Almodóvar has spent his career creating gorgeous works of cinematic pastiche without sacrificing the essential human core. In his dazzling new short, he has created something unexpected, a hyper-male Western melodrama of vivid colors and explosive homoeroticism starring Ethan Hawke as a small-town sheriff who, after 25 years, rekindles a sexual relationship with a former lover, played by Pedro Pascal, when the latter’s son is suspected of a local killing. Gorgeously shot and scored by Almodóvar’s standbys José Luis Alcaine and Alberto Iglesias, Strange Way of Life captures the rarely dramatized intensity of middle-aged romance.