Direction: Luca Guadagnino
Country: USA
Italian helmer Luca Guadagnino, who caused surprise with Call Me By Your Name (2017) but has recently disappointed with films like Challengers (2024) and Queer (2024), stumbles again with After the Hunt, a psychological thriller weighed down by dramatic excess, intellectually convoluted dialogue, and an overreliance on ambiguity.
Relying on close-ups that fail to bring intimacy, and a depth of field that reinforces emotional detachment, the film wallows in both dark morass and bitter coldness. Julia Roberts stars as a polished philosophy professor at Yale, while Ayo Edebiri plays an ambitious and privileged student who accuses one of the university’s assistant professors—portrayed by Andrew Garfield—of sexual assault.
The picture, struggling to create a true identity of its own, feels hollow as many of the narrative suggestions are tucked away in sub-contexts. Coldness reigns, revelations abound, confidences are shared, and tempers flare in After the Hunt. Sadly, the film continually drifts into inconsequential detours, ultimately failing to deliver the impact it strives for. Despite a solid performance from Roberts, Guadagnino’s thriller remains frustratingly inert, and I struggled with it up until the end.
