a filmmaker of Luca Guadagnino’s caliber and one of the biggest wastes of talent this year, delivered by mostly detestable characters and a tonal incoherence that prevents any involvement. In the end, all that remains of this hunt is just the deafening void of pretense.
Rating: D-
After the Hunt is now playing in theaters. It recently screened at the London Film Festival.
Learn more about the film, including how to buy tickets, at the official website for the title.
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