CONCLAVE : Monday 3rd February 2025

I saw the PG Rated 'CONCLAVE' at the Open Air Cinema at Mrs. Macquarie's Chair this week, overlooking the Sydney Opera House, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the CBD. This UK and US Co-Produced film is Directed by Edward Berger and is based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Robert Harris. Edward Berger's previous film credits take in 'Jack' in 2014, 'All My Loving' in 2019 and the critically acclaimed and multi award winning 'All Quiet on the Western Front' in 2022. This film had its World Premiere screening at last years Telluride Film Festival in late August, was released in the US in late October, in the UK in late November, cost US$20M to produce, and has so far grossed US$92M. It has received generally positive critical reviews and has so far collected 59 award wins and another 294 nominations, many of which are still pending a final determination, from around the awards and festival circuit, including eight Academy Award nods. 

The films opens with the dead body of the pope lying peacefully in his bed where he passed away several hours before. It is the early hours of the morning and already sitting beside the late pope's bedside are Aldo Bellini (Stanley Tucci) and Joseph Tremblay (John Lithgow) - two of his closest Cardinals. Into the room in the early hours of the morning comes dean Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), and shortly thereafter the body is prepared before being removed (rather unceremoniously) by a pair of Ambulance men. Under the leadership of Lawrence, the College of Cardinals must convene in a Conclave, to elect the next pope. 

There are four leading candidates, all of whom have their sights set on the next papacy. These are Bellini of the US, Tremblay of Canada, Goffredo Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto) of Italy and Joshua Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati) of Nigeria. Janusz Wozniak (Jacek Koman), the prefect of the papal household, has information for Lawrence that the late pope demanded Tremblay's resignation on the night he died. Lawrence confronts Tremblay with this news, which he vehemently denies. Bellini tells his supporters his goal is to prevent Tedesco from becoming pope, because he is way too traditional in his views of the role of the pope. 

Meanwhile, Lawrence is taken aback by the last-minute arrival of Archbishop Vincent Benitez (Carlos Diehz) of Kabul, whom the late pope named cardinal the previous year in secret. None of the one hundred or so Cardinals had any prior knowledge of Benitez existence up that point, and Lawrence had no reason to doubt his claims as genuine.

After the first ballot is counted, no one obtains the required two-thirds majority, though Adeyemi has a slight edge and Bellini and Lawrence split the liberal vote. Raymond O'Malley (Brian F. O'Byrne), Lawrence's assistant, does some background digging on Benitez, where he learns the late pope paid for his plane ticket to Geneva for a canceled medical appointment. On the second day, while the Cardinals were gathered for lunch, the college witnesses a confrontation between Adeyemi, who leads in the votes, and Sister Shanumi (Balkissa Maiga), a nun recently transferred from Nigeria to Vatican City. After Adeyemi storms out of the lunch room, Lawrence privately speaks with Shanumi, who confesses to an illicit relationship that led to the birth of a son, albeit some twenty years ago. Lawrence then confronts Adeyemi with this news, and asks him is he wishes to confess. Though Lawrence is bound to secrecy by order of the Confession, a whisper campaign puts an end to Adeyemi's candidacy. Bellini thereafter, reluctantly decides to back Tremblay.

Working with Sister Agnes (Isabella Rossellini), the nun overseeing the cardinals' catering and housekeeping arrangements, Lawrence learns that Tremblay arranged for Shanumi's transfer. When confronted, Tremblay claims that he did so at the late pope's request. Lawrence then breaks into the late pope's quarters and discovers documents that implicate Tremblay did so, but without the pope's consent. He shows the documents to Bellini, whose plea not to reveal their existence sparks an argument. Lawrence has Sister Agnes copy the document for every member of the college.

On the third day, following the revelation of Tremblay's actions, Lawrence reconciles with Bellini and agrees to oppose Tedesco. Lawrence votes for himself during the sixth ballot, which is interrupted by an explosion that knocks him to the floor and damages the Sistine Chapel, covering many of the Cardinal's in dust and debris, and none are seriously injured. 

The college learns the explosion was caused by a suicide bomber who detonated himself near the Vatican, killing about a dozen in the crowd, and injuring many more. Tedesco calls for a religious war, while Benitez says that violence should not be met with violence. The college overwhelmingly elects Benitez in the seventh ballot, and he chooses the papal name of 'Innocent'.

Lawrence is initially enthusiastic and relieved, until O'Malley pulls him aside to discuss the nature of Benitez's canceled medical appointment . . . and I'll leave it there, for to tell of the twist in this tale will likely spoil it for those who have yet to see 'Conclave'. Needless to say, you won't have seen that one coming!

With 'Conclave' Director Edward Berger has here crafted a film aimed squarely at a more mature audience, looking for good old fashioned high stakes drama underscored by a first rate all on their A-game cast, top notch cinematography, and a taut riveting story that will maintain your unwavering interest right up until the end. This film has political intrigue, some real laugh out loud moments, and all the plot twists and turns that you could possibly hope for all wrapped up in a neat entertaining package that is well worth the price of your movie ticket and will keep you enthralled for its two hour run time. 

'Conclave' merits five claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

INCREDIBLES 2 : Tuesday 19th June 2018.

'INCREDIBLES 2' which I saw in a packed out theatre earlier this week finally hits our big screens after a hiatus of fourteen years. Now comes the long awaited sequel to 2004's 'The Incredibles' - that highly praised computer animated Superhero film from Pixar that took US$633M at the global Box Office and picked up two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Sound Editing, as well as the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature and the first entirely animated film to win the prestigious Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. Brad Bird wrote and Directed the first film, and it's no surprise that he reprises those two earlier roles for this second instalment, as do the majority of the principle voice cast. The film was released in the US last week too, cost US$200M to make and has so far raked in US$329M at the global Box Office, and has received generally favourable Reviews, with Critics praising the quality of the animation, and the sense of humour the film instills.

'Incredibles 2' takes off immediately where 'The Incredibles' finished, with the introduction of the mole like villain The Underminer (John Ratzenberger) attempting to rob the Metroville Bank, in which he is partially successful. His plans are however, thwarted by the Parr family on the spot, who with their combined super powers overcome the mole like mechanical digging machine and prevent a much bigger catastrophe. But alas, they are promptly arrested for causing too much damage to whole city blocks in the process. As a result, Agent Rick Dicker (Jonathan Banks) advises the Parr's that the 'Super Relocation' programme, of which the are a part, is being mothballed, forcing Supers, just like them, across the world to uphold their undercover identities for good, and to learn to adjust once and for all. There is nothing more that Dicker can do for them, except grant them temporary accommodation in a motel somewhere.

In the days that follow holed up in their motel room eating takeout and going stir crazy, Bob Parr, aka Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) and wife Helen, aka Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) together with good friend Lucius Best, aka Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson) are contacted by Winston Deavor (Bob Odenkirk) a big fan and advocate of Super heroes, who also happens to own a hugely successful telecommunications company named 'Devtech'. He plans a makeover of Supers to promote them in the best possible light so regaining public trust, admiration and support to overthrow governmental decisions around the globe to exile Supers.

Helen, is considered the least destructive of the Super family and the most level headed, and so she is chosen by Deavor for a publicity stunt to set the wheels in motion to begin regaining the confidence of the people. She is dispatched to New Urbem under her alter ego Elastigirl to openly fight crime on the streets wearing a camera to record her every move and those criminals halted in their tracks.

So Bob reluctantly has to play the stay at home Dad, offering to look after the kids Violet (Sarah Vowell), Dash (Huck Milner) and baby Jack-Jack (Eli Fucile and Nicholas Bird) whilst Helen is out there being Super. During her time on the streets of New Urbem, she witnesses the launch of a new high speed rail system with the unveiling the subject of much pomp & ceremony. When the train is set to take its maiden journey, it slips into reverse and gradually accelerates away at a rapid rate of knots getting out of control very quickly. It's Elastigirl to the rescue and she successfully thwarts a disaster, with all the cameras flashing and her image beamed around the world on the news channels.

Deavor has meanwhile allowed the Parr's to reside in one of his luxury homes on the outskirts of town fitted out with all the mod-cons, gizmo's and gadgets to make their stay as comfortable as possible. During Helen's absence, Bob tries to settle into a routine with the kids, but comes to the realisation that baby Jack-Jack has super powers all of his own - a fact that he struggles with initially coming to terms with, and controlling, when these at first manifest themselves in various situations. This causes Bob numerous sleepless nights from which he is becoming increasingly agitated, temperamental and lacking in patience.

Seeking some support and solace from the very demanding Jack-Jack whose various super powers require almost constant monitoring, Bob goes to see Edna Mode (Brad Bird). A long time close family friend and Super costume designer, Edna is at first very reluctant to baby sit the young toddler, but soon comes round when she witnesses the little tykes powers for herself. In the meantime, Helen has uncovered the evil enemy behind the earlier train incident that caused the driver to fall into a catatonic state at the controls. Screenslaver (Bill Wise) is a mystery criminal who controls computer and television screens to project hypnotic imagery that almost instantly brainwashes those looking on.

In an incident involving a high ranking government official known as the Ambassador (Isabella Rossellini) who supports the legalisation of Supers, in which her fleet of helicopters is overtaken remotely by Screenslaver's nefarious antics. With Elastigirl to the rescue once more, Screenslaver is thwarted and unmasked only to reveal a humble pizza delivery lad who had no recollection of how he came to be. At a subsequent party at Devtech's HQ to celebrate Screenslaver's defeat, Helen siddles away into a separate room and looks at video footage filmed from her hidden suit camera. This reveals an anomaly in that the pizza delivery guy was being controlled by hypno-goggles. At this point Evelyn Deavor (Catherine Keener) the sister of Winston and the inventive one in the family reveals herself to be the Screenslaver, and forces a pair of hypno-goggles onto Helen, so controlling her.

Evelyn sees the Supers as a threat to all humanity and is Hell bent on seeing to it that the are never legalised. So she took it upon herself to sabotage her brothers mission and has plans to brainwash the leaders of the world by exposing them to her controlling hypnotic imagery so that they do not pass the legislation making Super's legal. Ultimately, both Bob and Lucius are coaxed into a trap and fitted each with hypno-goggles, so controlling them too. Meanwhile, various other Super's who have all come out of the woodwork thanks to Winston's PR campaign success and Elastigirl being in the news for all the right reasons, have also been subjected to Screenslaver's controlling powers.

Meanwhile, Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack have all been suited and booted by Edna Mode with new super outfits. Keen to avoid the same fate as their parents, the three of them lurch to the rescue attempting to secretly board Deavor's luxury ocean going liner on which are gathered many world leaders for a hearing on reinstating the legality of the Supers. On board, the Screenslaver, who has Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl and Frozone all under her control are forced to give a negative address to paint them negatively in front of the worlds watching media. However, the kids get in there soon afterwards  and free up Mum and Dad Parr and Frozone from those pesky controlling hypno-goggles, and a fight breaks out. As control of the luxury liner has been lost and it is on a collision course for New Urbem, its the dynamic trio once again to the rescue to prevent disaster. Mr. Incredible has to turn the giant rudder underwater to divert the ship, Frozone has to make a course of ice to prevent the ship from reaching land, and Elastigirl is off to capture Evelyn who thinks she's getting away. In the aftermath, Evelyn is arrested and carted away in the back of a patrol car, and Super's are legalised and legitimised, and the world is a better, safer place for it!

I enjoyed 'Incredibles 2', but not as much as the first instalment, but was it worth the fourteen year wait between instalments - yes definitely! The main characters are familiar now and maturing, and the role reversal between Helen and Bob gives rise to some moments of genuine humour, and in this time of the 'MeToo' movement seems aptly current and not out of place. What I did question however, was why give baby Jack-Jack seventeen different super powers when the rest of the family have to settle with just one or two each. Clearly little ol' Jack-Jack is something very special, and the world had better watch out when he grows up! The quality of the animation is top notch, creative and faultless with breathtaking scenes where the action ramps up, or it is seen simply in the level of detail in every frame. In this age of Marvel and DC Superhero movies bombarding our big screens several times every year, its great to see a refreshing grounded Superhero offering about the average family next door harbouring super powers aplenty while hiding in plain sight. Pixar have done it again, with another follow up to add to their already burgeoning canon of animated classics. A film for kids of all ages, young and young at heart!

This film is worthy of four claps of the clapperboard, from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

JOY : Tuesday 5th January 2016.

I saw 'JOY' earlier in the week as Directed, Produced, Written for the screen and based on a story by David O'Russell in another collaboration with his two often used principle stars Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. This film is based loosely on the life of Joy Mangano and is a comedy drama with heart, emotion, tension and a degree of quirkiness that carries this along nicely, delivered by an excellent cast, and is about, at its foundation, the humble household mop! Made for US$60M this film had its New York Premier on 13th December and was released pretty much worldwide at Christmas, having so far made US$55M. Already it has picked up a couple of awards, has been nominated for many others and has many also still pending an outcome, including two Golden Globes.

In the event that you are unfamiliar with the story, it is a semi-autobiographical take on the life of Joy Mangano who is an American inventor, businesswoman and entrepreneur who invented, amongst other things, the self-wringing Miracle Mop which she developed in 1990 and within ten years was selling US$10M worth a year at US$20 each . . . not bad! Here Joy is depicted by Jennifer Lawrence who we meet as a struggling single Mum with two children living in her own mortgaged home with ex-husband of two years Tony (Edgar Ramirez) living in the basement; recently separated Dad, Rudy (Robert De Niro) moving in because his third wife has kicked him out; her mother Terri (Virginia Madsen) a paranoid TV soap opera addicted man hater since she and Rudy split who also rarely gets out of bed, and her grandmother Mimi (Diane Ladd). Added to this Joy works at Eastern Airlines, leaves because of a work restructure and can't afford to pay the bills on her increasingly dilapidated house. It is all a picture to behold! Joy has a half-sister too, Peggy (Elisabeth Rohm) who has grand ideas of running her own business but nothing ever materialises and puts-down Joy at almost every opportunity, often in front of her children.

Rudy owns and runs an auto mechanical workshop, but is 20 years behind the times and struggling to make ends meet. He is active on some dating hot line and connects with recently widowed wealthy Italian Trudy (Isabella Rossellini) and the two hit it off and become an item (yes, it's the Rudy & Trudy show!) Joy grew up with fertile imagination and even at a young age was a would-be-inventor we learn, but then she grew up and all her hopes & dreams got swept along in the current of adult life and the baggage it brings - ex-husbands, divorcing parents, kids, mortgages, career! Then, one day as a result of a wine glass spillage, she has a brain wave for a new kind of mop not previously seen before.

She draws up the plans, develops a prototype, tests it, persuades Trudy to financially back her project and tries to sell it around the traps with minimal success only. She tries to register a patent through Trudy's lawyer and learns that there is a similar product under development out of Hong Kong for which she would need to pay a US$50K royalty in order to put her mop into mass production. She pays and finds a plastics manufacturer in California to mass produce the handle. All is going well but she has still hardly sold any, and has now taken over Rudy's automotive workshop as her production line and hired a small workforce to assemble the finished product.

With money going out like there's no tomorrow and next to nothing coming in, the prospects do not look good for Joy, as Rudy & Trudy start to exert pressure wanting to see some returns. Joy is then introduced to Neil Walker (Bradley Cooper) a senior Executive at the fledgling QVC home shopping television channel (Quality, Value, Convenience) who gives her a break with the mop but insists that his best salesman pitch it on screen. He does so, and the mop bombs (because he's guy and what does a guy know about mops and household chores!). When she thinks all is lost Joy once again picks herself up and persuades Walker for a second shot if she can pitch the mop herself to the television audience. Reluctantly he agrees having already spent US$200K on advance orders upon his advice, that at this point have failed to materialise and for which Joy had to second mortgage her home. She is an instant success and the phones in the studio ring off the hook with orders for the Miracle Mop at US$19.95 each.

Happy Days, but it doesn't all end there, as the California based manufacturer keeps putting up their price, the family move in like circling vultures wanting a piece of the pie, she is given dodgy advice from all quarters, and now the patent for her mop may be invalid having been given poor advice by Trudy's lawyer friend! She files for bankruptcy when the brown stuff hits the fan and there seems no alternative. But Joy is made of sterner stuff, and you can't keep a good woman down. She pours over her contracts with her various business associates and discovers some truths that she can leverage, which she does, and successfully so, which ultimately gets her back on her feet, and back in front of the cameras at QVC. As a result Joy sold 18,000 mops in just half an hour on the growing home shopping network and went on to appear in over 120 hours a year selling her own invented products that range from slimline coat hangers, to home fragrances, to performance shoes and over 100 products to date.

Joy built her own business empire off the back of the home shopping network with sales in excess of US$150M a year, and in the process helps out young inventors looking for a break, just as she did years before. She cared for her growing children and ageing family all the way through despite family in fighting, lawsuits claiming the rights to the company she built, and many business challenges. Tony her ex-husband remained close and became a top business advisor together with long term loyal childhood friend Jackie (Dascha Polanco).

I enjoyed the film, and can easily watch Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence who clearly share an on-screen chemistry and have been regular co-stars over successive films, mostly with this Director. The story keeps this rags to riches determination against the odds story grounded and interesting and there is plenty going on to maintain the attention throughout the film - most of it relevant to the mop in hand story, and some of it not! It is the quirky side stories that maintain the momentum across four generations of the same family that propel what would otherwise be a fairly pedestrian film, which as a result is greater than the sum of its parts. Worthy of your $20.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-