2025 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee - Conclave

Chris's review: 

    This is a hard movie for me to review, and I'm not quite sure why. I loved it. Saying that is simple, but when I look at the way my numeric scores layout, it's just a movie. So what am I supposed to say? 

    First, it was very pretty. Not in the phantasmagoric way that Wicked was, but the pretty buildings, furniture, costumes (so much red!), *cough* the Sistine Chapel *cough* combine to be a feast for the eyes.   

    And the pacing was perfectly tuned to me. I'm kind of easy to bore and fidgety, and so even great movies that are a slow burn have trouble capturing me. But this one did it. There isn't a lot going on, but there's a lot going on. And I found the narrative textural enough to grab onto and think about as the next scene slowly burned along.

I'm pretty removed from papal...um, anything really. I mostly don't care about the pope, though I guess I'd rather he not be ex-Hitler Youth. But because the world takes the position seriously, it's somewhat serious. And with all that history and tradition, it's interesting to get a glimpse into the succession (I'm just assuming it's realistic-ish here), so the setting was interesting.

    There's a "big surprise" within the "big surprise" which I don't want to really spoil, but I kind of found the one underwhelming and the other predictable (though I think you're supposed to in that last case). But even so, I really enjoyed watching it and it held my attention.

Cathy's Review: 

    I really liked Conclave.  It starts with a slow burn, but it gradually gains more and more momentum until at the end, you cannot look away.  Ralph Fiennes plays Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, the dean of the college of cardinals at the Vatican. The Pope has just died, and Lawrence runs the conclave, the process used to pick the next Pope.  The movie lays bare the politics, controversies, and the very human flaws each papal candidate displays during the arcane and ancient ritual. 

    I don't want to say too much about the characters for fear of giving away too much, but Fiennes, along with John Lithgow, Stan Tucci, Carlos Diehz, Lucian Msamati, Sergio Castellitto all did spectacular work.  Due to the patriarchal nature of the Church and of the conclave itself, the women's parts were smaller and fewer, but Isabella Rossellini in particular, perfectly pulled off a key moment.  

    The costuming was gorgeous, and I was blown away at how the actors were able to make it look natural, like each man had spent decades (and not weeks or months) wearing cassock, cape, sash, zucchetto (the skullcap that looks just like a yarmulka) and even the bishop's mitre.   The actors also pulled off many languages as if they were born to it. The movie is mostly in English, but the languages used reflect the nationalities of the cardinals themselves, and there are moments of Latin, Italian, and Spanish, and the actors slip in and out of their native tongues as comfortably as they do their costumes.

    The cinematography was beautiful, alternating between dreary and stark scenes and moments of breathtaking beauty; there is a scene of the cardinals crossing a courtyard in the rain that is pure visual poetry.  The soundtrack was quiet, with a nice emphasis on clarity of speech that I liked.

    At its heart, the movie is a conspiracy story, about the schemes and machinations the main candidates put into place to hide their own wrongdoings, to expose the wrongdoings of others, and to influence the election of the Pope, and therefore guide the Church itself - does it continue to reform or does it return to traditional actions and attitudes and risk harming their flock? Yet these minor intrigues are a smoke-screen (pun intended - the Church uses smoke signals during the conclave) to the main one at the heart of the story.  

    Unusual for a movie that centers on conspiracies, the storytelling is simple and straightforward. I was never confused as to what was going on (except perhaps when my ignorance of Catholic ritual left me in doubt, but the movie generally revealed what it needed to, to keep me involved).  I also rather enjoyed the blending of ancient and modern.  Cellphones were confiscated, wifi turned off, and they swept for bugs, yet just as it has for nearly 2000 years, voting was done with pen and paper, manually tallied, then the ballots were burned when no majority was reached. They still use smoke signals to indicate failure or success of a vote, but instead of adding straw to the burning ballots to turn the smoke black, they use colored smoke canisters and electronics to release the smoke.   

    Conclave reveals the main conspiracy at the end of the movie, but it doesn't resolve it - we are left to wonder whether it remains a secret, but given the Church's tendency toward secrecy, I think it would be likely to remain hidden, which makes me feel like I'm in on the secret, and I like that very much.

(Pithy Reviews; and Rankings* out of 10 nominees):

• Conclave (Absorbing conspiracy at the Vatican; Cathy: 1, Chris: 1)
• The Substance  (Excellent horror movie ruined by ending; Cathy: 2, Chris: 2)
• Wicked (Beautiful, yet boring; Cathy: 3, Chris: 3)

* Rankings can change.

Unranked/yet-to-be-seen:

• Unwatched - Anora (NYC sex worker marries a Russian oligarch) Next Up.
• Unwatched - The Brutalist (Jewish architect rebuilds his life in America after the Holocaust)
• Unwatched - A Complete Unknown (A biopic about the early days of Bob Dylan's career)
• Rewatching - Dune: Part Two (House Atreides kicks House Harkonnen off Arrakis)
• Unwatched - Emilia Pérez (Conspiracy to help a transgender mob boss disappear)
• Unwatched - I'm Still Here/Ainda Estou Aqui (A Brazilian politician's wife makes a new life after her husband is disappeared in 1971)
• Unwatched - Nickel Boys (1960s-era reform school survival story)