The pretensions of academia have rarely been skewered more mercilessly than in Luca Guadagnino’s (Queer, MVFF47; Call Me By Your Name, MVFF40) new drama led by a powerhouse Julia Roberts. She plays Alma Olsson, a philosophy professor at Yale counting on tenure, fluent in the language of her profession and in sly takedowns of middling students. Running competitively alongside her is close colleague Henrik Gibson (Andrew Garfield), until Black PhD candidate Maggie Price (Ayo Edebiri) accuses him of sexual assault. Written by actor Nora Garrett, After the Hunt is a simmering potpourri of issues including sexuality and race, #Me Too and power dynamics, and generational privilege. As matters become increasingly fraught, with both Alma and Henrik’s careers on the line, the film rises to a boil, boosted by Trent Reznor’s forceful score and key supporting turns by Chloë Sevigny and Michael Stuhlbarg. Fizzy with snappy dialogue and exploding with post-screening topics for discussion, this is button-pushing cinema at its best. —Rod Armstrong
Luca Guadagnino
A native of Palermo, Sicily, director, producer, and screenwriter Luca Guadagnino, made his feature debut in 1999 with The Protagonists, winning the FEDIC Prize at the Venice Film Festival. Among his other features are I Am Love (2009); Bertolucci on Bertolucci (2013); A Bigger Splash (2015); Call Me by Your Name (MVFF40), a nominee for four Academy Awards®, including Best Picture; Suspiria (2018), for which Guadagnino shared with cast and crew the Film Independent Spirit Awards’ Robert Altman Award; Bones and All (2022); Challengers (2024); and Queer (MVFF47).
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