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After the Hunt
Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Nora Garrett, After the Hunt is a complex, psychological mystery/drama with comedic/ironic flourishes that turn culture wars on their heads. Pointedly, its entangling themes never resolve into a satisfying resolution. Reflecting on current social issues involving sexual abuse, gender identity, race, power dynamics, ethics, and women’s career ascendance against the backdrop of Yale University, Guadagnino and Garrett tackle some of the themes credibly. Others they leave swinging in the winds of uncertainty.
Thanks to the incisive performances of principals Julia Roberts, Michael Stuhlbarg, Andrew Garfield, and Ayo Edebiri, the film’s central mystery—whether sexual abuse did or didn’t occur, and why—holds our interest.
However, the subtle nuances and motivations of character become convoluted and incoherent at times. Is this in the service of the notion that human beings are layered, self-destructive self-betrayers driven by their own nihilistic impulses? Possibly. Further, the philosophy professors Alma (Roberts) and Hank (Garfield) and their Ph.D. student Maggie (Ayo) are adept at weaponizing philosophy and political correctness as a defense to promote their personal agendas. A perfect foil, the most well-drawn representative of rationality, Alma’s husband, psychiatrist Frederick (Stuhlbarg), receives the prize for being the authentic adult in the room. Stuhlbarg’s Frederick is a perfect delight to watch and a welcome relief from the others’ sturm und drang.
A New York Film Festival Main Slate Section
After the Hunt had its world premiere at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival. Its North American premiere opened the New York Film Festival in the Main Slate section. Though the film takes place at Yale, Guadagnino filmed it in England. The superb set design provides the ambience for the 2020 setting and epilogue in 2025.
At the party Alma holds at her home for her students, colleagues and friends, we learn about her and about Hank and Maggie, those closest to her, as they briefly discuss why she chose her dissertation topic, “the resurgence of virtue ethics.” We also learn that Alma and Hank are competing for a tenured professorship. Frederick asks them both how they would respond if the other wins the position. Should we take their answers at face value, or do they lie?
Searching for toilet paper in the bathroom, Maggie finds a hidden envelope taped to the interior top of a cabinet. She sees it contains an article and pictures, and takes it, but we don’t see it in close-up. So much for her ethics and respect for her beloved professor’s privacy. The scene also gives us an indication of Alma’s character, as she has placed an envelope with secret information somewhere it can be found.
What we see and what we don’t
We don’t see another incident that happens after the party. We hear about it from the victim, Maggie, who returns the next day to Alma’s. Dripping wet, bedraggled and forlorn, a waif to sorrow over, Maggie tells Alma that Hank sexually attacked her. Maggie admits she shouldn’t have allowed Hank to come over after the party, where they had been drinking. But he didn’t stop after she kissed him, though she said, “No.”
Alma doesn’t initially respond with care and concern, and we become aware of Maggie’s position at Yale, the antithesis of a conservative “red state” university. She is a Black, gay student whose wealthy parents donate heavily to Yale. Close to her professors Hank and Alma, who taught Hank, she goes to Alma for support. Maggie suggests Alma’s background will help her understand what Maggie feels. This comment short-circuits Alma. Maggie manipulates her into the situation and makes it personal to her. In other words, whatever Maggie read in the article, she uses as leverage to manipulate Alma to help her. Confused, Alma wonders what Maggie knows about her.
Questioning Maggie’s motives
We question the wisdom of Maggie’s manipulation and wonder what information the hidden article about Alma held. And how much did the article influence Maggie to invite Hank to her apartment? Did this event even occur? What underlying motives does Maggie have if It didn’t? By this point we have forgotten the ironic import of Maggie’s dissertation topic (the resurgence of virtue ethics). If virtue ethics gives weight to practical wisdom and the pursuit of a flourishing life through moral excellence, is Maggie a hypocrite to even deal with such a topic? Swiping the article about Alma doesn’t exemplify moral excellence, nor does manipulating her with it.
Still, Maggie’s potentially heart-wrenching emotional experience of sexual assault by a close professor becomes occluded by many factors. Perhaps because of Alma’s cool response, we don’t feel sorry for Maggie or believe her. Her having taken the hidden article also makes us question her veracity.
Against Alma’s suggestions, Maggie presses charges against Hank—a surefire way to end his career at Yale.
Spiders spinning webs
As Garrett and Guadagnino spool out clues to the interconnecting spiderwebs spun by three clever spiders with conflicting agendas and motivations, we recall something Alma’s husband Frederick said: that Maggie is a mediocre student and Alma shouldn’t favor her. This gives credence to Hank’s assertions that Maggie plagiarized parts of her dissertation. How should Hank handle this? Does Alma, an expert in her field, know that Maggie plagiarized? Why don’t they report or correct her?
Questions that can’t be answered
Are Maggie’s parents’ donations shutting Hank and Alma’s mouths? Shouldn’t they take the moral high ground instead of ignoring the fraud? To what extent is Maggie using the race card to her advantage? Doesn’t she understand that her behaviors play into stereotypes about wealth, class and race? Does she even care? The film raises so many questions they keep our heads spinning.
Clearly, everyone’s careers are at stake, especially after Maggie accuses Hank of sexual assault. We note the irony of the situation these effete intellectuals find themselves in. Morality, ethics and philosophy don’t inspire them to behave with high moral standards. Instead, they make one bad decision after another and let the situation boil over into unseemly behaviors unsuitable for their positions and achievements. Governed by their own impulses of fight, flight, desire, need, beyond intellectual thought, they founder in their own emotional morass. Indeed, who is preying on whom? And “after the hunt,” who will be left standing and what will the fallen carcasses look like?
Extreme complications
We come to learn other complicating fathers about the characters’ relationships and even health. How many more webs can Garrett and Guadagnino have their spiders spin? One final secret about the mystery of Alma has yet to be exposed. The film suggests truths should be uncovered to free individuals from wounds that govern their lives and harmfully impact others. It explores this theme through Alma’s revelations and Frederick’s wise love and counseling.
The Q&A after the press screening
In the Q&A after the film’s press screening, Guadagnino admitted he is a provocateur, but for entertainment purposes and in a positive way. Perhaps, as an iconoclastic clown, he attempts to nudge his audiences to think after unsettling them and providing no easy answers. Indeed, the main tenor of After the Hunt appears to be his wish to provoke discussion more than to present a dialectic and conclusion. Considering his cavalier voiceover saying “cut” followed by a blackout that ends the over-two-hour film, Guadagnino suggests that the characters he set in motion will continue their duplicity and self-betrayal long after “lights out.”
After the Hunt will be released by Amazon Studios on October 10, 2025 in select theaters and everywhere on October 17, 2025. For screening information at the 63rd New York Film Festival, visit the festival website.
