The director Luca Guadagnino (Challengers and Call Me by Your Name) poses an interesting question for this reviewer with his latest film, After the Hunt. Can you enjoy a movie that you feel absolutely no connection to? Will an amazing performance by an against-type Julia Roberts help with this conundrum?

Set in the overwhelmingly pretentious world of the professorial elite of Yale, Guadagnino lays down the challenge of finding anything parallel between you and the lives of these self-ordained aristocrats. If you live in the normal world and use speech that doesn’t require a dictionary to translate, the challenge to relate becomes even more elusive.

Along the way, there are directorial and cinematic decisions that provide an even bumpier road. Quick cuts before headlines are read and dropping the ambient light to near darkness during crucial scenes keep you on your toes. And throughout all this is Roberts’ performance, a marvel of balancing repugnancy and appreciation for her flawed character. This also takes place while a masterful job of make-up and lighting ages her decades right before your eyes.

By the film’s end, the question posed at first is no closer to being answered. But hours and even days later, and having the film and its eccentricities still occupying one’s mind, then this becomes the legacy. With so much disposable art being paraded as significant, is this approach actually a bad thing?
Rob Hudson
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We’ve teamed up with Sony Pictures Australia to giveaway double in-season tickets to giveaway to After The Hunt!

From visionary filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, AFTER THE HUNT is a gripping psychological drama about a college professor (Julia Roberts) who finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when a star student (Ayo Edebiri) levels an accusation against one of her colleagues (Andrew Garfield), and a dark secret from her own past threatens to come into the light.

Starring Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Julia Roberts, Chloë Sevigny, Michael Stuhlbarg, After The Hunt will be released in Aussie cinemas October 16!
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From visionary filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, AFTER THE HUNT is a gripping psychological drama about a college professor (Julia Roberts) who finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when a star student (Ayo Edebiri) levels an accusation against one of her colleagues (Andrew Garfield), and a dark secret from her own past threatens to come into the light.

After The Hunt, only in cinemas October 16!
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From visionary filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, AFTER THE HUNT is a gripping psychological drama about a college professor (Julia Roberts) who finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when a star student (Ayo Edebiri) levels an accusation against one of her colleagues (Andrew Garfield), and a dark secret from her own past threatens to come into the light.

Starring Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Julia Roberts, Chloë Sevigny, Michael Stuhlbarg, After the Hunt will be released in Aussie cinemas this October
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Adapted from William S Burroughs’ novel of the same name and starring Daniel Craig in his stunning Golden Globe-nominated performance, this hallucinogenic odyssey bathed in desire is already one of the most talked-about films of the year.

Brilliant, challenging, and wildly audacious, Guadagnino delivers another captivating piece of cinema that offers unexpected encounters and sobering lessons.

“Soul-swellingly lush and allusive.” – The Telegraph

“Craig is simply magnificent.” – The Guardian

“A career-best from Guadagnino.” – W Magazine

Queer – Preview Screening
Fri day, 31 January @ 6.15pm
Dendy Coorparoo
www.coorparoo.dendy.com.au

Set in the vibrant yet volatile expat underworld of 1950s Mexico City, Craig stars as Lee, a disillusioned American grappling with his identity. Seeking solace in a haze of drugs and alcohol, Lee becomes infatuated with Eugene Allerton, a younger, enigmatic man who is both the object of his obsession and a mirror of his own fractured psyche. As their tenuous connection spirals into a tangled web of dependence and rejection, the film delves deeply into the complexities of desire, self-loathing, and the human need for connection.

With Guadagnino’s signature visual flair and a brilliant score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, QUEER captures the raw vulnerability of Burroughs’ prose while expanding it into a lush cinematic experience. A fearless and unrelenting look at the destructive power of love and the search for meaning in a world on the fringes, QUEER is both a gripping character study and a timeless reflection on the universal longing to be seen.

Queer will be released in Aussie cinemas February 6, 2025!
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Using the sport of tennis as a backdrop, Challengers ramps up the drama between Zendaya and her two friends Patrick Zweig played by Josh O’Connor best known as Prince Charles in the TV series The Crown and Art Donaldson (Mike Faist who played Riff in 2021’s West Side Story). The three make quite the power trio but as the story evolves and more information becomes available you realise the power is held by just one.

It’s a testament to Zendaya’s increasing skill of craft that even though her manipulations of these two boys (who never quite grown up to be adults) are complete, you still find her interesting and not so easy to dismiss outright. Her agenda is one of self-advancement and as more facts drip from the faucet you realise that she holds all of the power over these two more than willing dupes.

The sport of tennis is presented in an almost stomach-turning way as the camera is constantly in motion and supplemented by computer graphics that keep the plane of perspective ever elusive. It also successfully masks the fact that they can’t actually play world-class tennis. The film score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is forceful in the extreme. This highly stylised take on Tennis with its throbbing soundtrack gives teen angst a path to extend into young adulthood and provides another successful route for Zendaya to do her thing.
Rob Hudson
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Oscar and BAFTA nominee Guadagnino (“Call Me By Your Name”, “I Am Love”) directs from a screenplay by Justin Kuritzkes. The film is produced by Amy Pascal, Guadagnino, Zendaya and Rachel O’Connor, with Bernard Bellew serving as executive producer.

Golden Globe winner Zendaya (the “Dune” films, “Euphoria”) stars alongside Golden Globe and SAG Award winner and BAFTA nominee Josh O’Connor (“The Crown”) and BAFTA nominee Mike Faist (“West Side Story”).

Guadagnino’s creative team includes such frequent collaborators as director of photography Sayonbhu Mukdeeprom, production designer Merissa Lombardo and editor Marco Costa, as well as costume designer Jonathan Anderson. The film’s score is by Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA winners Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (“Soul”, “The Social Network”, “Bones and All”).

Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures Presents a Why Are You Acting? / Frenesy Films / Pascal Pictures Production, Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers”. The film opens in Australian cinemas 18 April, 2024 and will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.
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Married to a champion on a losing streak (Mike Faist – West Side Story), Tashi’s strategy for her husband’s redemption takes a surprising turn when he must face off against the washed-up Patrick (Josh O’Connor – The Crown) – his former best friend and Tashi’s former boyfriend.

As their pasts and presents collide, and tensions run high, Tashi must ask herself, what will it cost to win.

Challengers will be released in Aussie cinemas October 5!
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The work has some visceral thrills that are only enhanced by the element of the unknown. The first of those moments took me by complete surprise and that feeling was more than intriguing. Having no idea of where it was going from that point on was liberating.

That the filmakers were able to weave an almost touching love story into the mix following that shocking moment is a testament to the craft on display here. Those shocks are used so sparingly, their impact is never diminished. You actually have the luxury of occasionally forgetting what’s at the core of the proceedings.

Timothée Chalamet adds another chapter to his burgeoning resume of interesting roles and Taylor Russell more than holds her own. Their union is one built on the most unusual premise. If you can try to see this with no advanced knowledge the results will be intensified.
Rob Hudson

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