{"id":32282,"date":"2025-10-17T16:26:39","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T23:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=32282"},"modified":"2025-10-17T16:26:39","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T23:26:39","slug":"after-the-hunt-is-a-provocative-and-polarizing-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=32282","title":{"rendered":"AFTER THE HUNT is a Provocative and Polarizing Drama"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/24_0008_B-merged.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10620\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Running Time: 139 minutes<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>This feature from Amazon MGM Studios opens nationwide in\ntheaters on October 17<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For years now, Italian Luca Guadagnino has been making\nunique pictures that deal with difficult and polarizing subject matter. The\ncharacters tend to possess shades of gray, rather than existing as simply good\nor bad. For me, some of his titles have worked better than others, but the\nfilmmaker always offers something interesting that is always worthy of\ndiscussion and thought. His latest is <em>After the Hunt<\/em>, which has both\nimpressed and enraged many reviewers in this part of the world (the intense\nreaction is one that, in a strange way, I think he should take as a\ncompliment).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/After-the-Hunt-02-fixed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-32284\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alma Imhoff (Julia Roberts) is a Yale philosophy professor\nup for tenure, competing with friend and fellow prof Henrik \u2018Hank\u201d Gibson\n(Andrew Garfield). As witnessed at an early party scene, the latter enjoys\nprovoking and testing others and provoking them about their beliefs. This\nincludes Alma\u2019s favorite grad student, Margaret Resnick (Ayo Edebiri), who is\nthe daughter of one of the university\u2019s biggest benefactors. The next day,\nMargaret confides in Alma that she was assaulted by Hank after the previous\nnight\u2019s events. The professor is stunned, unsure of how to proceed, especially\ngiven that she has known the accused for many years. When Alma hesitates to\nsupport her, Margaret exerts pressure on her teacher. Stress and emotions\nultimately run high for Alma as past secrets come to light. This also causes\nstrain on relationships with her husband Frederik (Micheal Stuhlbarg) and\ncoworker Dr. Kim Sayers (Chloe Sevigny).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/After-the-Hunt-01-fixed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-32286\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The film has been sold to some degree as a thriller, but I\nwouldn\u2019t describe it as one. This is a drama that is largely filled with\ndiscussions and dialogue between deeply flawed characters. Nobody here is\nheroic and many lash out and react poorly. But this does allow for a wonderful\nand complex performance from Julia Roberts. She is fantastic in the movie, as\nthe teacher is forced to deal with being caught in the middle of two\nconflicting versions of events. It ends up affecting her life, causing an old\naddiction to resurface and forcing her to deal head-on with a significant event\nfrom her past. This isn\u2019t a sweet or even noble character, but she is\ncompelling from beginning to end. The other central characters are all solid as\nwell, with Stuhlbarg again making an impression as a put-upon spouse, offering\nadvice that is frequently ignored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/After-the-Hunt-03-fixed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-32285\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the performances are impressive, a frustrating aspect\nof the screenplay is that, perhaps to maximize drama in the story, the\ndecisions the characters make are continuously poor. One bad decision follows\nanother, with Hank lashing out verbally instead of trying to present himself in\na calm manner, and Margaret (who may have plagiarized her thesis) appearing to\nmanipulate others for more than simply finding justice. It does feel like the\nscript is forcing some of this conflict and I imagine the behavior shown has\nbeen what outrages some. But one could convincingly argue that when these\nthings occur in real life, some do respond in a self-destructive manner.\nAnother issue is with the score. It literally ticks at times and while one\nadmires the experimental sound choices, they can be distracting and take one\nout of the moment. Additionally, the finale seems too low-key, considering the\nextremes these characters were going through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Having said all that, I still liked the picture. The characters are not movie archetypes, including several troubled individuals coming to terms with their acts and misdeeds while being forced to make rash decisions. Some of it is exaggerated and one can argue about the meaning (which I think was the point) but the result is a story that keeps one engaged and ignores a response. The acting is exceptional, presenting trials that fallible people endure after a terrible event. Like its characters, <em>After the Hunt<\/em> doesn\u2019t aim to please, but does make an impact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Running Time: 139 minutes This feature from Amazon MGM Studios opens nationwide in theaters on October 17th. For years now, Italian Luca Guadagnino has been making unique pictures that deal with difficult and polarizing subject matter. The characters tend to possess shades of gray, rather than existing as simply good or bad. For me, some [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":32283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[216,818,819,820,821,1180,1380,2120,6251,11135,12740],"class_list":["post-32282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-216","tag-after-the-hunt","tag-after-the-hunt-film-review","tag-after-the-hunt-movie-review","tag-after-the-hunt-review","tag-amazon-mgm-studios","tag-andrew-garfield","tag-ayo-edebiri","tag-drama","tag-julia-roberts","tag-luca-gaudagnino"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}