Luca Guadagnino’s films have always included edgy, provocative sexual situations. Take “Call Me By Your Name” (2017), “Challengers” (2024) or “Queer” (2024). Even his ventures into the strange – “Suspiria” (2018) or “Bones and All” (2022) – are driven by primal lusts filmed in a way that can border on erotica. Guadagnino’s latest, “After the Hunt,” deals with the politics of sex and ethical morality in higher education.
The film opens with a holiday party at the cozy apartment of a tenured Yale English professor (Julia Roberts). The camera meanders from the warmth of the fireplace and into the stately den where faculty and grad students engage in boozy intellectual debate. Robert’s Alma is the clear queen of the ball (it’s her house). Her suck-ups include fellow lit prof Hank (Andrew Garfield, “The Social Network”) and doctoral candidate Maggie (Dorchester’s Ayo Edebiri, “The Bear”). Hank’s waiting to hear if he’s been awarded tenure; Maggie comes from an uber rich family that has given generously to the school. It’s all a raucous who’s-smarter-than-who fun time until Hank walks Maggie home and accusations of sexual misconduct are leveled.
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If you’re wondering if any of this seeming free associations has a payoff, it does – sort of – as “Little Pink House” shares the trappings of “Erin Brockovich,” another true-life tale about an iron-willed woman who fights the good fight, taking on bureaucracy and big money against all odds. That 2000 film garnered Roberts a Best Actor Oscar. 
For What it's Worth 