After the Hunt

London Film Festival Film #15

Ok, here we go. My hot take, I guess. The reactions to this film, I feel, represent the climate that we’re in politically right now. This idea that— especially on the left— if you don’t share the same opinion, completely, then your opinion is invalid.

The screenplay for this movie has a lot going on. It’s part of the problem with the film; towards the end, it tries so desperately to add more and more, to the point that it overcomplicates the plot and gets lost in its messaging. In its overcomplication, I do think it’s turning people off to the movie as a whole.

I truly thought this was a refreshing and authentic look at the impossible complications that come with, not only sexual assault allegations, but happening in a workplace and intergenerational. 

This film isn’t holding some moral superiority, dictating to you how to feel; it’s really trying to dig into the machinations of how a situation like this would be handled.

It’s balanced in the ways it wants to criticise how different generations handle dealing with sexual assault. The older generations sought to repress that emotion and internalise it for fear of what coming forward would do for their futures. The younger generations are desperate to externalise and let it be known what has happened to them.

The film is not telling you either is better or worse; it’s more so interested in playing in the middle, in looking at the conflict itself between these ideologies and the people who hold them. How do they feel about each other?

As much as it’s looking into both generations, it really is scrutinising Robert’s character’s way of dealing with things. Something which crops up in multiple areas of her life, this avoidance of causing others hassle and in turn doing herself more harm.

It’s truly fascinating to see how her destructive pattern results in the way she has ended up; it does perhaps go a little too far, which is a real shame.

In equal measure, I think Edibiri’s character is put into focus, less to scrutinise her, but more to look at the viewer’s relationships to victims of sexual assault. What happens when those victims aren’t perfect people, when they’re equally fallible? What if they also are wealthy and privileged? Do you believe them less?

There’s a really interesting line there and Edibiri plays this character so perfectly, honestly Roberts and Garfield are also incredible. She’s characterised near perfectly, she’s somebody, like many in younger generations, who is able to be so accepting yet at the same time lacking any sort of understanding for an experience which isn’t theirs.

I got a lot out of this. Really needed to be neatened up near the end as it does get so messy, to the point that I understand why people aren’t giving this time, but having sat with this, I think there’s a lot more going on.