
2025 · Luca Guadagnino
How After the Hunt has been received, argued over, and remembered.
Premiered at Venice 2025 to a six-minute ovation in the room and a critical brawl outside it — reviews were sharply mixed and the early Julia Roberts awards buzz fizzled. Since then it's settled into 'divisive Guadagnino entry' status, with a vocal minority insisting everyone watched it wrong.
Is it a muddled, both-sides #MeToo drama with nothing to say — or a sly comedy of manners *about* people who have nothing to say and perform their politics anyway?
The opening credits — Windsor font, alphabetical cast, old jazz standard, i.e. the full Woody Allen package on a #MeToo movie — instantly became the film's most argued-about gesture, a deliberate art-vs-artist provocation before a single scene plays.
Currently filed by many cinephiles as lesser Guadagnino and a 'discourse film' punching bag, but its defenders treat it as a misread satire waiting for reappraisal.
Influences Luca Guadagnino has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.