This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the short film being covered here wouldn’t exist.

By Lex Williams

Strange Way of Life was one of my most anticipated films of the year. Which, given that I don’t think I’ve ever included a short film on my most anticipated films list, says a lot. As a notorious fan of Pedro Pascal, and a lover of a good cowboy aesthetic (though, my personal bar for Western films is set very high), I was eager to see this film.

Strange Way of Life follows the story of cowboy Silva (Pedro Pascal) and local town sheriff, Jake (Ethan Hawke), as they reconnect after years of not seeing each other, after what at least appears to have been a short but passionate love affair. As the two reunite, more layers are peeled back as to Silva’s motives for returning. Is he truly there to see Jake again? Or is he trying to cover up for his son, who has been accused of murdering Jake’s sister-in-law? The movie itself can’t quite tell you.

While the performances in this film are fantastic, with Pascal giving a particularly heart-wrenching and vulnerable performance, the movie itself leaves a lot to be desired. With a thirty-one minute long runtime that frankly feels more like fifteen, Strange Way of Life presents a fantastic climax to a story. The problem is, it leaves the viewer wanting to see the rest. There are too many plot points scattered throughout the film- the history between Silva and Jake, the seemingly complex dynamics between Silva and his son, the potentially complicated family history between Jake and his extended family- but no real pay off on any of them. The characters are compelling, but their arcs are not flushed out well enough to provide any sense of closure. The ending feels almost like a cut in a cable movie, where you expect to see what happens next after the commercial break. The talent of Pedro Almodóvar and its stars is ever apparent. The production design and cinematography is stunning, paying perfect homage to a classic Western. The potential is off the charts. It just never fully reaches it.

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By Nicole Ackman

When skilled director Pedro Almodóvar announced he was making a “queer Western” with Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal, I couldn’t have been more excited. As someone who grew up watching John Wayne movies, I find the Western genre very compelling, but I wish that we saw more of the queer history of the cowboy reflected onscreen. (Read more in this article from the Manchester Historian last year or this article from the Los Angeles Times.) Almodóvar certainly delivers on that in Strange Way of Life, whose named is taken from a 1960s Portuguese song, never holding back from being explicit about what these two men’s relationship with each other is. Unfortunately, the film feels largely incomplete, with engaging narrative arcs set up but lacking both a beginning and an end.

Former “hired guns” Jake (Hawke) and Silva (Pascal) meet again for the first time in two decades after their fiery but short-lived connection. Their paths have converged, but their passion easily resurfaces, and the physical connection between them sparks onscreen. However, things take a dramatic turn when Jake confronts Silva about the murder Silva’s son Joe (George Steane) committed, leading to a stand-off between the three men.

From the gorgeous costumes (provided by YSL) to the impressive shots of Hawke and Pascal on horseback (my horseback-riding sister reported that they both have very decent technique), it has all the makings of a great Western movie and all the beautiful atmosphere you could expect from a Almodóvar film. However, at 30 minutes, the short film feels like it’s missing about 60 more minutes. It attempts to cram what could easily have been a full film into a short runtime, to its detriment.

If Strange Way of Life had been a feature film that fully explored the relationship between the two men, what occurred between them when they were younger, and what Jake’s refusal of Silva’s offer to start a ranch together led each of them towards, it could easily have been one of my favorites of the year. But in its actual state, it leaves the audience unsatisfied, like a too-small dessert that whets your appetite for more instead of leaving you feeling satiated.

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By Dan Bayer

Pedro Almodóvar’s films are more than just cinema, they are a full-on aesthetic. Awash in bold, bright colors and grand, sweeping emotions, he utilizes every part of the audiovisual presentation of his artwork in order to evoke a response from the viewer. When I say that I want to live inside of Strange Way of Life, it is because the aesthetic of this film is so warm and inviting, luxurious even in its dusty frontier western setting. The gentle guitar plucking of Alberto Iglesias’s gorgeous score over the film’s title cards are the perfect introduction, creating a beguiling mood that draws us in. That mood doesn’t let up once, enveloping the audience in a feeling, not just a story. Unfortunately, that’s kind of the problem.

Every scene of Strange Way of Life builds from the last. Each scene is more intense than the one before, introducing us to two men who spent a blissfully romantic time together two decades ago and have not seen each other since. Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal are such wonderful actors that they can communicate their characters’ history with each other in merely a couple of looks – their connection is instant, and it’s immediately clear that they are more to each other than just friends. But as delicious as Pascal looks in that gorgeous green jacket and low-slung holster belt (the sumptuous costumes courtesy of YSL), and as natty as Hawke looks with his suit and Sheriff’s badge, this is not a patch on how swoon-worthy their younger selves (José Condessa and Jason Fernández, respectively) look when we finally get a flashback to the event that we are led to believe sparked their relationship. Shooting a wineskin and basically showering in the wine that comes pouring out, the two men quickly become so amorous towards each other that the three “whores” with them end up leaving, and who can blame them? The scene is super sexy and incredibly romantic, as the two men realize that they want to take neither their hands nor their lips off of each other. It’s one of the most romantic scenes of Almodóvar’s career, and his films aren’t exactly lacking them.

The film continues on for a bit after that, but at only 31 minutes, it leaves so much unexplored. In fact, Strange Way of Life doesn’t play so much as a self-contained short film, but more as proof of concept for a full feature about these characters. Just when the film reaches what should send it soaring into its second half, it abruptly ends, leaving the audience to wonder for ourselves what Jake and Silva’s lives could look like instead of showing us where their story goes. It feels arbitrary, a betrayal of the audience’s investment in the characters, and kills the mood that the film has established and then heightened in every scene. It’s the cinematic equivalent of blue balls, denying us the catharsis of a full story.

The film is so lushly designed and photographed that you can feel everything, from the characters’ emotions to the alcohol and cloth pressed onto a wound. Unfortunately, it leaves you feeling confused, waiting for more that will never come. You could defend that on a thematic level, the ending as an extension of Jake and Silva waiting for a future when they can live on a ranch together free from prying eyes and judgmental neighbors, but instead of rich possibility, it feels like a broken promise. Much of the film’s style seems to be emulating melodramas from the 1940s-50s, but it ends feeling like a melodrama of a different kind: a soap opera. The only problem is, this cliffhanger is half-baked, and there isn’t going to be another episode next week to resolve it. After promising a world we can fully immerse ourselves in, Almodóvar only takes us along the surface. It’s a beautiful surface, to be sure, but Strange Way of Life runs so deep that it’s frustrating that we don’t get to fully explore those depths.