“Not everything is meant to put you at ease.” Baby, when those words appeared in the trailer for After the Hunt, I basically sat up in my chair. Luca Guadagnino, the mastermind behind Call Me By Your Name, Challengers, and Bones and All, returns with another serve, and it’s messy academia drama at its best.
We’ve got Julia Roberts as high-strung philosophy professor Alma Imhoff, who’s down to her last seconds of securing tenure, until her superstar student Maggie (Ayo Edebiri) accuses her bestie and colleague Hank (Andrew Garfield) of impropriety. The humor? Alma’s got secrets of her own; she’s fighting to keep them under wraps. It’s secrets on secrets on secrets.
And Amazon MGM Studios has just released the most dramatic character posters to do just that. Everyone’s strutting questionable side-eye and tortured expressions as if it’s fashion week for deceivers.
Academia, But Make It Toxic
This is not your sentimental campus romantic comedy where individuals fall in love under ivy-covered archways. Nope. This one’s all politics, privilege, and everyone’s a liar once they’re desperate. Otto Von Bismarck literally gets brought up in the movie: “People never lie as much as after a hunt, during a war, or before an election.” And apparently, after the seminar as well.
Alma from Roberts is manipulative, ambitious, and somewhat terrifying. Maggie from Edebiri is rich but secretly an outcast, holding onto her mentor for approval. Hank Garfield? That’s the professor who shows up at your door and warns you to stay away. Chloë Sevigny and Michael Stuhlbarg, of course, arrive as bitter bestie and doting, exhausted husband to Alma, and everyone’s both flawed and conniving and I can’t wait to see them all crack apart.
Luca Guadagnino Said: Chaos, but Make It Pretty
Guadagnino is such a menace in the best way. He straight-up said this movie isn’t about the truth, but about how many truths there are. Like, messy. He brought in Malik Hassan Sayeed (returning to feature films after 25 years, no big deal) to shoot it on film, which means everything looks rich and haunting. And because Guadagnino is extra, he called up Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross to make the score, so prepare for spooky piano notes and electronic dread.
And don’t even get me started on the production design. Yale’s campus was recreated in London with terrifying accuracy. Even the dive bar tiles were matched. Plus, costume designer Giulia Piersanti made Julia Roberts look like the chicest academic you’ve ever seen, think Diane Keaton but tenured.
Julia, Ayo, and Andrew come to collect blood
No one has ever made Julia Roberts this frigid. She’s either America’s sweetheart, but here she’s the teacher who will intellectually body-slam you in class and then go home and have a glass of red wine in quiet contemplation. She even confessed to not being certain if she liked or disliked Alma, and I live for this stuff.
Ayo Edebiri is basically everywhere right now (The Bear, Inside Out 2, Bottoms), and now she’s diving into a role that’s all messy loyalties, privilege, and betrayal. She and Julia apparently had the most delicious generational face-offs on set.
And Andrew Garfield? Woah. We know him as the emotional romantic or bumbling lead, but in this one, he’s exuding his “is he guilty or gaslighting me” vibes. Guadagnino essentially labeled him “dangerous” in this moment, and I think he is.
When and Where to Watch as Drama Unfolds
After the Hunt picks up in New York and Los Angeles on October 10, it opens in wide release in the United States and internationally on October 17, and arrives in the United Kingdom on October 22. The two-hour and eighteen-minute run time provides adequate time to immerse oneself in tension and mutter “oh my god” under one’s breath. So yes, this is not another thriller thriller thriller. It’s an entire cultural moment in the making. Get out the popcorn, text your girls, and get ready to argue who’s lying all the way home.
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