After The Hunt is an expert experience of dysfunctional dullness.
It mostly centres around philosophy lecturer Alma (Julia Roberts– Leave The World Behind), teaching at Yale University and giving boring dinner parties, alongside colleague Hank (Andrew Garfield – We Live In Time), her husband, Frederik (Michael Stuhlbarg – The Amateur), and a number of her students including Maggie (Ayo Edebiri – Opus).
Somehow, no-one dies from ennui at these dos, but soon after, Maggie tells Alma she’s been assaulted by Hank – who later denies it, but then we never get to see what happened on the night when they left that party together.
This rather puts Alma in a quandry, as she feels caught in the middle, given her history of supporting women, but then Hank’s also a good friend. Phone calls are ignored, someone might go to the press over it, and there’s a strange scene where Maggie goes to use the toilet at the aforementioned party, has a nosey inside the bathroom cabinets, finds a letter with money in it, steals that and puts it back.
I’ve no idea why this was part of the plot as it was a red herring that they never come back to, apart from a brief moment that is shown but still doesn’t justify its inclusion.
Beyond that, After The Hunt is like watching a very dull and po-faced play up on the big screen. A complete waste of everyone’s time. I had that feeling anyway, as I’ve had the same thought following watching previous films from Luca Guadagnino, namely, Queer, Challengers, Call Me By Your Name and A Bigger Splash.
Even more ridiculous… and spoiler included in the next bit…
The film also features a ‘they’. Good for they.
Finally, out of the four films I saw in one day, THREE of them didn’t bother with any trailers before the film. I have to say I made that assumption for After The Hunt, since I came into the auditorium at 1.07pm, expecting the usual 20 minutes of junk beforehand, but it had already started! I knew there was a print online (sorry, not sorry), and given that it’d be a long film, I also had to pay a visit about an hour in.
Even after that, I still felt like I’d missed nothing at all, but when I got home, I checked the sections I’d missed (including about two minutes at the start)… and I was right. I’d missed NOTHING of the plot whatsoever. This could all have been done and dusted in 100 minutes, not nearly 50% longer.
NOTE: There are no mid, nor post-credits scenes.
After The Hunt is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 139 minutes
Release date: October 17th 2025
Studio: Amazon MGM Studios
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 0/10
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Producers: Jeb Brody, Brian Grazer, Luca Guadagnino, Allan Mandelbaum
Music: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
Screenplay: Nora Garrett
Cast:
Alma: Julia Roberts
Maggie: Ayo Edebiri
Hank: Andrew Garfield
Frederik: Michael Stuhlbarg
Dr. Kim Sayers: Chloë Sevigny
Alex: Lío Mehiel
Dean RJ Thomas: David Leiber
Katie: Thaddea Graham
Arthur: Will Price
Patricia: Christine Dye
Faviola: Lailani Olan
Billie: Nora Garrett
Wendy: Frankie Ferrari
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.