Hello movie fans, Slick Dungeon here! We’re just one day away from the Oscars so I’ve got another movie review for you. This time I’ll be talking about Conclave, the film that examines what happens when the pope dies and it’s time for a new one to be elected. Let’s get into it.

What’s Conclave about?

On the surface Conclave is a simple story. The pope dies and the cardinals elect a new pope. But the film has subtlety and nuance and brings into view what is mostly an opaque process. We see political maneuvering, secrets exposed, and surprising revelations with the main characters along the way. Leading the process is Cardinal Thomas Lawrence played brilliantly by Ralph Fiennes.

There are two basic factions of cardinals in the movie. One side are traditionalists who want the papacy to go back to some of the older attitudes of the church. On the other side are the liberals who want to move some of the ideas of the modern day world into the church.

In both of these factions there are people trying to become pope but they have to advocate for themselves very carefully. After all, it doesn’t seem very humble to say you want to be pope.

As the film progresses we watch as the tides shift one way or another and allies are made and broken. And the end has kind of a twist to it but I still haven’t decided if that twist was entirely necessary here. I don’t want to spoil the ending but I’ll just say there is something surprising about the person who is ultimately elected.

The Awards

This movie is up for a very healthy eight Oscars. It’s up for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Editing, Best Production Design, and Best Costume Design.

While this is a contender for Best Picture, I don’t see it winning. It’s a great movie but it has some heavy competition. Ralph Fiennes has a strong shot at Best Actor and I would say he is in the top three to win. My bet is on Adrien Brody for the Brutalist. Isabella Rossellini is up for Best Supporting Actress. She does a fine job but she’s hardly in the movie so I don’t think she’ll win either. I could be wrong though. I could see this winning for Best Adapted Screenplay. It’s a subtle film done well. I could also see it winning Best Original Score as it fit perfectly. While the editing was fine, there were other films that had to be much harder to edit than this one this year. The production design is incredible in this movie. But I think that’s going to go to Wicked. Ditto for costume design.

While all these nominations are great, there was one snub here I can’t quite get over. Stanley Tucci is absolutely fantastic in this movie. But he was not nominated for Best Supporting Actor. I think that’s a shame because he steals every scene he is in.

Conclave in conclusion

This is a fantastic film and well worth watching. There are powerful performances here and it has a lot to say about faith, commitment, humility, and ambition. It’s also gorgeous to look at with an incredible production design and perfect costuming. Unfortunately for this movie, there are other movies out this year that did even better. But I strongly recommend checking this one out. It’s a great film.

Also, considering the state of health of the current pope, it has to be said this film could become a whole lot more relevant in short order. So the timing here is pretty interesting giving a lot more reason to watch it.

Awardingly yours,

Slick Dungeon

P.S. Want to see what I thought of the Best Picture winner last year? Check out my review of Oppenheimer!