The Importance of Distinguishing Between #MeToo and Cancel Culture, or the Interpretative Stakes of Tár and After The Hunt A Tár és a Vadászat után interpretációs tétjei

Abstract

The study argues that the films Tár (2022) and After the Hunt (2025) repesent a new type of subgroup within the category of „feminist new wave cinema” (Barbara Creed). This type of film problematizes the phenomenon of „wokeism”, presenting it as a distorted, dogmatic version of critical thinking and the appropriation of attitudes characteristic of the struggle against oppression. The films analyzed depict the perversities of this contemporary phenomenon from a decidedly feminist perspective, drawing attention to the importance of distinction through the conflict between an „alert” (woke) side (in the sense of critical thinking), and a prescriptive, indisputable, „daydreaming” (Slavoj Žižek) wokeist side in their stories. The starting point for my argument is that the dominant trend in critical reception ignores this difference and labels both Tár and After the Hunt as #MeToo films, mistakenly identifying the forces competing in the films and the stakes of the struggle portrayed on screen. Since conflating cancel culture and the #MeToo movement unintentionally conveys an anti-feminist message, it is crucial to expose this misreading. To prove that Tár and After the Hunt are not #MeToo films, I will first breafly discuss the characteristics of feminist films dealing with sexual abuse, and then apply a feminist film theory interpretive framework, which is also suitable for approaching #MeToo films, to the two films under examination. Barbara Creed’s monstrous-feminine concept highlights that the feminist („monstrous-feminine”) protagonists of both Tár and After the Hunt are victims of demonization linked to misogyny, rather than victims of legitimate justice, thus exposing the common interests of cancel culture and patriarchy.