After the Hunt gets lost in the woods

Amazon MGM Studios' project After the Hunt seeks to have the audience question their personal perspectives regarding assault and complicated issues. Conversations from viewers after screening the film might surround overall frustration instead of the intended controversial topic.

After the Hunt is a fictional story about sexual assault in an Ivy League university, with a college professor caught in the middle of a scandal. The tale begins with the cast mingling at a party and strutting their individual improvisational skills to each other. The players give a casual delivery to the material and are working with a director whom they obviously trust. They should have proceeded with caution as the job turns into an acting exercise with no authentic gravity to it.

Julia Roberts portrays Yale University professor Alma Imhoff, who is shackled with the namesake of being the soul of the story. She's off-center with addiction disorder and complicated relationships. Nora Garrett shows everyone from the beginning that she doesn't understand subtlety while writing the script and good luck finding any real justice along the way in the statement about #MeToo. Even the title is confusing and current times have many living in a world full of misinformation and doubts about the truth. This is not a time period where it's enjoyable to watch characters twisting the truth for their own ends on the screen and the creatives approach the convoluted tale with cynicism.

Director Luca Guadagnino has carved out a career full of completely different projects while bouncing around through time. This talented Italian artist deserves flowers for creating unique and inherently queer cinema since 1999, but he still hasn't made his masterpiece yet. After digging into his work, viewers can see his presentations like past don't stick to the wall and are undercooked. This can leave an audience frustrated and After the Hunt deserves at least a suspension and more rewrites.

It's back to the drawing board for many of the crew, including cinematographer Malik Hassan Sayeed, who shoots in unusual angles accompanied by startling closeups. It reads like an art school textbook that tries too hard and makes one yearn for recess after hearing a loud ticking clock.

Roberts is miscast in the role of Alma and uses her past gimmicks to make her likable. Chloe Sevigny's Kim gives no signs that she's friends with Alma on any level because she has her own agenda. Alma's addiction disorder and infidelity are attempts at humanizing her, but sympathy had left the building way before that happened.

When Alma reacts badly in situations, such as attacking a person's identity, it doesn't make sense. A college teacher knows better than to bully someone in her way, especially when she's trying to obtain tenure. It's just one of a series of missteps that plague the project even until the bitter, tacked-on ending. It demeans what the players have tried to build, although Andrew Garfield, Ayo Edebiri and Michael Stuhlbarg do what they can and escape unscathed.

Luca has described his Hunt as “timely,” but his timing is off. Maybe it will fare better with his next film Artificial, which reunites him with Andrew Garfield again. Hopefully, tackling AI goes smoother than After the Hunt, which earns a grade average of a D.

After the Hunt will hike into Chicago theaters beginning October 17, 2025, with a running time of 139 minutes.