Luca Guadagnino’s After The Hunt is a sublime study of a complicated post-#MeToo world for women.

The film centres around two women, played by Julia Roberts and The Bear‘s Ayo Edebiri, who find themselves at opposing ends of the “believe women” narrative when student Maggie (Edebiri) is assaulted by her professor (Garfield). When she confides in Roberts’ Alma – also a professor pursuing her dream of tenure – her instinct to believe, support and empower a fellow woman is called into question, particularly if it affects her own social standing and career.

The grounding of a #MeToo story within a misogynistic institution – in this case, education – exposes the fragility behind the idea of ‘women believing women’; how do women and survivors navigate such male-dominated spaces? Especially when the system encourages playing a “man’s game” to get ahead and protect your reputation.

Yannis Drakoulidis

The film also explores how privilege influences our perceptions of success and victimhood, as well as the discourse around cancel culture and generation gaps regarding attitudes towards inclusivity.

Andrew Garfield truly unleashes a dark side to his acting, a gorgeous contrast to his on-screen ‘Good Guy’ appearances in The Amazing Spider-Man and We Live In Time. His description of #MeToo as “a shallow cultural moment” perfectly encapsulates the behaviour of so many men accused of assault, as well as pervasive attitudes that seem to still exist in the discourse today.

At the film’s Venice Film Festival premiere, an Italian journalist targeted a question about both Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements being “done” at Julia and Andrew specifically, seemingly snubbing Edebiri from airing her views on both matters. She also asked, “If we lost something with the politically correct era?”

“I don’t think it’s done, I don’t think it’s done at all,” Ayo interjected at the time in reference to both the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter campaigns. “Hashtags might not be used as much, but I do think that there’s work being done by activists, by people every day, that’s beautiful, important work. That’s not finished, that’s really, really active for a reason because this world’s really charged. And that work isn’t finished at all.” Her response quickly went viral, quickly providing proof that neither movement was ”done”, and both are rightly explored in the film.

Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios