Barbara Nicolosi at National Catholic Register says that “new biopic about the enigmatic Catholic Southern writer, Flannery O’Connor, is wildly unconventional as a movie, and plays brilliantly — very much the way an O’Connor short story feels” — A Cinematic Plunge Into Faith: ‘Wildcat’ Is an Experience, Not Just a Movie. An excerpt:
- It’s quixotic why a movie about a Catholic icon made largely by unbelievers abounds in expressions of our faith, even as the recent movie about a nun and saint, Cabrini, made by committed Catholics, shied away from any presentation of Catholic spirituality — or even just Christianity. Wildcat is a religious experience. Cabrini was not. It is vital that we start to ask why it is that non-Christians invariably make the best Christian films?
- The creativity in Wildcat is first in the way Hawke uses O’Connor’s stories themselves as the principle metaphors for her spiritual journey as an artist. There are many intercuts in the film that achieve the effect of connecting the stories and their psychological impact on O’Connor. These moments might be lost on some viewers who are unfamiliar with O’Connor’s oeuvre, but for O’Connor fans, they are wonderful.
- Hawke has an instinctive sacramental vision of cinematic art and knows that imagery must play a key role in any movie about the ineffable. So, Wildcat is brilliantly edited to weave moments from the stories seamlessly into O’Connor’s real life.
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