Buzz about Strange Way of Life has been brewing for a while. Now that we finally have a trailer for the short western film, the buzz has exploded into a full-blown fangirl meltdown. It is the gay cowboy movie we have all been waiting for and it stars two of our favorite celebrity boyfriends, Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal. I haven’t been this excited about a western since two of my other celebrity boyfriends (Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal) played gay cowboys in Brokeback Mountain. (Yes, I enjoy a very specific film genre.)
Written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, Strange Way of Life looks like a campy, emotional look at the lives of two cowboys. Filmed in Spain, the western vibe is captured perfectly in the footage we have seen so far. Here is everything we know about the movie of my dreams, Strange Way of Life.
Strange Way of Life release window
The short film will premiere during the Cannes film festival. This year’s festival takes place from May 16 through May 27. After its debut, Strange Way of Life will slowly release to wider film audiences. Right now we only know that the movie will premiere in Spain on May 26. Hopefully, the rest of us will have a chance to see it not too long after that.
Strange Way of Life cast
Pedro Pascal’s Silva and Ethan Hawke’s Sheriff Jake are the primary focus of Strange Way of Life. Additional cast includes José Condessa, Jason Fernández, Sara Sálamo, Erenice Lohan, Pedro Casablanc, George Steane, and Manu Ríos. As this is a short film, it isn’t unusual for the cast to be fairly small.
Strange Way of Life plot
The summary for Strange Way of Life on the Cannes Festival website reads:
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…
The site also credits the title as being inspired by a Portuguese folk song of the same name, “Estranha Forma de Vida” by Amália Rodrigues. The “strange way of life” lyrics allude to living a life where you don’t listen to your heart. Yes, I might already be crying.
Strange Way of Life trailer
The more I learn about Strange Way of Life, the more I know my only complaint will be that it is only about 30 minutes long. It will probably be masterfully done, but we get so many exceedingly long (and poorly executed) films that it already seems like a shame that this one is so short. The trailer shows a charged relationship between Pascal and Hawke’s characters. They might get upset with each other, yet you can feel a passion there. It also shows Pascal tending to a shirtless Hawke’s wounds. AND COWBOY HATS!
This movie is going to wreck me in all the best ways.
(featured image: Sony Pictures Classics)
