After the Hunt review: Julia Roberts's MeToo drama feels familiar but compelling
Culture & Entertainment: Luca Guadagnino's campus MeToo thriller examines power, loyalty and accountability at an elite university, with standout performances from Julia Roberts and Ayo Edebiri.
After the Hunt, a psychological drama from Luca Guadagnino starring Julia Roberts and Ayo Edebiri, had its North American premiere at the New York Film Festival. The 139-minute, R-rated feature arrives in theaters Oct. 10. It unfolds in a Yale-like academic milieu, opening at a cocktail party where conversations about race, pronouns and tenure illuminate the power dynamics at play.
Centered on Alma, a stoic, tenured professor who has clawed her way to the top in a male-dominated field, the film pivots on a campus scandal involving a PhD student, Maggie (Edebiri), who accuses a fellow professor, Hank (Andrew Garfield), of rape. Hank denies the allegation; the story then follows Alma’s decisions as she tries to manage the situation while protecting her own standing. The plot includes a secret envelope in Alma’s bathroom and a ticking-clock ambiance that suggests a larger consequence is impending, even as the central question—who is predator and who is prey—remains unsettled.
Critics say the film treads familiar ground in MeToo-era inquiry within a world of wealth and privilege, but Guadagnino’s handling gives the movie momentum. Roberts’s performance as Alma is a standout, with a restrained, cold edge that sharpens as the drama spirals. Edebiri’s Maggie conveys campus anxiety with convincing vulnerability and resolve, while Garfield plays Hank with moral ambiguity that complicates audience judgments. Some reviews note that the pacing loses steam mid-way, and the final confrontation lands with less impact than the buildup suggested.
Ultimately, After the Hunt asks how power, loyalty and accountability intersect on a modern campus, reflecting on the MeToo era while resisting easy answers. The film probes who gets protected when power is at stake and whether truth can fully resolve tangled loyalties among Alma, Maggie and Hank. In the end, it points to a cultural landscape where everyone may be both predator and prey within the dangerous wilderness of elite academia.
