Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke’s Gay Cowboys Take Cannes

The promise of a gay Western starring Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke and directed by Pedro Almodóvar proved to be catnip to Cannes audiences when the short film Strange Way of Life premiered at the festival Wednesday. Not even a steady rain kept the crowds away—despite having to wait in line, getting drenched, for close to an hour. 

When Almodóvar took the stage to introduce the film—one of his few forays into English-language cinema—he was joined by Hawke and a quartet of hunky actors (among them Manu Rios, from the hit Spanish teen soap Elite). It all seemed to set the stage for something vivid and sensual in the style of so many other Almodóvar films. 

And it was borne out, albeit in limited ways, in the actual film. Hawke plays a small-town sheriff, Jake, who is investigating the murder of his sister-in-law at the hands of her lover. Pascal is Silva, an old friend of Jake’s who rides into town for shadowy purposes. At least part of his intention is romantic: Jake and Silva had a two-month fling in Mexico some 25 years previous, a brief and wonderful giving-in to forbidden desire that seems to have haunted the two men ever since. Silvan wants to pick up where they left off, while Jake halfheartedly resists. 

In that sense, Strange Way of Life is a melodrama, with lots of heavy talk about the sweet, erotic gleam of the past and all the bitter compromises of the present. Hawke and Pascal find the right tone to handle all this florid emoting, with Almodóvar mostly getting out their way. Though he does let Alberto Igelsias’s swelling score rush in at the lovelorn pair, a dash of old Hollywood flare at once mournful and swooning. 

There is eventually a shootout, of sorts, but it’s not played for fun. And it’s ultimately in service of a poignant conclusion. Strange Way of Life cuts through its grizzle to arrive at something soft and sentimental, a vision of how Jake and Silva could have been had they allowed passion to win out over convention and the harsh strictures of life in the old world. 

There is a small bit of sexy stuff too, particularly a dreamy and wine-soaked flashback to what was perhaps the beginning of Jake and Silva’s first carnal release. It’s brief, just like the sexual epiphany flashback in Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory. Also helping raise the vapors level are those handsome Spanish fellows, who are barely in the film but add to the film’s heady, hot-and-bothered air nonetheless.

It’s a kick to see Almodóvar’s gay gaze applied to a Western, though at only 31 minutes, the film leaves us wanting quite a lot more. One hopes that this might be a mere demo reel for a full feature film; Almodóvar has said he is gaining confidence directing in English, so perhaps he might feel ready to pursue a more substantial story with Pascal and Hawk. There’s more to be explored here, more conventions of the Western to be turned on their heads—or, rather, expanded to include new narratives. With Strange Way of Life, Almodóvar, such a full-throated and singular filmmaker, proves just the right man to lead that revolutionary charge.