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Wildcat

Released May 3 1h 48m Biography Drama TRAILER for List
58% Tomatometer 77 Reviews 69% Popcornmeter 50+ Ratings
Directed and co-written by four-time Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke, WILDCAT invites the audience to weave in and out of celebrated Southern Gothic writer Flannery O'Connor's mind as she ponders the great questions of her writing: Can scandalous art still serve God? Does suffering precede all greatness? Can illness be a blessing? In 1950, Flannery (Maya Hawke) visits her mother Regina (Laura Linney) in Georgia when she is diagnosed with lupus at twenty-four years old. Struggling with the same disease that took her father's life when she was a child and desperate to make her mark as a great writer, this crisis pitches her imagination into a feverish exploration of belief. As she dives deeper into her craft, the lines between reality, imagination, and faith begin to blur, allowing Flannery to ultimately come to peace with her situation and heal a strained relationship with her mother.
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Critics Consensus

Wildcat brings careful craft and solid acting to bear on an admirable idea; unfortunately, it still struggles to present a compelling picture of a brilliant author's inner life.

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Critics Reviews

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Kimberley Jones Austin Chronicle Wildcat will be a far richer experience for audiences already familiar with O’Connor’s work. For neophytes, there’s still much to enjoy, but the thematic resonance between story and storyteller gets a little lost. Rated: 3/5 May 31, 2024 Full Review Richard Roeper Chicago Sun-Times With pinpoint production design, makeup and wardrobe capturing the 1950s time period, exquisite cinematography and brilliant work by talented actors who get to sink their teeth into some meaty roles, Wildcat is an inventive and haunting mood piece... Rated: 3/4 May 17, 2024 Full Review Adam Kempenaar Filmspotting Hawke vividly depicts what one deduces from O’Connor’s brash, unrepentantly idiosyncratic work – the blurring of her imagination and reality. Rated: 3.5/5 May 17, 2024 Full Review JD Duran InSession Film There's enough cogency to its biopic throughlines that makes her story accessible and poignant, but there's a lot about the narrative structure here that poetically blurs the line between fiction and reality. Rated: A- Sep 13, 2024 Full Review Abe Friedtanzer Cinema Daily US Like O’Connor’s writing, it can be both challenging and rewarding depending on a reader or viewer’s tolerance for this particular brand of storytelling. Rated: B- Jul 24, 2024 Full Review James Verniere Boston Movie News While a lot does not work, Ethan Hawke's "Wildcat" is a daring effort to bring the eerie beauty of Flannery o'Connor's work to the screen. Rated: B Jul 5, 2024 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Mr. Hollywood Collections of shorts goes nowhere but I guess thats the point of a collection of shorts. They are all their own unique story. The main story of the author writing the short stories does not add much but acting is good. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 05/21/24 Full Review Beth Loved it! I am a fan of Flannery OConnors work and somewhat familiar with her life. Not sure how someone unaware of her would rate the movie. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 05/12/24 Full Review Roy J This movie isn't for Flannery's fans or for novices to learn about her. This movie is a weekend project between Ethan Hawke and his daughter. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 05/06/24 Full Review Wendy H In a Q &A with Writer/Director Ethan Hawke after the movie, he described O'Connors attempt to reconcile her faith and her work as a writer in the question "Can I be in service to the form rather than what the form can do in service to me. "Can I be in service to the form rather than what the form can do in service to me." He seems to also son to satisfy this goal himself. The film is an homage to the writings of Flannery O'Connor, and also a sort of the love, appreciation, and inspiration both he and his daughter, Maya Hawke, have for the author. A beautifully crafted film that weaves imagination and reality together until they become one and the same, subtly daring us to question our own faith in what we believe to be real. After all, what reality can there ever be if we don't first imagine it. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 05/05/24 Full Review julie b I’m trying very hard to not let the experience of seeing Ethan, Maya, and Laura in person at TIFF at this screening bias my score (!!!!!!). This was a super character driven film that stripped away a lot of ancillary elements to keep us squarely focused on the strong performances, and I loved the seamless blending of reality and fiction to tell the stories in a creative way. You could tell the actors themselves had a lot of fun making this and getting to “play pretend”. I can’t yet put my finger on what specifically was missing, but overall it left me wanting a little more. Also, the q&a portion on the importance of humans in storytelling was particularly impactful in light of the strike. “I’m not interested in tidying up reality” (or something like that - I didn’t write it down during the film so cinephiles pls don’t crucify me) Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 09/23/24 Full Review Ronald H Flannery O'Connor was an enigma, and this film is appropriately enigmatic. It's an exploration of the inner conflict between her devout Catholicism and her written work, which was often shockingly sordid and cynical, yet darkly humorous. She was a profound influence on later southern writers, including Barry Hannah, Harry Crews, and Larry Brown. Uninitiated viewers are likely to hate this film, or at least be baffled by it. It flips dreamlike between scenes in her life and passages from her stories. The characters in her life also appear as characters in the story passages. The film is directed by Ethan Hawke, and his daughter Maya is stunning as the complex and perplexing O'Connor. Laura Linney is perfect as O'Connor's mother, as well as several characters in the story excerpts. This has to be the best work of her career. Liam Neeson is in one scene as a priest sitting by O'Connor's bedside as her body is being ravaged by lupus. It's an amazingly powerful moment. Devotees of O'Connor will be greatly rewarded by this movie. I would urge those unfamiliar with her to read her stories, as well as her novel Wise Blood, before watching it. Otherwise, you just won't get it. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 09/03/24 Full Review Read all reviews
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Movie Info

Synopsis Directed and co-written by four-time Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke, WILDCAT invites the audience to weave in and out of celebrated Southern Gothic writer Flannery O'Connor's mind as she ponders the great questions of her writing: Can scandalous art still serve God? Does suffering precede all greatness? Can illness be a blessing? In 1950, Flannery (Maya Hawke) visits her mother Regina (Laura Linney) in Georgia when she is diagnosed with lupus at twenty-four years old. Struggling with the same disease that took her father's life when she was a child and desperate to make her mark as a great writer, this crisis pitches her imagination into a feverish exploration of belief. As she dives deeper into her craft, the lines between reality, imagination, and faith begin to blur, allowing Flannery to ultimately come to peace with her situation and heal a strained relationship with her mother.
Director
Ethan Hawke
Producer
Ryan Hawke, Joe Goodman, Cory Pyke, Karri O'Reilly
Screenwriter
Shelby Gaines, Ethan Hawke
Distributor
Oscilloscope Laboratories
Production Co
Under the Influence Productions, Good Country Pictures, Renovo Media Group, Kingdom Story Company
Genre
Biography, Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
May 3, 2024, Limited
Runtime
1h 48m
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