[EXPRESSO] Conclave (2024) | Papal Royale

There’s an italian saying about the Pope succession system that doesn’t really translate well into english, but it’s basically a clerical version of “the king is dead, long live the king”, and with this thriller (based on a Richard Harris book of the same name) we see indeed the titular conclave, held in order to vote the next Pope, with the cardinals being ritually closed off from the world until from the Sistine Chapel a white puff of smoke can be seen, signifing a new Pope has been chosen.

The conclave is held by a recalcitrant Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), that eventually gets a hold of many secrets about the many other Cardinals moving their influence around to get elected as the “Sacred Big Cheese”, from affairs to hidden documents, rampant display of a hunger for power, realpolitik stuff and an even darker secret that could shake the very core of the Church itself..

And yes, it’s nowhere near as profound or complicated as the movie treats itself, with most of the Cardinals vying for power being nearly cartoonishy douches, the speeches making thing way too simple, and the final reveal being honestly kinda ridiculous (and really selling the “whodunnit” – minus the murder – structure of the film), but direction by Edward Berger (All Quiet On The Western Front) really sells the isolated world where these holy men are forced to live until the deed is done, that even if you can guess most of the resolution, it’s equally enthralling to see it unfold, and the acting from the cast (full of great character actors) is often amazing, sometimes hammy but still immensely entertaining, that it elevates what would be otherwise quite silly stuff in context.

Even with these flaws, it’s undeniably a worthwhile watch for the acting alone.

[EXPRESSO] Knives Out (2019) | Ye Ol’ Murder Mistery

Knives Out 2019 poster.jpg

The short of it: it’s quite good, as you’ve probably already heard said by many others, and i do recommend you check it out in theathers.

The plot concerns the death of successful novelist Halan Thrombey on the day after his 85th birthday, celebrated with family and guests the night before. Assisting the police in unraveling the situation is famous detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), who surveys the interrogatories of the numerous Thrombey family members, scrutinizing possible motives and alibis, as everyone could have gained something, and the already complex family affairs are complicated further when Blanc has the intuition of Martha, Halan’s young nursemaid, being at the center of it all…

Here we have Rian Johnson (Brick, Looper, Star Wars: The Last Jedi) taking on the typical mistery murder format and – as you probably heard elsewhere – doing a “table flip” on the narrative structure and flow you expect from a murder mistery movie, but without being a pointless exercise in subvertion for it’s own sake, as it is still a murder mistery about a dead patriarch and his vile, grubby offsprings, after all, with a sense of humour (like the bit where they see a spanish dubbed Murder, She Wrote episode), an amazing ensemble cast of famous actors, and a tight script that plays well with expectations, and even if you get what’s it gonna go for, it’s still intriguing see the mistery unraveled knot by knot.

And, as a “plus”, it’s quite fun, well paced, and doesn’t stretch things out more than it needs. It’s not the movie of the year, but being just quite good is more than enough, and there’s very little else to say without going into spoilers.

So i’m just gonna share this unrelated thought: hope the new Black Christmas remake is any good.

expresso-icona