Review of Conclave, directed by Edward Berger

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

I recently fell into a spell of unemployment probably during the worst time to be unemployed, as it was very hard to find a job. I was applying to hundreds of jobs, getting interviews, but no offer was manifesting for me in the near future. So during this time, I had a lot of free time, and spent a good chunk of it chipping away at the blog.

Once upon a time I used to go the movies every week, as I had an AMC A List subscription. For my non-Americans out there reading this, this means that a local movie theater chain here in the States has a subscription where if you pay like $28 a month, you can watch up to four movies a week there. I ended up losing my car in April 2024, which is when I stopped going as often.

I also used to work as a film critic, so screeners were getting sent to me. Twisters was one of the movies that was sent to me a while back, but I never got around to it because I wasn’t doing the specific coverage for it and I had decided I wanted to leave that job to pursue something else, which was a decision partially motivated because I liked blogging for myself more.

Anyways, during my period of unemployment mentioned above, I would go to the library a lot to search for movies. I often borrow my sister’s DVD player to watch movies from there, and I love seeing what my library can get ahold of. Usually all the new and hip movies appear there after a set amount of time, which is great for me and my budget.

I’d been meaning to see Conclave for a while now, but never had the chance while it was in theaters. So it was through my library I put a hold request in for the film, which had me at the 234 person on the list, but surprisingly they had enough copies that I got ahold of mine only three weeks later.

Let’s get into the review! I don’t want to ramble too much.

When a papal conclave begins, the truth and betrayal rises to the surface.

For those not familiar with Catholicism, this movie begins right at the death of a pope. When a Pope dies in the Catholic Church, there are not only elaborate funeral planning for when this eventually occurs, but also something else major happens: they need to select a new Pope. What happens is called a Conclave, and the Cardinals from all over the world gather to select the next Pope.

So, as said before, this movie begins with the death of the Pope. While the mourning processions begin, Thomas Lawrence, the dean of the Cardinals, begins the preparations for a Conclave. The Cardinals begin gathering in the Vatican, and major players begin emerging as the potential next pope.

There’s Goffredo, an Italian Catholic who tells Thomas over dinner that the Vatican and Catholics need a traditional Italian Pope (and god forbid a Black man be a Pope in his eyes, too), Aldo from the United States who’s actually pretty liberal for Catholic standards and wants to make it more progressive, Joshua from Nigeria who is a traditional conservative, and Joseph from Canada, who is a classic moderate with a foot on each side.

The Archbishop informs Thomas that the pope actually wanted Joseph to be gone before he died and tried to force him to resign. While Joseph would never admit it, there’s a different rivalry going on in these halls. Aldo, the American, is trying to force the Italian Goffredo out of the running, which shows how competitive this conclave is going to be.

There’s another surprise: the Mexican Vincent, who works in Afghanistan, is now in the running for the Pope due to something the now deceased pope had done (declared him in pectore). The conclave begins and Thomas tells everyone to accept uncertain times and what may lie ahead, but no one wins the required amount of votes to win the Pope position during the first round of voting.

What appears obvious from the first voting though is that Joshua is a win for the conservative side, while the North Americans are splitting the vote for the progressives. The Mexican candidate also appears to have medical issues, as Thomas’s assistant does some digging and learns the previous Pope paid for him to have a medical appointment.

The very next day Joshua is pushed out of the running when a Nigerian nun reveals to Thomas that Joshua and her had a relationship that led to the birth of a sun. This leads to a smear campaign when asked publicly about it, and he no longer is going to win the votes. Turns out though that the Nigerian nun was brought her by the Canadian.

Thomas investigates Joseph after that and discovers that Joseph was paying other Cardinals for votes, but he doesn’t make this public. On the third day, though, he discloses to the Cardinals what had happened and then Tremblay is knocked out of the running. Thomas decides to vote for himself in the next round to stand against the Italian candidate, but then an explosion happens.

It was a suicide bomber, which sets off the Italian and he calls for a war against the Muslims. The Mexican candidate then tells him and the others that violence is not the answer, then he gives a speech about how everyone is prioritizing their own ambitions over the good of the religion. He is then voted in as the Pope and given the name of Innocent XIV.

However, Thomas’s excitement is muffled when his assistant reveals that the new Pope has the genitals of both a man and a woman—they’re intersex. He refused the appointment the previous Pope set up because he believed he should remain the same way God made him, and the movie ends with Thomas watching over the crowds cheering his name and nuns walking through the courtyard.

Overall Thoughts

I have to admit upfront: this was not my kind of movie. As someone who would’ve majored in history if I saw a career path in it back when I was eighteen, I am really interested in the Catholic Church and how it was involved with world conflicts (or wasn’t), despite me not being religious at all.

For me, this would have been a movie where I needed to have more of an interest in the church and its politics directly going into it for me to enjoy it more. I thought it was dull and uninspired at times, but I was definitely perceiving it in this way because I was finding that I didn’t care for these politics since I was never invest in them to begin with.

So I wasn’t the target demographic for this movie, which is fine. I can see how someone else out there might love this a lot more than I did, which I give many flowers and kudos to them! Neither of us are wrong for our taste, which can be so incredibly subjective at times.

I say go watch this if you’re interested in the premise. It might go either way though if you’re not invested in this kind of drama.

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