Strange Way of Life: short films are hard to make well. There is a quote attributed to everybody from Cicero to Blaise Pascal to Mark Twain which approximately goes: “I apologize for this long letter as I didn’t have the time to write a short one.” This Western short by Pedro Almodóvar is a fine example of that idea: the short form allows some formal freedom and experimentation, but (particularly for audiences accustomed to the long form) there is a lack of character development and/or story intricacies, often both. Here, the story is slight, but the characters (and, most relevantly, their interaction) are interesting: Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke play respectively a rancher and a sheriff that go way back and meet again after 25 years. Both are very good, Pascal open and emotional, and Hawke bottled up and professional. Costumes (by designer Anthony Vaccarello) and production design (by Antxón Gómez) are, typically, very appealing; the film is also nicely shot by José Luis Alcaine. Composer Alberto Iglesias’ musical score has some echoes of Ennio Morricone, but it’s beautiful and stands up on its own.