transmission twenty-five: a strange way of life indeed

talking about short-form almodovar

i haven’t really been in movies as much lately. circumstances happen, and i'm sure in no time i will be back in the mines of the silver screen. so for this week’s transmission i’d like to just briefly talk about a short film i watched recently.

strange way of life

for a lot of people, pedro almodovar may as well be the president of movies, mr movies himself. he has a cult following, and i have dozens of mutuals who love his work, who i’m sure will already have seen this short cowboy drama he produced. it stars pedro pascal and ethan hawke as cowboys who were once lovers, and now meet up in the present day after years of staying apart.

almodovar is good at striking a specific tone of melodrama that, because of its carefully, deliberately-exaggerated qualities, reads as relatable in its exaggeration. this short film is no exception, and pascal and hawke deliver exactly what you’d want them to in an almodovar production. i wish that they’d work with him on a longform film, because what they’re able to do in the brief period of time we spend with them is pretty good.

the film also looks great - almodovar’s characteristic bright colors come this time courtesy of the film’s impressive costume design: saint laurent head designer anthony vaccarello designed the costumes himself, and saint laurent is a producer for the short film. as is the case with the almodovar films i’ve seen, the bright colors pop in the screen, and serve as a great visual element to counter the dramatic events that occur throughout it.

“melodrama” is used by many people, almost instinctively, as an insult. if something is dramatic in a way that people don’t like, they’ll call it melodramatic. but in practice, “melodrama” is a word that does have a meaning, and a useful one at that: it’s drama with elevated, heightened emotions. almodovar’s films are melodramatic, and this tone is key to why they work. a more subdued version of his movies would risk seeming unrealistic in some of the plot mechanisms, and maybe even uninteresting at times. the fact that the drama is so exaggerated is why they’re good. “strange way of life” does not have enough of a runtime to really allow everyone to flex their dramatic muscles to the max - there isn’t enough Plot here to transform into endless quantities of drama, but that’s not a bad thing. rather, looking at the film from a mechanics sort of way, the movie presents us with two dramatic events, one in the past, and one in the present. it is these two events that drive the movie forward, and the entertainment is gained out of seeing how the two lead characters react to both of them.

overall if you’re looking for an interesting film to watch that won’t take up too much of your time, i don’t think you can go wrong with “strange way of life”.