After The Hunt (2025)

Film Details

Director: Luca Guadagnino 

Run Time: 2hr 19m

Cast: Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield, Ayo Edebiri, Chloe Sevigny, Michael Stuhlbarg, Thaddea Graham.

Synopsis:

A college professor finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads as her star pupil makes an accusation against her close colleague.

My Review

After The Hunt’s overarching narrative should have been one of significant importance, something that should discourage us all from shying away from those hard conversations and the film actually starts really well. The first act indicates that we were about to watch an incredibly thought provoking film that reflected the current social environment of the western world, framed through the ironic perspective of ethics professors! But unfortunately it loses its way the more it progresses and certain characters are written in a way that could actually damage the discourse around such a sensitive topic.

Luca Guadagnino clearly wants to pose the question of guilt to the audience but weirdly makes the victim simply insufferable, seemingly pushing the audience to be disbelieving of her intentions, I really didn’t agree with that creative decision. Sure, highlight the inherent privilege of the wealthy elite and the self entitled nature of their children, but when that borderline encourages victim blaming, conflating to two themes into one character can be a dangerous game to play. 

The choice to use Ektachrome film created a really nice aesthetic and combined with a unique, potent and ever present musical score, those technical elements established an old school, anxiety inducing atmosphere that perfectly reflected the deteriorating mental state of Julia Robert’s lead character Almer. The utilisation of music to evoke the emotion from within the scene was a consistent theme, working really well, whether that was to create the aforementioned anxiety or to highlight the humour of Frederik’s character. On that topic, Frederik by the way? What a husband he is! But despite its technical prowess After The Hunts significant flaws in its screenplay ultimately left a sour taste in my mouth, from victim blaming to being lectured on liberal politics, I never felt comfortable in what Guadagnino was trying to communicate through his story.

My rating: 5.5 out of 10

Thanks for reading!

Film Review Club