Strange Way of Life (2023) Movie Review – A short romantic thriller begging to be turned into a feature

A short romantic thriller begging to be turned into a feature

Did you know that Pedro Almodovar’s 2023 short film, Strange Way of Life was so sought-after that it caused a stampede in Cannes with a second screening due to the explosive public demand? Well, now that it’s out on Netflix after almost a year, we get to see what all the fuss was about.

Starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal, Strange Way of Life is a queer Western romantic thriller focusing on two friends who were former gunslingers and have now gone their separate ways. 25 years later, they reunite over unsavoury circumstances.

While Strange Way of Life is a quaint little Western, the style feels like that of a student film with constant movement, as if it has been shot with a rig. The compositions are pretty antiquated with your formulaic master shots, too-tight close-ups, inserts and transitions. It is not a bad thing, in fact, it is a good example to teach film students the basics of filmmaking.

It also helps that we have such heavyweights like Almodovar, Pascal and Hawke with the crew making up of Almodovar’s usual team with a surprising collaboration with YSL’s Anthony Vaccarello for costume. Though the supporting cast is way too dramatic, we can chalk it off as a parody of over-the-top Western characters.

Another controversial stylistic choice is the speech, the dialogues are prosaic and mouthy as if this whole project is an experiment, with everyone doing it by the book to see how the results turn out. It would have done exceptionally well during the Western era of Hollywood but now it feels a little jarring; maybe Almodovar is trying to bring back this genre, who knows?

While the execution can be forgiven (or lauded, however you feel about it), it is the use of an epic love story for a short that leaves viewers wanting more. The very premise of Strange Way of Life is intriguing and meant to be explored on a much larger scale as it explores themes of love and duty, bringing an ethical dilemma for our Sherrif Jake.

Silva crosses the desert to supposedly reunite with his love, Jake after 25 years as he has missed him too much. However, Jake is on a mission to avenge his sister-in-law who has been murdered. The only issue is that Silva’s son was the woman’s lover and now a suspect. Jake believes Silva is in town to save his son. But it is complicated as Jake has his own demons to battle and he may have an ulterior motive for pushing away Silva.

We get tons of flashbacks, secrets and mysteries glamorously draped against a fashionable setting that complements the story, complete with some duelling and wrestling in the dust. But as we get to the end of the short film, we realise that there is still so much left unsaid. The short 30 minutes does it far from justice as this romantic thriller is perfect for a glorious feature on the big screen.

We’ve got the actors down from Pascal playing the manipulative but lovelorn Silva while Hawke is the no-nonsense Sherriff who would rather close off his heart than sway from his sense of duty. There have been tons of shorts turned into feature films, so we are just going to sit here and wait for Almodovar to come through.

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