“After The Hunt” isn’t anything short of a misunderstood masterpiece, showing the complexities of the different ways trauma is dealt with between the generations.
The movie taking place roughly around 2020, is perfect to show the victimization culture of Gen-Z. Maggie Resnick (played by Ayo Edebiri) is a young PhD student at Yale University. When the young woman of color confides in one of her closest mentors and professors, Alma Imhoff (played by Julia Roberts) with an accusation of rape done by an assistant professor, it creates a massive scandal. Maggie Resnick, levels an accusation of sexual assault against Alma’s close colleague and friend, Professor Hank Gibson (Andrew Garfield). With her professional future, her marriage to psychiatrist Frederik (Michael Stuhlbarg), and a dark secret from her own past all hanging in the balance, Alma is forced to decide where her loyalties lie.
Alma’s initial coldness toward Maggie was disheartening, her dismissive tone was a result of shock and the lack of ability to be able to process trauma. Many movie goers think this was an act of Alma being racist–while I can agree that her privilege as a White woman is shown throughout the movie, I don’t believe her character was racist. It’s discovered that years back when Alma was a teenager, she was in a relationship with someone much older. She had never processed or recognized her trauma for what it truly was… trauma. So when Maggie came to Alma for guidance, Alma didn’t see her past experience as trauma or a problem.
The film is at its best when it leans into the agonizing moral difficulty faced by Alma. Her being fronted with such a dire and moral issue is very ironic considering her field of teaching is philosophy. Roberts delivers one of her most complex and restrained performances in years, trading her characteristic smile for a mask of cool, calculating ambition and quiet panic. Alma is a fascinating observation of a professional woman who achieved success by internalizing trauma and building a fortress of rational thought, only to see it crumble under the pressure of a new generation’s demand for emotional and social justice. Garfield, too, is excellent, shifting between frantic denial and righteous rage as the accused professor. I think the director portrayed the generational gap so perfectly, in terms of dealing with trauma and problems.
“After the Hunt” is not a film seeking concrete answers or a film making fun of the “me too” movement, but more of a tragedy exploring the corrupting nature of self-preservation. It tackles the generational divide head-on, contrasting Alma’s ‘stuff it down and survive’ generation with Maggie’s ‘demand accountability’ Gen Z. But its effort is to show that everyone is flawed and every motivation is contaminated by self-interest.
I personally think that the more complicated the characters are, the better. This movie portrays humanity so perfectly especially in current times of the United States, where oftentimes young adults (like Maggie) are so struck by trauma in a time where polarization is at a high that she can’t properly process it. Same goes for Alma, but in a different sense.
I really enjoyed this film and I think it ended gracefully.
10/10! Would rewatch
