Were it not for the star power of Julia Roberts and the superb camera work of Cinematographer Malik Hassan Sayeed and the set design team led by Anthony Caron-Delon, Luca Guadagnino’s After The Hunt would be an extremely uncomfortable film to watch. The psychological thriller was the Opening Night offering at the 63rd New York Film Festival. The Amazon MGM Studios production hits U.S. Theatres October 17.

After The Hunt touches upon all of the prickly pear subjects that dog each of us in society on a near-daily basis; cancel culture, sexual abuse and the dynamics of dominance and consent in both the workplace and in interpersonal relationships. There’s a board room scene midway in the film that could have occured at virtually any major corporation in the country at any given moment.

 Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s deft musical score accurately portrays the ticking time bomb that underlies the plot lines of this masterful script by first- time screenwriter Nora Garrett. She crafts the storyline of After The Hunt to unfold like the intricate inner workings of a Swiss watch.

American actor Michael Stuhlbarg (Hitchcock 2012, Trumbo 2015) is Imhoff’s long-suffering, but devoted husband Frederik, who loves her despite her infidelity and persistent indifference. (“We haven’t been intimate in months,’ he moans while clinging to her in a moment of despair.)

Set in the rarified world of academia, After The Hunt unfolds at Yale University. From the outset, the film makes it a point to emphasize the deceptively cozy, cocoon-like comfort of the world of academia with its dark mahogany wood paneled rooms, lined with bookshelves containing ancient tomes, Persian rugged floors and comfy overstuffed sofas straight from the Baker showroom at the Merchandise Mart. Although ostensibly set at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut, ‘Hunt’ was actually filmed at a British University, which accounts for the overall feel of the production. 

Roberts plays philosophy professor Alma Imhoff (I love the name, as it speaks to the paradox of her own character and the dichotomy and contradictions inherent in the plot of the film. The name Alma means ‘soul’ in Spanish and the Germanic-sounding, didactic name of Imhoff alludes to the philosophers (Hegel and Kierkegaard, among others) that she and her colleagues both teach and endlessly debate, as in the very first scene which sets up the entire premise of the film.

Alma’s colleague (and former lover) fellow untenured professor Harry (Henrik) Gibson, played with smoldering intensity by Andrew Garfield, finds himself in hot water after an accusation of sexual abuse by his star student, PhD candidate Maggie Price (Ayo Edebini) who, coincidentally, is involved in a relationship with a non-binary partner while also harboring feelings for Professor Alma. 

Maggie also has a proclivity for snooping into the affairs of others and uncovers a secret that could potentially compromise professor Imhoff and undermine her chances for much-coveted tenure at the university. It is a plot twist reminiscent of Hitchcock, but with a distinctly modern bent.

“You have a character that is in conflict with herself, characters in conflict with each other, and characters in conflict with the world around them,” screenwriter Garrett pointed out in a post-screening interview with NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim and other cast members, including Roberts at Film At Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theatre. 

Among the other thorny topics explored in the film is the implications of the ‘Me Too” generation as seen through the eyes of Gen Y’s Imhoff and Gen Z’s Price. “Life isn’t intended to be comfortable like a warm bath,” Alma counsels her young would-be protege and unwanted admirer.

After The Hunt opens in Theatres everywhere October 17. From Amazon MGM Studios, the film opened the 63rd New York Film Festival, which continues through October 13. For more, visit filmlinc.com.