Conclave (2024)

80% of the runtime is a Good Movie. It looks really good and is well-acted. Ralph Fiennes looks like my grandpa, which is a bit uncanny.

The sound design is a little weird—there are lots of scenes with gratuitous breathing noises as people stand around wondering what they should do. It also feels like the sound designer unnecessarily muted background noise, so that when characters talk the sound sort of pulses in and out to ensure total silence in between the lines.

There are subplots that are not resolved and never go anywhere—terrorist plots occurring outside, Fiennes’ crisis of faith—and subplots that appear out of nowhere in the final five minutes of the film and also don’t go anywhere.

The whole movie builds and builds and then goes, “Oh no! Anyway,” like Jeremy Clarkson, and then it’s the end.