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Movie Name: After the Hunt
Directed by: Luca Guadagnino
Starring: Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg, Chloë Sevigny, Lío Mehiel, Ariyan Kassam, Will Price, Thaddea Graham, Christine Dye, Burgess Byrd
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Running Time: 140 Minutes
Release Date: October 10, 2025
Rating:
Languages: English
Production House: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Imagine Entertainment, Frenesy Film Company, Big Indie Pictures
Budget: $ – million
A college professor finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when a star pupil levels an accusation against one of her colleagues and a dark secret from her own past threatens to come to light.
After the Hunt: Overview
After the Hunt is an upcoming thriller film directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Nora Garrett. It stars Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Chloë Sevigny.
A college professor is forced to grapple with her own secretive past after one of her colleagues is faced with a serious accusation.
In March 2024, it was announced that Julia Roberts was set to star in the film, with Luca Guadagnino set to direct. In May, Andrew Garfield and Ayo Edebiri joined the cast, Garfield desired to work with Guadagnino since the release of I Am Love. In June, Michael Stuhlbarg and Chloë Sevigny joined the cast. Guadagnino cast Edebiri after seeing her in Bottoms (2023).
Principal photography began in London and Cambridge University on July 6, 2024. That same month, Lio Mehiel, Thaddea Graham, Will Price, Christine Dye, and Burgess Byrd joined the cast of the film. Filming wrapped on August 16, after 6 weeks of shooting. Cinematographer Malik Hassan Sayeed shot the project on 35mm film, marking his return to a feature film production after 25 years. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross composed the score.
After the Hunt is scheduled to open in limited release in the United States on October 10, 2025, before expanding to wide release on October 17. It will be the first film from Amazon MGM Studios to be released internationally by Sony Pictures Releasing International following the conclusion of a four-year deal with Warner Bros. Pictures.
After the Hunt: Movie Trailer
Movie Review:
Julia Roberts does her best to uplift Luca Guadagnino’s cold, confused campus drama
Story:
A college professor is pulled into a campus scandal when a star student accuses her longtime colleague of ‘crossing the line,’ forcing her to choose between loyalty and truth.
Review:
Luca Guadagnino’s ‘After the Hunt’ stumbles with an overlong, overwrought post-#MeToo campus drama that never finds its emotional centre. While Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, and Michael Stuhlbarg deliver convincing performances, the plot remains muddled and undercooked. By the time it reaches its final confrontation, the narrative’s tension dissolves into an inert, anticlimactic conclusion, raising questions about the point of this patience-testing exercise.
‘After the Hunt’ opens at a house party hosted by Alma (Julia Roberts), a guarded Yale philosophy professor whose gatherings mix sharp debate with uneasy charm. Her colleague Hank (Andrew Garfield) banters with students and with Alma, both pretending their friendship won’t affect their bid for tenure. He also needles PhD student Maggie (Ayo Edebiri) about her dissertation, triggering a clash between Gen Z’s precise language and the older crowd’s broad claims. Alma’s husband, Frederik (Michael Stuhlbarg), grows uneasy about her bond with Hank and Maggie’s clear admiration, while campus therapist Dr. Kim (Chloe Sevigny) quietly studies the room. The night ends with a drunk Hank walking Maggie home, a moment Alma witnesses before falling ill. By morning, Maggie is missing and later returns shaken, accusing Hank of crossing a line. Both seek Alma’s support, forcing her into a fog of doubt, bias, and shifting power.
Guadagnino and writer Nora Garrett overload the script with too many elements—toxic masculinity, anti-woke sceptics, complicit enablers, brittle institutional figures, and hypersensitive Gen Z voices—creating a cluttered backdrop for a simple “he said, she said” drama. Alma, dressed throughout like a corporate HR executive against snowy Ivy League landscapes, is tasked with choosing a side while navigating Maggie’s fixation on her reaction. Yet her inner life and unaddressed past feel like afterthoughts despite their relevance to the story.
Her passive marriage serves as her only stabilising force, but her relationships with every character remain surface-level. The film repeatedly signals that Alma will soon be judged—underscored by an intrusive ticking-clock score—yet the payoff is unsatisfying. Maggie comes across as confused, opinionated, and clearly privileged, but her vulnerability never fully resonates, making empathy difficult. The two central men are imperfect opposites: Hank is suave and unapologetically masculine, while Frederik is meek but perceptive. Both function more as narrative devices than fully formed characters. Yale is filmed with an indulgent yet cold aesthetic; the bleakness may be intentional but ultimately weighs down the film.
Julia Roberts is competent but emotionally distant, and her performance ultimately feels under-sharpened. Stuhlbarg and Garfield elevate thinly written roles, playing articulate but flawed men with finesse. Edebiri is deliberately provocative and convincing. With no character serving as a moral compass, everyone feels adrift. The strong performances make the film watchable, but the lack of emotional clarity means it never quite settles into a place that feels truly grounded. It’s as if the actors are nudging at ideas, but the script doesn’t let them dig in where it matters.
The film navigates murky questions of truth, consent, institutional power, Gen Z’s layered understanding of abuse, and the distorted dynamics of race and gender, all framed through the generational divide in how women respond to misconduct. This film may appeal to viewers invested in #MeToo-related conversations but offers little satisfaction as a dramatic experience. For a more rewarding exploration of similar themes, watch David Mamet’s ‘Oleanna’ instead.
