This is a movie about how super cool and fun it is for young men to compete over, harass, and assault women. And it’s all good because those women totally “like it.” Don't worry, sexual assault is basically just a "harmless" part of growing up as a very normal and not criminal boy learning how to be a man. I could probably use a different clip from this movie in every Pop Culture Detective video essay I make from now on.
Meandering and ultimately pointless with a side of violent homophobia. Filmmakers should just stop trying to explore the "manosphere" if all they can think to do is center yet another broken abusive man on the big screen. How about daring to give us an alternative? How about showing us men breaking free from patriarchal constraints? Too much to ask for, I guess.
Conclave is beautifully made and perfectly acted with breathtaking cinematography. I can't help feeling, however, like all that skill and effort is employed in the service of a West-Wing style liberal fantasy fetishizing institutional power. Every gorgeous shot is a love letter to the pomp and circumstance of the Catholic Church as an institution. This movie is less a portrait of the Church in crisis and more a fantasy about how a terrible criminal institution could work for the "greater…
