Strange Way of Life (2023)

[wanderingstar]

Very excited for this Pedro Almodovar short starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal as gunslingers in love.

Quote

A man rides a horse across the desert that separates him from Bitter Creek. He comes to visit Sheriff Jake. Twenty-five years earlier, both the sheriff and Silva, the rancher who rides out to meet him, worked together as hired gunmen. Silva visits him with the excuse of reuniting with his friend from his youth, and they do indeed celebrate their meeting, but the next morning Sheriff Jake tells him that the reason for his trip is not to go down the memory lane of their old friendship...

 

[wanderingstar]

Finally saw this movie last month at an independent theater in New York, and I really enjoyed it. The chemistry between Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal was 🔥. Through their performances, they conveyed the depth of the relationship and longing between Jake and Silva. Jason Fernandez and Jose Condessa, the actors portraying young Jake and Silva, were also great, even though they didn't have a ton of screen time. And of, course, this being Pedro Almodovar, this is a beautiful film. The landscapes! The colors! All enchanting. The plot's pretty straightforward, but the heart of the movie is Silva and Jake's relationship. 

This movie is shown alongside Almodovar's other English-language short, The Human Voice, which is basically a one-woman show featuring Tilda Swinton as a woman struggling with accepting a breakup. It's Tilda, so of course it's good. 

Neither film is on a streaming platform in the US yet, but I'll be rewatching both if/when they are.