Producer Luca Guadagnino and executive producer Nora Garrett’s After the Hunt presents fascinating questions concerning cancel culture without saying anything worthwhile.
If you were to ask most people about what the Me Too movement means to them, then they’ll likely bring up the 2017 industry-wide accusations held against producer Harvey Weinstein. Rightfully so. It was the beginning of the end for a lot of sex offenders in Hollywood. Though in retrospect, some of these cases didn’t go hard enough against many entertainment figures, some of whom are still walking free.
But the hashtag #MeToo wasn’t born to specifically support women in the media. The term can be traced back to Tarana Burke, who sparked the phrase in 2006 as a means to address sexual misconduct as a survivor of assault herself. With its viralization in 2017, not only did it encourage women to speak up about their personal experiences, but, unfortunately, also ignited outrage, with many claiming the movement was being used to destroy people’s reputations. It’s a complicated, sensitive topic to discuss. One that Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino proves is even harder to dramatize with his latest, After the Hunt.
Synopsis
Alma Imhoff (Julia Roberts, Leave the World Behind) is a philosophy college professor who finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when her star pupil, Margaret “Maggie” Resnick (Ayo Edebiri, The Bear), comes forward with an accusation that could end the career of one of Imhoff’s closest colleagues, Henrik “Hank” Gibson (Andrew Garfield, We Live in Time). Resnick’s story doesn’t just put Imhoff in the position of having to support her amidst her doubts about the validity of the accusation, but it threatens to bring to light a dark secret from Imhoff’s own past.
Guadagnino’s Exploration of Love
Call Me By Your Name sees a 17-year-old boy experience love for the first time and be heartbroken by it. Suspiria, amongst the many ideas it carries, depicts the desire to belong. Bones and All is a gothic romance on the road about love literally and figuratively consuming us. Both Challengers and Queer showcase two very different examples of how destructive, intoxicating lust can shape the way we choose to live life. After the Hunt is both a continuation and a deviation from Guadagnino’s thematic thread that connects all of his work: love.
While it is not as clear as in the rest of his filmography, this thematic throughline is still present here. Our three leads have murky relationships with their friends and significant others, but the one thing that they all value with high regard is their profession. As established in the opening party at Imhoff’s home, feeling smarter than anyone else in the room brings such joy to their soul. Yet, beyond loving getting high on their own intellect, what they love is being in control.
You would think these small battles of the mind would serve as appetizers for greater conflict between Imhoff, Resnick, and Gibson. However, it’s set up for a payoff that never really comes. This is a problem because after the accusations are made, the film becomes less interested in its portrayal of self-love (for better or worse) and more intrigued with turning into a series of sketches.
Too Many Ideas, Very Little Said
Given After the Hunt’s premise, one would assume that it would give equal time to explore each character’s psyche. A film with a similar story, though with a different context, that does this rather well is Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel. In it, we switch perspectives between the abuser, the affected loved one, and the main victim. Despite this, Scott has a strong grip on what he wants to tackle: the spectacle that comes from real tragedy, to the point that it is less about justice and more about hurt egos. Unfortunately, Guadagnino never gets a hold of what he wants to say with After the Hunt.
For a film centered around Edebiri’s Resnick and Garfield’s Gibson, they’re mostly excluded from the narrative. Instead, we spend most of the runtime seeing Imhoff run in circles, debating whether she should get involved or not, while having cheeky conversations with her husband, Frederik (Michael Stuhlbarg, The Amateur), with whom she has a distant sexual relationship but a strong intellectual one. I think the best instance that showcases Guadagnino’s disinterest in the movie’s core drama comes in the form of Resnick visiting Imhoff’s home for dinner.
Here, uncomfortable with the other’s company, both attempt to talk about Resnick’s predicament. She wants to use her story to bring about change and maybe get herself to a position with more agency; Imhoff, more or less, urges her to do nothing and not let what happened to her define the rest of her life. Sounds like compelling drama, if it wasn’t for Frederik bursting through the kitchen door every 5-10 seconds to grab something he forgot, and the loud music playing in the room next door, which obscures the dialogue.
The movie wants to have its cake and eat it, too. It wants to take itself seriously, but simultaneously poke fun at Gen-Z and their need to highlight anything that could be remotely offensive. Now, it’s not impossible to balance these two views. Ari Aster was somewhat successful at this with Eddington, or at the very least had a clearer vision for its stance satirizing both sides of the political spectrum. Paul Thomas Anderson excelled at doing a similar thing with One Battle After Another. The issue here is not having a difference in tone; it is avoiding engaging in a meaningful way with the themes that the script introduces.
Absent Guadagnino Flair
After the Hunt doesn’t do itself any favors by not injecting much of Luca Guadagnino’s style. I am not looking to call Malik Hassan Sayeed’s photography work ugly. It’s far from that, but it lacks the energy most of the director’s work has. Italy is as much of a character in Call Me By Your Name as Elio or Oliver. Shots of the scenery—let it be lakes, waterfalls, peaches, or blue skies—help romanticize the coming-of-age tale. The way Challengers is edited sells the fast-paced, passionate love affair of the characters, just as Zendaya’s Tashi describes what it feels like to watch a tennis match in real time. Queer’s psychedelic visuals put us in Daniel Craig’s state of being lost in someone else and becoming addicted to them.
None of that is present in After the Hunt. The locations our roster of characters navigate through tend to be gray and boring. Perhaps that’s supposed to comment on their stale inner selves, but if that’s the case, then it’s rather uninspired. Music composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross consistently deliver great work. Still, their score here tends to distract more than immerse. A lot of it feels sonically and visually disconnected, and I can’t help but look at Guadagnino’s poor handling of After the Hunt’s sensitive topic at heart as the cause for the rest of the film feeling disjointed.
Final Thoughts on Luca Guadagnino and Nora Garrett’s After the Hunt
Pains me to say I’ve been disappointed by a Luca Guadagnino picture. Sure thing, Julia Roberts is magnificent. Easily the best work she’s put out in years. Ayo Edebiri and Andrew Garfield desperately attempt to leave their marks whenever the film remembers their presence in all of this. But by the time After the Hunt reaches its climax and reveals what Imhoff has been hiding and how it relates to Resnick’s current status in society, it all feels hollow. Any possible route the movie could take to explore its intricate themes is instantly ignored for a bit. Good bits in their own right. However, for a film discussing deception and truth in regards to the Me Too movement, most of it comes off, ironically, as self-centered as its leads.
Luca Guadagnino and Nora Garrett’s After the Hunt comes to theaters this Friday, October 10th!
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