In his previous directorial effort, Ethan Hawke followed the life of country singer Blake Foley. Now, with “Wildcat,” he returns with another biopic that investigates the complicated mind of Flannery O’Connor. Through her life stories, the film tries to get to the bottom of her creative process and how she came up with her fascinating ideas. It follows O’Connor’s struggle to publish her first novel, among other parts of her life. Maya Hawke stars in the titular role, whereas Laura Linney and Philip Ettinger star in key supporting roles. Ethan Hawke has co-written the film’s screenplay with Shelby Gaines.
Spoilers Ahead
Wildcat (2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
“Wildcat,” starring Maya Hawke, follows parts of Flannery O’Connor’s life and uses bits of her stories to explore her creative process. Ethan Hawke has directed this film based on a screenplay he co-wrote with Shelby Gaines. The film presents a few stories Ms. O’Connor wrote. In those fictional narratives, Maya Hawke & Laura Linney (who plays Flannery’s mother) play the central characters to convey the real-life emotional connections to the author’s work. Throughout its duration, the film keeps going back and forth between O’Connor’s real life and representations of her fictional narratives.
What happens in the Maya Hawke starrer ‘Wildcat’?
“Wildcat” follows Flannery O’Connor (Maya Hawke), an American, faithful Catholic writer known for her boundary-pushing work. Initially, we see a cinematic depiction of one of Flannery’s stories about an ‘indiscreet’ atheist woman entering a house with a god-fearing family. Then, a quote reveals Flannery’s opinion about fiction. She doesn’t think fiction is an escape from reality but a plunge into it. Then, the narrative switches to her real life, where she writes about a male convict dragging a wounded figure out of a car on a near-desolate land. The details of her story are so chilling that it sends shivers even down her spine.
Later, Flannery leaves her house and travels to 1950s New York to meet a publisher to get her new novel, Wise Blood, approved. He expects her not to make her readers suffer through her work and asks for an outline. She refuses that request and also to make any changes to her writing process. Instead, she is intrigued with discovering the story as she proceeds. Then, she discusses the novel with Robert ‘Cal’ Lowell (Phillip Ettinger), who admires her writing skills and for whom she has feelings. Unlike the publisher, he wants her not to dilute her style.
Flannery O’Connor’s Creative Process
Ms. O’Connor sees an amputee man sitting across from her. It leads her to think of a story of a similar character who arrives at a farm to meet a mother and her intellectually challenged daughter. After a brief conversation, the mother trusts the man and offers him food if he helps her with domestic chores. Soon after, she trusts him with her daughter and gets them married. The mother offers some money to the newlywed couple. While driving away, the man starts bickering about it and, soon after, abandons her. In reality, Flannery feels similarly abandoned by Cal, who leaves her right after admitting his love for her.
Similarly, Flannery borrows inspiration from her real-life observations, thoughts, and discussions to form her fictional worlds. She returns to Georgia to her mother, Regina (Laura Linney). During the drive home, she shares her new story challenging the notions of religion. But Regina and the Dutchess (Christine Dye) expect her to use narrative cliches and to write something that doesn’t make people uncomfortable. Then, the two talk about “Gone With the Wind” and the film’s black female character without realizing their internalized racism since it doesn’t put them in distress.
Flannery O’Connor’s Stories
In one of her stories, Ms. O’Connor writes a couple of white characters being orthodox and blatantly racist. Throughout their rant, a young female college student keeps reading a book about Human Development and ignores them. The middle-aged woman sitting across from her has a strange dream where Jesus offers her an opportunity to be a black person or a poor white person. Meanwhile, the young woman’s mother keeps blaming her for not appreciating what she has. The woman sitting across keeps sharing her segregator rant, which angers the young woman to the point that she chokes her.
While back home, Flannery learns that she has lupus. Regina didn’t tell her, claiming she did not want Flannery to worry about it. Regardless, unlike the time when her father had lupus, she can have treatment. But she needs to use crutches to walk. During that troubling time, she uses Regina as an inspiration to write about a white woman who doesn’t understand the condescending nature of her charitable behavior. After facing rejection for her charity, she finds herself overcome with emotions, which leads presumably to her death.
Flannery O’Connor’s Time in Iowa
Two years before moving back to Georgia, Flannery was in Iowa. She reads her story, Parker’s Back, to a class of students. It follows a poor white woman with a couple of kids who, one day, meets a stranger, O.E. Parker (Rafael Casal). O.E. stands for ‘the servant of the God’. He shows his tattoos and offers fresh produce to woo her. Soon after, they get into a relationship and get married. After their honeymoon phase is over, he realizes that she will get pregnant any day. He fears the responsibilities of a parent. So, he goes on a self-destructive journey to sabotage their relationship.
Later, Parker tattoos a picture of God on his back and returns home in a miserable state after abandoning his wife for a while. She notices the tattoo on his back and throws him out of the house, screaming, calling out his idolatry. In real life, Cal finds the story arresting despite its disturbing undertones. So, Flannery awkwardly visits Cal’s house for a party, hoping to be with him. There, she meets Elizabeth Hardwick (Willa Fitzgerald), who later marries Cal. During the party, someone tells Flannery not to use explicit language in her stories. But she defends herself since what she writes is the truth and not its sanitized version. Later, she also opens up about her faith-related emotional struggles.
Wildcat (2024) Movie Ending Explained:
What happens at the end of Flannery O’Connor’s life?
Irrespective of the merit of her writing, Regina wants Flannery not to write something so gloomy, provocative, or oppressive. Flannery takes her criticism to heart and is defensive against it. Regina doesn’t want Flannery to feel like she is a burden on her and be friendlier. Due to her illness, Flannery feels like she is in a creative prison since her ideas remain limited to the immediate world she witnesses. While suffering from the extreme pain, she grapples with the feelings of loneliness and uncertainty. She also speaks to a priest (Liam Neeson) about her emotional burden of praying for seemingly trivial matters. She believes all she can come up with stories that torment her conscience.
The priest tries to help her find a way to process the change in her life. Later, she writes a story about a young preacher, Manley Pointer (Cooper Hoffman), who meets a middle-aged woman for his mission. Slowly, he leads his way into her amputee daughter’s heart. He takes the daughter to a barn and admits to being a salesman for God’s teachings. She realizes he is just a trickster who travels from town to town, using people’s vulnerabilities against them. Once he senses her faith, he runs away and abandons her. In real life, Flannery suffers with a similarly doomed hope of reunion with Cal. While her health worsens, she embraces this supposed end of life and keeps writing in her room for the following 14 years until she succumbs to her illness.
Wildcat (2024) Movie Review:
For a biopic, Ethan Hawke’s “Wildcat” is certainly unconventional. It refuses to stick to the usual biopic structure and its generic rise-and-fall treatment. Besides, it isn’t interested in covering the entirety of Flannery O’Connor’s life. Through Ms. O’Connor’s stories, the script tries to describe her creative process: what ticked her or inspired her to write her characters in the ways she did or the themes she chose to highlight. It offers a window into her mind through the connections between her real life and her fictional worlds.
Despite its seemingly haphazard layout, “Wildcat” is fairly evocative. Its credit largely goes to Maya Hawke and Laura Linney, who are spectacular in all their respective roles. Despite the theatrics of their characters or their despicable/unfriendly nature, Maya & Laura keep their sense of humanity intact. However, the film runs the risk of being insular due to its lack of direct exposition. Besides, Ethan’s storytelling approach falls short of capturing the vastness of the themes in Ms. O’Connor’s writing. So, despite feeling personal, the film does not feel cohesive.
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