{"id":3874,"date":"2025-01-27T10:28:15","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T10:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3874"},"modified":"2025-01-27T11:24:07","modified_gmt":"2025-01-27T11:24:07","slug":"oscars-2025-conclave-and-a-complete-unknown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/01\/27\/oscars-2025-conclave-and-a-complete-unknown\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscars 2025: Conclave and A Complete Unknown"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a lot to enjoy in Conclave<\/strong> \u2013 no, not enjoy: savour. It looks magnificent and Edward Berger continues his productively discordant partnership with composer Volker Bertelmann whose strident foghorning helped make All Quiet on the Western Front<\/em> so evocative. We have some of this generation\u2019s finest Old Men of Acting giving it everything they\u2019ve got. And who wouldn\u2019t want to peek behind the curtain of decision making at the Vatican? Decision making is one of the keystones of storytelling, whether it\u2019s Chaplin being forced to eat his own shoe, Michael realising only he can take out McClusky or Han Solo coming back to save Luke Skywalker.<\/p>\n

But this time, Berger isn\u2019t adapting a classic German novel born out of the pain of a generation-defining conflict. This time, his source text is a Robert Harris page-turner \u2013 maybe not quite an airport thriller, but definitely aiming to build suspense and pass the time rather than leaving the reader pondering great questions about the nature of humanity and goodness. And if the characters in Conclave<\/em> spend any time at all pondering such questions, they do it off-screen, as when they\u2019re in front of the camera, they\u2019re scheming and plotting in a way much more befitting Francis Urquhart or Malcolm Tucker. We know Ralph Fiennes\u2019s earnest and studious Cardinal Lawrence is experiencing a mild crisis of faith because he tells us so \u2013 not because it\u2019s dramatised in any particularly interesting way.<\/p>\n

Yes, the plot did keep me guessing, but this is also sometimes to the film\u2019s detriment, as the rules of the thriller to which it\u2019s so wedded mean that the clearly-telegraphed penultimate twist must needs be topped by a final somewhat ludicrous twist. To be clear, this is partly the fun of what is a very entertaining and engaging film. It\u2019s endlessly charming and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny to see these pompous clerics in their ornate robes sneaking a crafty ciggie, fiddling with an iPhone or hacking into someone else\u2019s email. But the actual storytelling couldn\u2019t be less interested in the philosophical debates about the future of the Catholic church, and is only just interested enough in the personalities of the main players to make the plot work.<\/p>\n

That leaves us with the actors, and here Isabella Rossellini is effortlessly commanding, Fiennes and Tucci elevate the thin material they\u2019re given and Lucian Msamati – whose Cardinal Adeyemi actually is given a little bit of depth and nuance – is very impressive. What baffles me slightly is why John Lithgow took the gig. I\u2019m certain he doesn\u2019t need the work and his character exists solely to wax his moustache and cackle evilly. A missed opportunity.<\/p>\n

In terms of character depth, A Complete Unknown<\/strong> is sort of the opposite. Monica Barbaro manages to mine the flimsy screenplay and comes up with a complete character with a rich interior life seemingly from nowhere. Everyone else seems satisfied with doing impersonations and moving through the relevant Wikipedia entries until 140 minutes is up. Maybe that\u2019s because Elle Fanning looks so completely lost \u2013 because her character is the only one that\u2019s invented.<\/p>\n

I came to this knowing nothing much at all about Bob Dylan, which meant on the one hand that I wouldn\u2019t be huffing and fuming and nit picking as the inevitable artistic licenses were taken. On the other hand, that means things need to be explained to me to make the story work, and various things seemed to happen which were given profound significance without paying off in any meaningful way. Dylan\u2019s first album is all covers. Why? Did they sell? How did he persuade the record company to let him record originals? Who are these two different round men who smoke cigars both of whom seem to be something to do with his management but neither of whom is ever introduced or seen to be making decisions which impact his life or career. Who\u2019s this guy bullying his way into the recording session and ending up playing the organ? What, to be blunt, is the point of any of this, other than to check off events in the life of a famous asshole?<\/p>\n

But I could have stood a bit of confusion about the finer points of the music industry if the character work had been stronger. Timothee Chalamet is a fine talent and has clearly worked incredibly hard to summon up Dylan\u2019s manner and musical abilities. But if we aren\u2019t given any insight into who he was and what he wanted, then the entire exercise seems futile. Early on, I appreciated the measured pace and there were some nice moments between Chalamet\u2019s puppy-dog 20-year-old Dylan and Edward Norton\u2019s avuncular Pete Seeger. But after the first half hour, this turns into Folk Hard: The Bobby Dylan Story with a dedication that seems almost demented.<\/p>\n

Eight down, two to go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a lot to enjoy in Conclave \u2013 no, not enjoy: savour. It looks magnificent and Edward Berger continues his productively discordant partnership with composer Volker Bertelmann whose strident foghorning helped make All Quiet on the Western Front so evocative. We have some of this generation\u2019s finest Old Men of Acting giving it everything they\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25,11],"tags":[12,13,19],"class_list":["post-3874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-the-cinema","category-culture","tag-movies","tag-oscars","tag-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5JY5l-10u","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3874"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3884,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3874\/revisions\/3884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}