Dir/ Luca Guadagnino | US Drama 2025 141’
In this exasperating psychodrama Julia Roberts is a Yale professor, but looks every bit the Hollywood star that she still is, although light years away from the crowd -pleasing female from Pretty Woman.
Immaculately styled in every shot: hair blowed dried to within an inch of its life; black nail varnish, white jeans and flat brogues. The golden tan is fading as illness frays her perfect composure – yet even in the vomiting shots Alma makes sure to look stylish with pretentious hand gestures as she swings her honey blonde locks clear of the loo.
Professor Alma Imhoff (Roberts) holds court in the philosophy department at Yale University. We first meet her hosting an ‘at home’ to a bunch of students:, Maggie (Ayo Edebiri), whose billionaire parents have funded a new wing; Hank (Andrew Garfield) a careworn professor (who is vying for the same tenure position as Alma); Kim (Chloe Sevigny) a bookish MD; and Alma’s long-suffering husband – a shrink (Michael Stuhlbarg) who administers her pills each morning and plays loud classical throughout their house and probably the reason why the two have not been ‘intimate’ (as he puts it) for some time.
The film is scripted by Nora Garrett in a weighty pretentious style befitting the academic milieu. But the clever repartee is difficult to hear above an unbearably overbearing score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. that dominates each scene.
Over wine, whisky and cigarettes – and there’s always plenty of that – the debate centres on modern modes of behaviour in this privileged environment. Maggie, a black lesbian, is clearly drawn to Alma who encourages her dissertation about morals in the current climate but keeps the young woman at arms length. Michael has a dim view of Maggie’s vapid talents and makes this clear on every occasion particularly over another, more intimate, get together at their stylish apartment where he turns up the music and belittles Maggie’s intellect
As accusations fly backwards and forwards in the cloistered corridors of the storied university Maggie launches her own attack on Hank and draws Alma into the intrigue providing the film with its twist: did he or didn’t he? Hank then accuses the girl of plagiarism. And this (and other salacious plot lines) becomes the driving force behind this loud and laborious character drama that would be so much more enjoyable without the constant ambient noise.
Guadagnino pushes all the buttons. This is by no means a comfortable film to watch, nor are any of the characters appealing, either to each other or to the audience but there’s a bracing candidness to Alma’s pragmatism, and that is to be applauded. MeredithTaylor.
NOW SCREENING BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL 2025