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Join UsStar Cast: Ethan Hawke, Pedro Pascal, and George Steane.
Director: Pedro Almodóvar.
What’s Good: the way Almodóvar seduces his audience into believing the mirage he creates in the beginning and makes them see reality with a bang suddenly.
What’s Bad: I will be greedy and say I would have loved it if the movie was longer.
Loo Break: It’s criminal to even ask that question.
Watch or Not?: On the big screen, please!
Language: English.
Available on: MAMI Film Festival 2023.
Runtime: 30 Minutes.
User Rating:
Two long-lost lovers meet at the onset of a tragedy. They are reminded of the love they once shared but the enmity that exists now.
Strange Way of Life Movie Review: Script Analysis
Pedro Almodóvar has, over the years, taught us the art of seduction and the melancholy that the lack of it brings in life skillfully. The fact that Strange Way Of Life leaves you with an aftertaste of Brokeback Mountain, and the filmmaker still has that magic intact to make you invest in a story so unique says a lot about his caliber. But what it emphasizes on even more is how brilliant he is in hiding the demon and introducing it at a point where you think everything is just right.
Because in Strange Way Of Life, we first meet a Sheriff (Ethan) who is busy listening to a murder case because he needs to announce his judgment. Midway through the briefing, a cowboy, mostly in his fifties, walks in, and the Sheriff is distracted. Before we can understand what they are to each other, they both begin making out, and, boom, the Almodóvar magic begins. Through his leading pair of men in their fifties, Almodóvar probably writes the current situation of his two iconic characters in the past. Because a clever flashback tells you, that these two men were so passionately in love that they would drink wine off each other’s lips, have also hidden their relationship from the world.
They have done everything to hide their s*xuality and prove they are straight. Both are supremely masculine, ride horses, and do conventional ‘manly jobs.’ But what melts them is each other’s arms. The tenderness of Strange Way Of Life is so heartfelt and poking because when these same men are pitched against each other in the very next scene, still naked after having passionate s*x, you know the world is not as breezy as it seems.
Pedro Almodóvar has written a story that goes beyond being gay or homos*xual. He has evolved much more, and now, two men in love is just a part of his bigger story. The story, though, could have been explained a bit more. Silva’s (Pascal) son is a man-child accused of killing his wife. We never get to know what happened there. Maybe I am greedy, or I might discover something new in the next watch.
Strange Way of Life Movie Review: Star Performance
Ethan Hawke knows how to use his panache, and the man can make a rug look prim and proper when he wears it. For someone who isn’t just scared that his past is back, but also that his present can be destroyed, he brings so much to the table that 30 minutes feel like a masterclass.
Pedro Pascal’s rugged screen presence is enough to make even men drool for him, and he even knows how to act, man-crush alert! The actor is so good in what he does as a father and a lover that you root for this pain and helplessness both. But he is also cunning, so you know he is not going down alone, at least.
Strange Way of Life Movie Review: Direction, Music
Pedro Almodóvar doesn’t shoot two men in love like a monument. And that’s the best part about his filmmaking for years. It’s an organic story as normal as a cis-gendered couple share. It is a masterclass to understand how he includes a subplot, a flashback, and the main story in 30 minutes. The visuals and music are perfect and go well together.
Strange Way of Life Movie Review: The Last Word
For the love of cinema that tells stories about homos*xual people like humans, Pedro Almodóvar has created yet another gem. Watch!
Strange Way of Life Trailer
Strange Way of Life releases on 06 October, 2023.
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For more recommendations, read our Gran Turismo Movie Review here.
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