In the 2025 After the Hunt, a black college student from a rich family (Ayo Edebiri) informs a female professor (Julia Roberts) that she was sexually assaulted by a male friend and colleague of the professor (Andrew Garfield). The directing—by Luca Guadagnino—and the acting succeed, but the film is not only sober but sodden, with a less than sensible screenplay.

Not that it’s uninteresting, though. The film asks what is and what isn’t reality in a society with ignorant “radicalism,” naughty intellectuals, identity politics, and malcontent. It seems appropriate for there to be the artifice of someone yelling “Cut” at the end of ATH‘s last mise en scene. But, for sure, this isn’t a movie about moviemaking.