After the Hunt premiered at the Venice Film Festival and reportedly received a six-minute ovation but drew mixed critical reactions. The story follows Yale professor Alma (Julia Roberts) whose promising career is threatened by a scandal involving colleague Hank (Andrew Garfield). The cast also includes Ayo Edebiri, Chloë Sevigny, Michael Stuhlbarg and trans actor Lio Mehiel. Some reviewers praised Alma's complexity and hailed Roberts' portrayal as her strongest since 2004's Closer, calling the film a smart, keenly observed and arresting psychodrama. Other critics found the film dour, airless or a jumble that the cast could not save, while still noting Roberts' bold, villainous transformation.
"The complexity of Alma as a character is pure Guadagnino, a natural fit into a cinematic body of work defined by the prospect of voracious hunger, and offers Roberts her best role since 2004's Closer." The film contains a "smart, keenly observed and undoubtedly thorny power play" in what is "an arresting psychodrama", Strong added.
"It seems almost implausible that the gifted filmmaker who just gave us the sizzling buoyancy of Challengers and the heady intoxication of Queer could deliver something so dour and airless."
And British Vogue's Radhika Seth called the film a "jumble that this impressive cast can't save", although she did say of Roberts: "It's a joy to see her throw caution to the wind and morph into a terrifying, no-holds-barred villain."
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