Crimson cardinals with white brollies?
Starring ensemble visuals bringing to mind The Handmaid’s Tale and an ending with hints both of The Sixth Sense and Leicester City’s premier league triumph, Conclave was a thoroughly engaging ‘ecclesiasti-thriller’ with Ralph Fiennes brilliantly controlled in a Rylance-esque way.
More Grim than Disney
and beware those who label this supposed Cinderella story a romcom, a lazy label considering its insight into sex work and the privilege of obscene wealth. Funny in parts, bleak in others, there are some terrific performances but you may leave the cinema with a prevailing sense of unease.
I blubbed at the happy bits, I blubbed at the sad...
Sitting through this beautifully written, beautifully directed, beautifully acted, beautifully lit piece of art, I assumed my mood of transcendence was a universal experience. I’ve done a fair amount of triangulation in the subsequent fifteen hours and discovered it isn’t the case. Nonetheless, the guiding hand of Greta Gerwig and the sublime performances of Saoirse Ronan and Florence Pugh had me rearranging my best of year list at literally…
Decidedly not for everyone
A beautiful, painfully naturalistic film about the desperate sadness that infertility can create. Instant easy attraction, cemented by vintage Elvis Costello, gives way to the terrible conundrum of how primary biological processes, so simple for some, can be ineffably out of reach to others. The question, ‘what is family?’ Is ever present, and the wise and sensitive humanity of Peter Wight’s ‘dad’ provides at least one version of a whole range of answers.
