Life

The trailer for Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke’s gay western is here and it’s literally everything!

Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal in Strange Way of Life
Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal in Strange Way of Life Photo: Screenshot

Details and glimpses of Pedro Almodóvar’s queer western Strange Way of Life have been emerging for months, as queer film fans and Pedro Pascal stans eagerly await the premiere of what may just be the most highly anticipated short film ever. And today we got our most extensive look at the film yet, by way of its first official trailer.

Set to have its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival next month, Almodóvar has described Strange Way of Life as his “answer to Brokeback Mountain.” The out director has said he was originally approached to direct the 2005 film adaptation of Annie Proulx’s short story but ultimately opted out, fearing that he wouldn’t be able to make the film as sexually explicit as he would have liked.

Judging from the trailer for Strange Way of Life, Almodóvar was fully unconstrained on the short, which stars Ethan Hawke opposite Pascal.

According to the director’s official plot description, the film concerns the reunion of a man called Silva (Pascal) and Sheriff Jake (Hawke) twenty-five years after they worked together as hired gunmen.

But clearly the two men were much more than brothers-in-arms. The trailer shows Hawke’s character sidling up behind Pascal and leaning in, seemingly to kiss the back of his neck.

Later, Pascal’s character snarls at Hawke, “You never loved me! You never loved anyone in your life!”

“Don’t say that!” Hawke responds, pointing a pistol at Pascal.

We then see Pascal tenderly nursing a shirtless Hawke. “Years ago, you asked me what two men could do together living on a ranch,” Pascal says. “I’ll answer you now.”

We don’t get to hear Pascal’s vision of the life the two men could have had, but the line certainly echoes one in Brokeback Mountain, when Jack Gyllenhaal’s Jack Twist tells Heath Ledger’s Ennis, “We coulda had a good life together! F**kin’ real good life! Had us a place of our own.”

“There will be a showdown between them, but really the story is very intimate,” Almodóvar has teased of the film. “Masculinity is one of the subjects of the movie.”

We also learn from the trailer that Hawke’s character is investigating the murder of a woman in town. The trailer seems to indicate the characters played by Spanish actors Manu Ríos (of Netflix’s high school drama Elite) and Jason Fernández may be somehow involved in the murder—and may have a sexual connection of their own.

Ahead of its premiere at Cannes, Variety has reported that Strange Way of Life has been picked up for distribution by MUBI in Italy and Latin America, while Pathé will release the film in the U.K. No word yet on how U.S. audiences will be able to see the film.

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