Strange Way of Life
Key Cast: Ethan Hawke, Pedro Pascal
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Producer: Anthony Vaccarello, Augustin Almodóvar, Esther García
Screenwriter: Pedro Almodóvar
Cinematographer: José Luis Alcaine
Composer: Alberto Iglesias
Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal play reunited lovers in Pedro Almodóvar’s sensual queer western, direct from Cannes.
Making his second venture into English-language cinema after The Human Voice (MIFF 2021), Almodóvar (Pain and Glory, MIFF 2019) returns with a vibrant film that stars Pascal (The Last of Us; The Mandalorian) as Silva, a rancher who rides out to Bitter Creek to meet the town sheriff, Jake (Hawke, First Reformed, MIFF 2018; the Before trilogy). Twenty-five years earlier, the two men worked together as hired gunslingers, and it soon becomes apparent that the meeting is more than just a trip down memory lane.
A tantalising glimpse into what Almodóvar might have done with Brokeback Mountain – a project he was offered, but which he turned down – this steamy tale of raunchy ranchers subverts the genre as only the iconic Spanish auteur could.