Conclave

It's very entertaining, although I have to say I didn't believe a minute of it.

As with All Quiet On the Western Front, Berger is concerned with machinery and modernity and how they clash with tradition.

Ralph Fiennes’s best role in recent memory.

Instead of rising to the awe-inspiring heights of their settings, the refinement of the performances is narrowed to monotony.

Conclave is undeniably engrossing to watch as it shuffles and reshuffles the narrative deck and serves up one juicy cardinal-red herring after another. While the story may be a parlor trick, there’s nothing phony about Fiennes’ performance.

Despite its heavyweight subject matter, however, the result is remarkably playful; without flattening the importance of the papacy or abandoning the novel’s attention to detail, Conclave exposes the sometimes farcical nature of institutional practices.

This is a fantastic drama. It was nice to see a film with good writing, sharp characters, with twists and turns, and secrets revealed

A sharp and thought-provoking thriller, full of unexpected twists and turns, fueled by an extraordinary ensemble cast. [Full Review in Spanish]

Conclave surprises with its uninhibited exaggeration and its mixture of the sacred and profane, with Berger oscillating between a booming score and a conscious pace. [Full review in Spanish]

Instead, and most refreshingly, Conclave is a thriller with elements of a murder mystery, except with no murder, but intense one the less.