In his razor-sharp new drama, the prolific Luca Guadagnino (CHALLENGERS, CALL ME BY YOUR NAME) plunges with refreshing abandon into the murky seas of contemporary morality — and gives Julia Roberts one of the most complex and gratifying starring roles of her career. Roberts embodies chilly, seemingly self-assured Yale philosophy professor Alma Olsson, whose comfortable professional career and domestic life with her mercurial husband Frederik (Michael Stuhlbarg) are thrown into chaos after her PhD candidate protégée Maggie (Ayo Edebiri) accuses Alma’s longtime colleague and friend Hank (Andrew Garfield) of sexual assault. As a result, the air of rarefied academic privilege on campus begins to dissolve, and Alma must navigate minefields of gender, sexuality, race, and institutional power — all while trying to reconcile her own difficult choices with the demons of her past. From a trenchant, tightly plotted script by Nora Garrett, and with the aid of a sensational cast (also including Chloë Sevigny as Kim, a colleague of Alma’s), Guadagnino teases out a genuine provocation with no easy answers — inquiring where our true selves lie when every decision we make is thrown into the court of public opinion. (Synopsis from the 63rd New York Film Festival)
“The performances throughout are immense…. This will be, no question, Roberts’s fifth Oscar nomination, and likely second win. Guadagnino is also on the form of his life, directing with assured style and structure, and offering a lovely closing device that asks us to relax, calm down and remember that it’s all just playtime.” —Kevin Maher, The Times “The complexity of Alma as a character is pure Guadagnino, a natural fit into a cinematic body of work defined by the prospect of voracious hunger, and offers Roberts her best role since 2004’s closer. She’s icy and impervious – the sort of glamorous college professor that makes students sit up straighter in class – and Roberts, regal and just a little wretched, has something to sink her teeth into.” —Hannah Strong, Little White Lies “It’s a film that prowls around with blood in its nostrils, watching us as intently as we watch it, and waiting for just the right moment to strike.” —Robbie Collins, The Telegraph “With this performance, Roberts further proves that she’s one of our best. She and the camera are old friends who’ve known each other for decades, and Roberts knows exactly how to work with it in a way that conveys her character’s inner life, even when Alma wouldn’t want anyone to know what she’s thinking or feeling. For Roberts, it’s a high-water mark in a career of exceptional screen work.” —Cody Derricks, Next Best Picture
