Julia Roberts in a psychological thriller: what could be better? I approve of Julia Roberts in just about anything else. But in AFTER THE HUNT she is wasted, as is the viewer's time. BBC called it "more of an admirable project than an engaging drama. " And that is being kind. Roberts plays a professor of philosophy, at Yale, on the edge of receiving tenure. The stakes are rather low for something marketed as a "thriller": will a #MeToo scandal keep her outside of the magic threshold of academic tenure? I'll spoil it for you (no harm done, I assure you!), the answer is "yes," at least for a period of five years. The implication of the final scene -- a flash-forward -- seems to be that her character, Alma, has recovered her upward path five years after the events displayed in the main narrative line. Back to the mainline. The harassment scandal involves Alma's Platonic but flirtatious man friend, Hank, who is also a candidate for tenure...
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I have seen some of the recently released movies, among them "Money Monster" with George Clooney and Julia Roberts. I will resume this blog's intermittent relationship with popular culture by telling you something about this one. Clooney plays the host of the eponymous television show, one based loosely on Jim Cramer's show, "Mad Money." Jim Cramer has been accused of using that program to pump the stocks of some of his Wall Street buddies for them. In fact, former Daily Show host Jon Stewart expressed this opinion in a much-remarked-upon exchange with Cramer. I'm working from memory here, but IIRC Stewart said "I want a smart guy like Jim Cramer to help protect me from ... guys like Jim Cramer!" Clooney's character is all moral ambivalence in the way Stewart's comment suggests. He has the gift for gab more than he has any acute sense of the markets, and he's putting on a show about money in a way that might lead some poo...