Director: Ethan Hawke
Writers: Shelby Gaines, Ethan Hawke
Stars: Maya Hawke, Laura Linney, Rafael Casal
Synopsis: Follows the life of writer Flannery O’Connor while she was struggling to publish her first novel.
When you watch Ethan Hawke’s directorial effort, you see the sense of authenticity in the world and the characters he views through an unvarnished lens. His new film, Wildcat, is full of the Bible-thumping zealots, war-weary veterans, and dixie tricksters that formed American writer Flannery O’Connor’s work. Ethan Hawke uses the famous writer’s renowned ability to counter the supposed faith and morals with the evil they support.
Wildcat stars Hawke’s daughter, Maya Hawke (Stranger Things), examining where inspiration lies in the world around her by drawing from real life and then forming story or character arcs from genuine experiences. The people Flannery meets are patently absurd, and are brought to life by her willingness to see how the trauma of violence and pain can transform us all; real people and literally characters alike. Unsurprisingly, she, as anyone would, struggles to see this in herself.
Hawke co-wrote the film with Shelby Gaines and does a superb job folding in and interconnecting both Flannery’s present-day and her inspirations that involve famous scenes from her short stories that include “Good Country People,” “The Life You Save May Be Your Own,” “Revelation,” and others. Ethan Hawke, as a director, specializes in southern backwoods tales. His 2018 feature, Blaze, differs in time and place but is still a superb example of artists rebelling against the Southern era and setting. In Wildcat, O’Connor’s writing is inspired by the conflict of religious upbringing. For one, she lives in an environment of rigid orthodoxy and literal religious interpretation promoting traditional roles and moral standards.
This brings us back to how characters view the world and what is actually going on around them. Throw these values against poverty and racism, and then the cracks of a crisis of faith begin to show. A perfect example of this is Laura Linney’s character, Regina, who attempts to be a “white savior” by offering a penny to a small black child (immediately after becoming embarrassed because she’s wearing the same hat as the boy’s mother). Regina is almost sickened that she wears the same church crown as someone she views as beneath her. That scene is an example of how Hawke can underscore that type of hypocrisy.
Flannery can be a controversial figure for most, as her Southern Gothic fiction is littered with racial stereotypes and offensive language. In addition, according to numerous reports, she was quoted as refusing to let James Baldwin visit her southern estate. This is my main complaint and issue with Hawke’s Wildcat; this subject is largely ignored.
However, the way Hawke has Flannery laughing at some of these characters may subtly show a belief the writer is a truth teller, making no apologies and leaving honest examples of despicable behavior on the page for all to see. Yet, the issue of race is far too often left out of the film altogether. You have to ask yourself; can a work of art be truly great if there is an inherent lack of honesty, especially with negative aspects of the main subject.
That’s one of the reasons I have an issue with biographical films based on a subject’s source material: they view others without a rosy filter that they use on themselves. The writer and director choose to filter out blemishes from the main subject. Despite this, Maya Hawke gives a wonderful performance. There is a scene so tender and heartbreaking where she finds love and loses it just as quickly is spectacularly devastating as she looks on with sorrowful eyes that conveys something we haven’t seen from the young actress before. Then, to master and put her own spin on the subject’s quirks and intricacies, Maya Hawke puts her stamp on a character that is the best of her career and one of standouts of the year so far.
Yet Wildcat is about the writing process and a somewhat limited reflection of religious fervor. The structure is clever yet not original, similar to Nocturnal Animals, utilizing one world to influence and create another. So much so that, quite intentionally, it may be hard to decipher which is real and isn’t at times. Hawke’s film could have easily been wildly pretentious and gone off track, but his growth as a filmmaker over the past twenty years shows a steady hand that’s hard to ignore.
What you’ll be struck by most is Ethan Hawke’s ability to challenge the viewer narratively and connected to artistic ideology. Whatever you think of Flannery O’Connor, you cannot argue that this is a biographical film (if you can call it that) that takes real chances. It offers beautiful moments and melancholy notes of introspection and reflection that blur the lines of the question: Is life imitating art, or art imitating life?
