The latest film from the director of Call Me by Your Name, Luca Guadagnino, begins with credits unmistakably modelled on the font and spacing used by Woody Allen over the past 40 years. You could, maybe, place After the Hunt in the same school as more sober Allen work such as the serious bits of Crimes and Misdemeanours. But it is not close enough to justify that degree of homage. Less witty. Heavier on its feet.
It transpires, as the director explained, this was “an interesting nod to thinking of an artist who has been, in a way, facing some sort of problems about his being”.
So, it’s as much about Woody Allen the man as Woody Allen the artist. Like almost everything else in this campus drama, which rests on an accusation of rape against a gay student of colour, the title gag can be seen as a massive troll.
If you are annoyed by After the Hunt you have fallen into his trap, you right-wing, left-wing, wokeish Maga worshipper (delete where appropriate).
After the Hunt review: This campus drama makes ill use of some very fine actors
Colin Farrell happily embraces his inner loser like no other leading man ever
Souleymane’s Story: A powerful and moving chronicle of life on the margins
Brendan Gleeson: ‘I got very tired of watching fatherhood portrayed as something that was almost an abuse’
The problem with all this is that, since its underwhelming premiere at the Venice International Film Festival, the film has been annoying critics for all the wrong reasons. It’s a sloppy, unfocused potage that makes ill use of some very fine actors.
We begin with a conversation at a gathering of Yale academics – astonishingly, the real university’s name appears throughout – that may or may not be intended satirically. Perhaps Guadagnino thinks such people really do talk in such artificial cadences.
Anyway, we soon learn that Alma (Julia Roberts) is in competition for tenure with her rival, and friend, Hank (Andrew Garfield).
He is convinced she will get the job because “the common enemy has been chosen and it’s the straight, white, cis male”.
On the way back from the party, Hank allegedly assaults a black student, Maggie (Ayo Edebiri). Before long, he is out the door. The noise of a constantly ticking clock fails to ratchet up the tension.
To be fair, it would be hard to guess where this all leads. Less because Nora Garrett’s script is inventive than because it makes no psychological sense whatsoever. Nor does it take a stand.
Every scene, like the effusions of the worst social-media bore, dares different bits of the audience to get righteously furious. Few will be minded to bother.
After the Hunt is released on Wednesday, October 22nd
