Conclave

Upon rewatch, I have upgraded this to 5 stars and my #2 movie of 2024. This film deserved more recognition at last night’s Oscars. Ralph Fiennes is truly incredible and is a top three performance of the year and one of my favorite actors ever. The screenplay is so tight and well-written and Straughn is so deserving of his award. This score blows The Brutalist out of the water. That violin hits like CRACK every time. I know it’s not an original screenplay, but the source material’s originality for a political thriller during a papal conclave is so great and works tremendously well on screen with this loaded ensemble cast. I’m convinced if the top four supporting actors (Tucci, Lithgow, Diehz, and Castellitto) were given more time to shine then any one of them could have earned a nomination albeit in an extremely loaded supporting actor category this year. Edward Berger also absolutely ROBBED of a directing nomination. I love this movie. Tremendous stuff here.