Julia Roberts stars as Alma in “After the Hunt,” from Amazon MGM Studios. (Yannis Drakoulidis/Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios © 2025 Amazon Content Services LLC)
Director Luca Guadagnino’s new thriller “After the Hunt” written by Nora Garrett, is full of hushed, dark secrets and loud accusations. Mixed with a star-studded cast and a healthy dose of betrayal, this movie does exactly what main character Alma Olsson says: “Not everything is supposed to make you comfortable.”
The story surrounds two ostentatious Yale philosophy professors, Alma Olsson, played by Julia Roberts and Henrik “Hank” Gibson, played by Andrew Garfield. One mostly, star student named Maggie Price, is played by Ayo Edebiri. Despite the fact that Alma is married and that both she and Hank are in competition for a promotion, the two are overly comfortable with each other.
In her classroom, Alma is intense and cold but extremely knowledgeable. Outside the classroom, not much is different. Although Alma is Maggie’s mentor and has visited Alma’s home for academic parties, she knows very little about her professor’s life.
When Maggie shares that Hank sexually assaulted her while walking her home one night, Alma reacts with a stone-cold stare and tries to downplay Maggie’s accusation. Alma now faces the difficult decision of supporting a fellow woman’s accusations or the innocent claim of a dear and trusted friend.
“After the Hunt” opens in U.S. theaters Oct. 17, but the International Film Series at the University of Colorado Boulder screened the movie on Oct.10.
Aoife Sullivan, a first year media studies student at CU Boulder and Guadagnino enthusiast attended the advanced screening. Although Sullivan found the script lacking in accomplishing any real commentary on the film’s complex topics, she was able to appreciate Guadagnino’s classic stylistic choices.
In a college roundtable, Edebiri spoke to the intentionality she observed through Guadagnino’s world building while working on the film.
“Everything from the art that’s hanging, you know, on the walls or a statue that there’s going to be a closeup of, to what we’re doing with our hands, it’s considered and it’s in consideration, it’s in conversation. And there is an active thought behind it and reason behind it,” Edebiri said.
The scene that Sullivan was most entranced by was a conversation between Alma and Hank in a restaurant where the walls were covered by mirrors. She said that she could clearly feel Guadagnino’s vision of this scene and his intention behind the restaurant’s reflective interior.
“It was obviously this (was a) moment of self reflection,” Sullivan said. “How (Alma) was listening to this story being told, and then also looking at herself in the mirror at the same time, because we find out that she went through a similar thing.”
Ayo Edebiri as Maggie and Julia Roberts in “After the Hunt,” from Amazon MGM Studios. (Yannis Drakoulidis/Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios © 2025 Amazon Content Services LLC)
While the storyline does not move very quickly, allowing viewers to sit with the pressure of the films moments, power dynamics between Alma, Maggie and Hank fluctuate rapidly. While the film sets up a strong teacher-student relationship with all three characters seemingly close to each other, Maggie’s accusation quickly puts her in a position of power over Hank. Guadagnino said that the visual relationships in the film often juxtaposed what was really going on.
“They’re really nonjudgmental about the dynamics that can happen between each other. Like at the dinner in the beginning, you see Hank and Alma being very intimate with one another in front of the husband, and nobody cares about that,” Guadagnino said. “But then, in fact, all these people are isolated in their own individuality and in their pursuit of affirmation of self somehow, finding the way to get what they want.”
All three lead actors, Roberts, Edebiri and Garfield, have historically played lovable, joyful characters. But “After the Hunt” shows a very different side of each actor. Roberts said that portraying a very guarded character like Alma and keeping track of all of her secrets was exhausting.
“I enjoyed every minute of it, but yeah, it was nice to go home and just pack that away and go to bed,” Roberts said.
Seeing Garfield, known for roles like Peter Parker in Marvel’s “Spiderman”, in a villan role was an interesting choice, Sullivan said.
Garfield addressed this new side of his acting in the roundtable, citing his trust in Guadagnino as his motivation.
“I relished the opportunity to jump into this with him and to this character, knowing that it was quite scary, personally,” Garfield said.
Every minute of “After the Hunt” is filled with suspense and tension. When asked about how this feeling was captured, Garfield cited Guadagnino’s unique filming method and expectations on set.
“He shoots on film and it makes things sacred,” Garfield said. “It makes the space between action and cut a beautiful kind of pressure on a piece of coal.”
While every character in this film was morally compromised and there was no clear hero, Sullivan found it easiest to support Edebiri’s character, Maggie. She said much of her reasoning rooted back to both her and Maggie being students on college campuses. Maggie showed the reality of college students: not star pupils, but trying nonetheless.
“There were a lot of things to judge about her,” Sullivan said. “But, everyone is morally flawed in some ways. So I think there was a bit of comfort in seeing she’s struggling too.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Addisson Pribble at addisson.pribble@colorado.edu.
