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I saw CONCLAVE, a low-key mystery/thriller set during the meeting of a Vatican conclave to elect a new Pope. There are several candidates: a liberal American (Stanley Tucci), a moderate who's maybe Canadian (John Lithgow -- his character's name is Tremblay), and two conservative candidates from Nigeria and Italy.

(1/4)

Ralph Fiennes is the Dean charged with running the conclave, and there's a succession of unpleasant surprises awaiting him: an unknown guy shows up claiming to have been secretly made a cardinal by the late Pope; Tremblay was the last person to meet with the Pope before his death; an unchaperoned nun is seen leaving Adeyemi's room.

So it's a twisty story, where each revelation flips the voting numbers back and forth and you wonder who's eventually going to be chosen. The cast is stellar, but it's mostly old or middle-aged men; the movie doesn't pass the Bechdel test: Isabella Rosselini is the only actress with a significant speaking role, and her role is still pretty small. (2/4)

Andrew Kuchling

On the complete opposite end, I also really enjoyed ANORA, which won the Palme D'Or at Cannes this year. It's about Anora / Ani, a young woman from Brooklyn who works as a stripper. (The movie uses every bit of its R rating.) Because she can speak some Russian, she's introduced to Ivan, the 19-year-old son of a super-rich Russian oligarch. Ivan hangs out with Ani, pays her for sex, and on a trip to Vegas they get married. Ivan's parents are *not* happy at this news, and send a pair of local fixers called Toros and Garnick. Confronted by these guys, Ivan immediately bolts, and Ani is stuck with them as they drive over town looking for him.

The Wikipedia page calls this a "romantic comedy drama", but I wouldn't -- Ivan is a twerp and there's no romantic chemistry with him. "Comedy drama" isn't too wrong: I quickly got involved with the story, and while it's not a mystery and doesn't have twists in that way, the plot still feels lively & unpredictable.

(3/4)

Finally, something recently made me think of the 1990s version of FANTASY ISLAND that starred Malcolm McDowell, so Barb and I watched it. It got cancelled pretty quickly, but all 13 episodes can be streamed on Tubi. McDowell is fun as a Mr Rourke who's kind of evil; he wears a black jacket instead of a white one.

One of his associates is a woman with magical powers who's named Ariel, another is a dumb lug named Cal, and one episode features Rourke's daughter Miranda. I don't know if these were just in-jokey references to Shakespeare's "The Tempest" or if they were planning a bigger revelation later.

The 1990s CGI hasn't aged well at all and a few of the plotlines haven't either, but it was an enjoyable bit of TV fluff. (4/4)