Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt: A sharp, if deflating, campus-political noir

This LA Times review analyzes Luca Guadagnino’s film After the Hunt, centered on Alma, a Yale philosophy professor portrayed by Julia Roberts, who faces a sexual assault allegation from a student regarding her colleague Hank, played by Andrew Garfield. The piece argues the film centers more on public reactions and optics than on truth, portraying academic elites as self-serving, performative, and mired in moral posturing. The writer notes Guadagnino’s visual style—cold lighting and provocative backdrops—and describes the ensemble as deeply conflicted, each with suppressed traumas and motives that are rarely clarified until late in the narrative. The review criticizes the screenplay for burying its ideas and questions whether the characters’ moral arguments apply to themselves, ultimately considering the film a miss in terms of discomfort and clarity. Roberts’ somber, severe performance and Garfield’s charisma are highlighted, with Ayo Edebiri’s role described as a more pallid presence. The piece ends by suggesting the film’s ending and epilogue attempt to comment on shifts in campus culture since 2020, but overall deems the movie a missed opportunity to provoke meaningful discomfort or clear insight into cancel culture and institutional power.