In After the Hunt, Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield and Ayo Edebiri are trapped in a pleasantly framed “morally gray” limbo

Seeking objective answers in a debate about ethics and philosophy is a mistake, but anyone who joins the conversation needs to have a strong enough argument to support the discussion. In After the HuntLuca Guadagnino steps into the Agora with just the promise of an argument, fanning the controversy to ironically come out on top.

I open my defense by stating that this strategy was a real trap that the director built for himself and ends up falling into it a few times during the 139 minutes of the film. Still, it is undeniable that Guadagnino reinforces his signature style and establishes himself as one of the greatest image architects in contemporary cinema.

Julia Roberts moves away from the romantic heroine and delivers an imposing protagonist

The chosen setting is the most competitive, hostile and aesthetically refined ring possible: the Institute of Philosophy at Yale University. Portrayed many times in the media, we usually have the point of view of university life from Ivy League students, but here we follow Alma Imhoff (Julia Roberts), an Ethics professor who is fighting for a permanent chair in the postgraduate department.

We see right away that his presence conveys power and confidence as he bluntly describes Foucault’s Panopticon to a class full of attentive young people, equally captivated and intimidated by his figure. Outside the classroom, without her blazer as aligned as her posture, the same frightened fascination is felt by the characters who surround her (or rather, who are at her feet).

At home, her husband Frederik (Michael Stuhlbarg) devotes himself to his marriage with an affection he knows is one-sided. Between jokes and rants at the bar, her friend and fellow teacher Hank Gibson (Andrew Garfield) doesn’t take his hungry eyes off her for even a second. Around the campus, young doctoral student Maggie (Ayo Edebiri) seeks validation at any cost.

Few people would wear this persona as well as Julia Roberts, who just by appearing on any screen attracts everyone’s attention, however, this time, she does not display luminosity and charisma. Exploring another facet of his magnetism, Roberts’ Soul is centered and borders on cold, leaving the smile that earned him millions of dollars reserved for moments of sarcasm. Even so, the internal conflicts that the character carries are perceptible through the actress’s gaze and corporeality, especially when it comes to the image she projects of herself to others and the otherness she establishes in relation to her admirers/rivals.

But, as the saying goes, “heavy is the head that holds the crown”, and being the nucleus of gravity for these people turns her into the center of a heavy drama. Maggie confesses to him that she was sexually assaulted by Hank after a dinner at the teacher’s apartment and asks for help to defend her. The protagonist states that she believes the student’s report, but advises her not to take the case public so that the accusation does not harm her in the future.

On the other side of the complaint, Gibson agrees that he crossed the line, but says he is innocent of any crime. He still insists that the girl was mobilizing the complaint because she identified plagiarism in her thesis. Confronted by both sides, Alma must decide how to act while protecting her own secrets.

After the Hunt avoids clichés, but gets lost by not taking its characters seriously

Sony Pictures

From this plot, it is not difficult to fall into the infamous “one person’s word against another’s” situation that many productions that address abuse situations follow. After all, as the character of Garfield himself states “everything that can be said about this has already been said before”, right? The success of Nora Garrett’s script is in leaving this Manichaeism and taking a path where the motivations and interests of each person are the pieces called into question. There is no investigation for a single truth, just like in Philosophy. There are no heroes either: everyone feels guilty and is actually guilty of something at some point.

It is interesting that the film wants to portray how, in the cultural elite, the consequences of actions are almost nil (a fact!), but as the skeletons in each character’s closet are gradually revealed, there are no twists or significant impacts. This happens because the film is too dedicated to the “morally gray” and gets stuck in this murky area.

Leaving the viewer without clear answers would not be a problem if the mechanism chosen to generate different interpretations were not to create multiple points of tension that neither resolve nor explode. An example of this is the recurring appearance of a mysterious illness that makes Alma feel ill, something that raises questions, but only emerges in the context in which a scene at the end takes place.

Sony Pictures

Ethical discussions thread the film, whether on the theoretical level of the classes conducted by Imhoff or in the fights in the middle of the corridor. As a resource, the dialogue uses sporadic quotes and elaborate vocabulary as a way of showing that these people hide behind academicism and wish to be seen as part of the “intellectual cream”. However, making a caricature of this elite instead of a representation of it denotes that the author (and neither the public, therefore) should not take these characters seriously.

The script at all costs wants the viewer to question the portrayal of Maggie — a young, black, queer woman whose partner is a non-binary person — as the “perfect victim”. But, on this side of the screen, it seems that they have come up with a way to support Hank’s argument, who believes that he is the real wrongdoer in the story because he needs to defend his position in the teaching staff and fight for his daily bread, while the student who accuses him is the heiress of a great fortune that allows her to save effort and live in the comfort of mediocrity.

Powerful performances and cinema “à la Guadagnino” support the film

Sony Pictures

The characters in After the Hunt are good enough to support themselves without appealing gimmicks, especially with a cast of the highest quality. The actors highlight the nuances of each scene and, because they are extremely talented, they bring out the best in their scene partners to maintain an emotionally charged rally. The main trio are frighteningly seductive. Ayo, Andrew and Julia work well on the now classic dynamic coined by Guadagnino of sensual tension, hierarchy and repressed emotions.

I make a point of highlighting the work of Michael Stuhlbargwho already shone under the Italian director’s baton in Call Me By Your Name (2018), and creates the perfect counterpoint not only for Alma, but for Hank and Maggie as well. Portrayed as an eccentric psychiatrist — and an admirer of Caetano Veloso and João Gilberto, apparently — I think Frederik is the only truly authentic figure unafraid to show affection and his opinions, regardless of what others think.

Stuhlbarg knows this very well and colors the scenes with a necessary flavor of energy and specificity. Chlöe Sevigny also delivers a great and well-balanced performance with psychiatrist Kim Sayers, Alma’s friend.

The attention to detail is something that the supporting actor and the director clearly share. With the exception of the screenwriter, unfortunately, Luca Guadagnino knows how to assemble a creative team to meet the sophistication of his projects. The soundtrack by the brilliant Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross adds a touch of melodrama that reminded me of the omnipresent piano in May December (2023), but in a much more accurate and refined way than in Todd Haynes’ film.

Repeating the partnership from Queer (2024), stylist Jonathan Anderson, current creative director of Dior, designs costumes worthy of a catalog for the brand. It may seem like everyone dresses in complementary color palettes and silhouettes, creating commercial homogeneity, but it is ideal for portraying the bubble in which the characters are inserted.

The atmosphere created by Guadagnino and the impeccable performances add flavor to the experience of sitting in the cinema and digesting the story of After the Hunt. However, even though the filmmaker argues that he made the film with the aim of stimulating debate on controversial topics, it is not provocative enough to be problematic or daring, falling into the very mediocrity that it criticizes.

*ADORCinema watched the film at the Rio 2025 Festival.