WILDCAT will DIVIDE CATHOLICS! | Catholic Movie Review

Wildcat is a movie directed by Ethan Hawke, starring his daughter Maya Hawke, about the life of the famous Catholic writer Flannery O’Connor. As a biopic, it is a very solid movie. However, as a Catholic, I think it’s going to have some people divided.

Hi, I’m Mateo Rivera, The Cinematic Catholic. I was sent a screener of Wildcat to review for you all. Going into this movie knowing absolutely nothing about Flannery O’Connor, I came out of it with so many questions and a strong desire to do more research on her life and writing. If that was the goal of the film, they absolutely succeeded.

WILDCAT will DIVIDE CATHOLICS!

Flannery O’Connor was an American novelist and short story writer, very prominent in the 50s and 60s. She was indeed a Catholic, which greatly inspired her work and life. This movie follows her in her younger years when she comes back home to live with her mother while struggling to publish her first novel.

Let’s start with the filmmaking aspect of this movie. The storytelling structure interweaves events of her life with onscreen depictions of the stories that Flannery O’Connor is currently writing or will go on to write. This made for a jarring but very captivating viewing experience. This movie felt like a cross between Little Women and Swiss Army Man in exactly the way you think that means.

Maya Hawke’s performance as Flannery O’Connor is nothing short of incredible. She absolutely disappears into this role. Most people probably know Maya for her work as Robin in Stranger Things, but in this movie, the only person I saw on screen was Flannery O’Connor. She is a phenomenal actress, and I cannot wait to see what else she decides to do in her career.

We see Flannery struggling to get published due to the fact that she is a woman, and we see her struggling to live at home with her mother, who she does not see eye to eye with, particularly in the areas of race and what her mother expects of Flannery both as a daughter and as a writer. As a filmmaker and storyteller myself, this movie resonated with me on a whole other level. There are several moments where her mother says things like, “Why can’t you just write a nice story? Why can’t you write about happy things?” The teenager in me was screaming, “Okay!”

One of the things Flannery battles in this movie is the internal conflict of whether she can write a story that is not explicitly religious and still serve God. Does everything she does have to explicitly reference Christ and the Church to please God with her work? This is something I related to very well, and I think most creative types will as well.

Flannery’s life becomes even more complicated when she is diagnosed with lupus, the same disease that killed her father. This film really touches on suffering, how we are to respond to suffering, and how we are to love God in the midst of our suffering. Because of that, I think there is a certain demographic of Catholics that will watch this movie and have hour-long conversations and discussions.

I typically write notes while watching movies to review for you all, jotting down quotes I like. For this movie, I wrote down about 20 quotes. This film did an excellent job of showing us inside Flannery O’Connor’s mind, how she felt about religion, her faith, and her relationship with God. I also watched the interview Ethan and Maya Hawke did with Bishop Barron about why they wanted to make this movie and how much Flannery O’Connor means to them. This was very insightful for understanding the mind behind the movie.

One of my favorite quotes from the film is when she says, “What people don’t understand about religion is how much it costs. Some people think it’s a big electric blanket when really it’s the cross.” Another great scene is when she is in bed sick, and a priest visits her. She says, “If we could accurately map Heaven, some of our up-and-coming scientists would begin drawing blueprints for its improvement and guys would be selling copies for 10 cents a piece.”

I wish I were one of those heady, big-brain Catholics discussing Thomas Aquinas and the principles of double effect, but I’m not. Watching this movie made me seriously ponder many aspects of my own life and my relationship with God. This movie has stayed with me and led to many conversations with people who know and love Flannery O’Connor’s work or didn’t know anything about her but resonated with the ideas presented in the movie.

I think this movie will be divisive among Catholics because it’s a pretty bleak movie. Some will appreciate that, but others might find it difficult to see the Catholic themes. College-age students or those who enjoy dissecting and discussing films may find a new form of religious movie to love.

One scene that might put people off is set in a hospital waiting room where a woman goes off about black people, and then Jesus appears, telling her that to enter Heaven, she can become “white trash” or a black person. He uses a very jarring term, and while the movie’s message is clear, the execution may distract from it.

With all that said, this movie does an excellent job of conveying the struggles of an artist and making something out of nothing. Another quote I love is when Flannery O’Connor says, “Writing is like giving birth to a piano sideways.” This movie is very thought-provoking in its views on religion and the role of our relationship with God in everything we do. However, it is not for everyone, not even for every fan of Flannery O’Connor, especially from a Catholic perspective.

Mateo’s Score

For my Cinophile score, I give it an 8 out of 10 for strong direction by Ethan Hawke and Maya Hawke’s incredible performance. For my Catholic score, I give it a 5 out of 10, noting that some people will really like this movie, while others may not resonate with it at all.

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