Weekend Watch: Conclave, Your Monster

Ralph Fiennes has a tough choice and Melissa Barrera finds her voice

Image Credit: Focus Features

Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, where I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Ralph Fiennes has to pick a new Pope and Melissa Barrera is a wallflower who blossoms thanks to a beast. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite and Threads/Instagram:@jammerwhite

Back in 2022, Edward Berger’s All Quiet On The Western Front was one of my favourite films of the year. I was naturally interested, then, to see what the director would do next.

As it turns out, he was shrinking the scale but keeping the drama at fever pitch, as his latest, Conclave is set in the claustrophobic, private world of the bishops who must assemble to vote on the next Pope following the death of the previous holder of that post.

Ralph Fiennes is our anchor here, playing Cardinal Lawrence, who was close with the deceased pontiff and finds himself in charge of leading the complicated process by which the next is decided upon. There are the favoured candidates, the dark horses and all the skeletons that come dancing out of closets –– or should that be cassocks? –– as the jockeying for votes continues. It’s less anointed by God, more every man for himself.

And as Lawrence digs into the various candidates, he also begins to suspect that all is not as it should be with the vote, as anti-Catholic sentiment roils outside their closeted chambers.

Berger has made something impressive once more, working from Peter Straughan’s screenplay, itself adapting Robert Harris’ book. Around Fiennes, he has assembled a superb cast that includes Stanley Tucci, Jacek Koman, Lucian Msmati, Brían F. O’Byrne, Isabella Rossellini and John Lithgow.

The performances truly drive this one, and it’s focused and tense. If one or two plot moments I can’t discuss because of spoilers feel like they don’t work as well, this doesn’t distract from the overall quality. Fiennes is a magnetic, conflicted core here and the script lets him shine. It’s also a fascinating peek inside a process few people know all that much about.

Conclave is in US cinemas now and will arrive in the UK on 15 November.

Image Credit: Vertical Entertainment

One of the surprise hits at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Caroline Lindy’s Your Monster is one that I’ve had my eye on for a while as colleagues who saw it before me raved about its combination of comedy, drama, theatrical politics and a great central duo in Melissa Barrera and Tommy Dewey.

With Lindy writing and directing, Your Monster is the story of Laura Franco (Barrera), a mousey, quiet sort who longs to be an actress and has been developing a musical with boyfriend Jacob (Edmund Donovan). But then she’s diagnosed with cancer and her life falls apart –– Jacob breaks up with her and she’s left to fend for herself. Once she recovers, she learns that he’s cast someone else in the role he effectively wrote for her, but also finds a proper supporter in the most unexpected place –– the monster (Dewey) who has lived in her mother’s house for years.

A funny, touching and entertaining take on a romantic comedy staple, the film is a constant delight, whether it’s poking fun at self-satisfied theatrical types, giving Barrera’s character a chance to properly find her voice –– and her rage –– and letting Dewey (who previously played the creature in the short that spawned the feature) be both empathetic and sarcastic.

It’s perhaps overburdened with one more subplot than it needs, but Your Monster is a truly welcome mix of rom-con and self-empowerment.

Your Monster is on limited release now in the US and will land in the UK on 6 December.