Conclave

I don’t have much to say about Conclave. Except that it was one of the most visually stunning movies that I’ve seen lately. Symmetry and space is more often than not used for visual story telling. They reference the underlying tension and story between characters in many scenes. Colours are chosen very carefully and again used as a narrative tool. Etc. There were perhaps hundreds of paintings in this movie painted by a camera and a set.

Having said that the story is at best superficial. Yes there is a lot of drama but characters are mostly single-dimensional. The antagonist’s character represents absolute bad and the (unexpected) protagonist represents absolute good. There isn’t much to explore other than superficial drama. Aminah thinks the story is a like-a-version of Mean Girls. I haven’t seen the movie but I wouldn’t be surprised. Plus, I’m kind of sick of seeing these so called “progressive” movies. Hollywood has really started showing these down our throats. And this movie makes no exception. There was very little to be gained for the plot by making the final Pope hermaphrodite. I guess it’ll win over The Academy.

Nonetheless I’d still recommend going and seeing Conclave. Despite my criticism the story is a nail biter. And cinematography was stunning.