I give Conclave a 9.0/10. I think Conclave is my #2 favorite movie of 2024 so far, with Dune: Part 2 still being my #1 movie of the year.
Is Ralph Fiennes going to finally win an Oscar? Maybe - it depends on what happens with The Brutalist (Brody) and, probably a lesser extent, A Complete Unknown (Chalamet). But Fiennes is my Best Actor pick as of right now.
Conclave is based on
the 2016 novel by Robert Harris. It follow the events with the Cardinals following the death of the pope and the conclave that elects the next pope. The movie opens with the Dean of Cardinals Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) rushing into the pope's chambers to see that the pope has passed away. You learn that Cardinal Lawrence had previously asked the pope to resign (and was refused) due to his "struggles with his faith" and that earlier in the day, the pope had a meeting with Cardinal Tremblay (John Lithgow) and had asked him to resign for "moral indiscretions". Cardinal Tremblay is a conservative who is known to be ambitious about becoming the next pope. You are also introduced to Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci), who is a progressive like Lawrence, Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto), who's a hard line anti-
Vatican II, and Cardinal Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati), who is a social conservative. There's also Sister Agnes (Isabella Rossellini), who is in charge of the nuns at the Vatican.
There's then the jump to the conclave about three weeks later (the pope's funeral isn't shown) and there's many twists and turns. One is that, apparently out of nowhere, there's a new cardinal (Benitez) that the pope had secretly appointed to Kabul. One by one, Lawrence discovers secrets about Adeyemi (fathered a child with one of the nuns that works with Agnes) and Tremblay (bribery) and they lose support to get the majority of votes needed for election. It looks like the next pope could be Tedesco - which worries Bellini because he doesn't want the church to lose decades of progress. But neither Bellini or Lawrence want to be the next pope. Curing the next votes, Lawrence is submitting his ballot when there's an explosion. There's a suicide bomber at the Vatican! Tedesco blames it on Islamists and says that the church should "fight the war". Benitez stands up and says he "knows about war" and that the church shouldn't cling to the past by should look to the future. Benitez is election the next pope, but Lawrence discovers one final plot twist about "Pope Innocent". I won't give it away here, but it involves something that should have normally disqualified Benitez from even being a priest.
The productive design and visual shots are absolute stunning. The cinematography is terrific and Fiennes' facial acting is absolutely superb. I also think that Stanley Tucci is probably going to (and deserves) some Best Supporting Actor nominations. I think Conclave is going to get buzz for cinematography, production design, and adapted screenplay, but Dune: Part 2 was a bit better.
Overall, I
highly recommend Conclave, especially if you want to prepare for the upcoming awards season. I understand that there's some controversy about Conclave being offensive to traditional Catholics. But I saw it as a reality that with a religion of over one billion people, there's going to be differences in some specific beliefs - even among its leadership.
about is not being able to find a theater that is showing Anora earlier in my area (DC metro). I know it’s limited release, but it opened last week and the soonest I’ve been able to find it is on Halloween in Georgetown. 
. Honestly, I haven't liked anything Guadagnino has done since Call Me By Your Name. 
and 
.
theaters 
), Emilia Pérez (limited 
theaters), and Blitz (limited 
theaters).
This isn’t right. At all. 
