Strange Way of Life

Strange Way of Life (2023) is a Spanish-French western short directed by Pedro Almodóvar — watch it online on iFILM. Twenty-five years after parting ways, Silva rides into the small town where Jake now wears a sheriff's badge. The reunion is warm on the surface. The reason for the visit is something else entirely.

Pedro Pascal plays Silva, Ethan Hawke plays Jake. Both men carry the weight of what they were to each other, and Almodóvar lets that tension sit without rushing it toward resolution. The film — just thirty-one minutes long — was commissioned by the Fondazione Prada and then released theatrically worldwide, which is an unusual path for a short of any kind.

Gunfights are sparse. What the film is really doing is exploring how men carry grief and desire across decades while pretending they've moved on. It's melancholy, precise, and gorgeous to look at. Stream Strange Way of Life (2023) online on iFILM.