I came across “After the Hunt” whilst prepping for an episode of Hot Takes. The premise (and trailer) seemed interesting, though the 140-minute run time kept it from being a trip to the theater.
The film was written by Nora Garrett and directed by polarizing Luca Guadagnino. It’s a strong cast headed by the iconic Julia Roberts. Set in 2019 at the peak of the modern Woke Era, “After the Hunt” touches on social issues as mild as pronoun preference and as serious as sexual assault.
The Characters
Alma Imhoff (Julia Roberts) is a popular and highly regarded philosophy professor at Yale University. Imhoff is shown to have a close relationship with her students and colleagues. Alma is married to a psychiatrist called Frederick (an excellent Michael Stuhlbarg) with whom the marriage is becoming a thing of convenience.
Hank (Andrew Garfield) is Alma’s colleague at Yale and best friend. Hank conveys the concept of a cool college professor. Overly garrulous and ripe with personality. Alma and Hank are both up for tenure.
Maggie (Ayo Edebiri) is a PHD student who seemingly idolizes Alma. A mediocre student with mega-donor parents, Maggie confides in Alma that Hank sexually assaulted her after a party at Alma’s house.
Hank denies the allegations. Maggie wants to go public. Alma is harboring personal demons from her past. That’s your fodder.
Strong Acting
I’ll offer high praise to Julia Roberts, who is stellar as the lead. The character of Alma Imhoff carries a suitcase full of nuance. She’s brilliant, at least academically speaking. She reigns in a picturesque estate and is surrounded by Ivy League folks who speak and act in a way that’s foreign to 99% of the population. Alma is married to a man she loves, but their relationship has grown distant. She suffers from undiagnosed stomach pain and pops pills on the regular. Julia Roberts has the chops to play a character with great depth.
I loved Andrew Garfield in “The Social Network” and was just as impressed here. Hank is a person who only exists in a Hollywood classroom, and Garfield slides into the role with effortless ease. Subtleties like the way he flirts with a waitress or acts around Alma keep us guessing as to whether he is in fact guilty of the allegations against him. Did he cross the line or is he just balancing on it?
Ayo Edebiri is masterful at depicting a stereotypical Gen-Z Ivy League student. She’s black, gay, and comes from an ultra-rich family. She dates a non-binary person and corrects pronoun usage on multiple occasions. Her dissertation is on Virtue Ethics, and the film doesn’t say if this character is supposed to be liked or hated or even believed when she cries foul.
Luca Guadagnino
“After the Hunt” is a borderline arthouse film. Luca Guadagnino includes unusual angles and captivating closeups and zooms to convey the tension. I liked most of his style, though I found it a bit smug as the story went along. There’s an extremely loud clock ticking that enters a few times throughout that isn’t really addressed.
And the very last scene (which I won’t spoil) includes a questionable moment that won’t draw the thoughtful conversation its intending too.
The story has a message or two, depending on how you look at it. The Me Too movement and issues with higher education are quite prescient. I enjoyed the banter between Alma and Hank (characters from my generation) and the students. The rifts we all know are referenced, and sometimes in comical fashion.
Deserving of Hate?
Reviews of “After the Hunt” haven’t been kind. I found it interesting and well-acted. There are deficiencies with some of the stylistic choices and the pacing where 140 minutes should have been trimmed to 120. It may provoke conversation or simply reinforce beliefs. It falls into the above average, could have been better pile.
