maya hawke

Presenting a writer’s life in a captivating, engrossing way has eluded many directors. All the more credit, then, to Ethan Hawke who takes on prolific Southern Gothic author Flannery O’Connor in Wildcat, starring his daughter Maya. Not only does Ethan present Flannery’s physically and emotionally difficult life, he also integrates throughout the film dramatized vignettes from her semi-autobiographical short stories. The film is a dynamic interplay between the real and the imagined. Maya Hawke is Flannery and Laura Linney her mother Regina, but both play six roles (the actual and invented) inviting rich insights into both Flannery’s creativity and her troubled existence.

Ethan Hawke has taken it upon himself to explore Flannery O’Connor cinematically. I understand the allure. O’Connor’s turn of phrase and rich Southern Gothic style begs to be on screen. Along with her stories, Flannery O’Connor was an iconic woman and a character in and of herself. Many novelists (Ethan Hawke being one himself) see pieces of ourselves in her life. And history definitely has pieces of her era in our era. The racial conflict and civil rights upheaval of the 50’s has a certain spark that we mirror in this very moment of time.