Conclave (2024)

SPOILERS BELOW

Looks and sounds lovely, lots of strong performances, but it inexplicably gives up at the end. Turns out the obviously corrupt guy probably did all the corrupt stuff (though he denies it and we never get full closure on that), the obviously awful guy is so awful he wants to start a war against Islam, and the lovely charity in war-torn countries guy is really lovely. But then a twist! The lovely guy is so lovely that he's intersex. The end. Why spend the whole movie acting like a mystery thriller and then not give it a proper ending? Why didn't we ever meet the mysterious Morales, why didn't it turn out the pope was murdered, why didn't we at least get a confession? It's so utterly unsatisfying, which I wouldn't mind so much if the underneath all the lovely dressing the film was anything other than 'detective story in the Vatican'.

Rating: lovely presentation, letdown of an ending.

Here (2024)

And I thought Nickel Boys' central conceit was distancing...

This just does not work. It's like a combination of a John Lewis Christmas ad and a flashback episode from a show like Lost where they use shorthand to show you all a character's important life events, but it goes on for 100 minutes. The frame-in-frame mechanic is the least imaginative transition method they could have come up with, and it feels so stiff, just like everything else in the movie - the acting (especially but not exclusively when via CG de-aging), the blocking where everyone steps perfectly into frame for their big speeches, the dialogue where historical echoes and period-establishing elements and hints at future illnesses are delivered with all the subtlety of a cheap animatronic park ride, and the centuries-old exterior settings feel about as real as a school play backdrop.

I can imagine a version of this that might have worked, if the transitions were more inventive, the dramatic moments smaller, the staging messier, the Forrest Gump of it all reduced. But alas.

Also, they should have left that tidal wave in.

Rating: stiff, cheesy, shallow.