Little bit of shuffling on the schedule for me. I’m still trying to figure out where to place the Chicago reviews without making these post super long. Two of the 10 were last week, and another three are this week. That leaves 5 left to share my thoughts on. As of now, none of them will be next week, but they are on the schedule further down the road. Once again, this week it’s 3 films from the Windy City. I of those was from the Festival, and the other two are Best Picture threats. I match all those with the fourth film this week, a loud dumb comic book movie. On to the reviews!
The circumstance of the passing away of the Pope and the selection of the next one is a fascinating thing. The secrecy of the process is a real thing as the only thing we see is the infamous white or black smoke. In this drama, we follow along in this process. In the film, the Pope has just died. Now Ralph Fiennes’s Cardinal Lawrence (as the Dean of Cardinals) organize his fellow Cardinals to gather and vote on a new leader of the Catholic Church. Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow are also excellent here as fellow Cardinals vying for win. This film plays out like a part mystery/part courtroom drama. As the voting rounds move on, new revelations come out to effectively eliminate Cardinals in the running. It all really works here to a certain point. Where it sort of loses its way is at the point many have mentioned who have watched this film or read the book it’s based on. There is a choice the story makes at the very end that is sure a choice. It really opened up the film to quite a few unanswered questions. Also, it’s where the believability gets thin. If what is revealed at the end ever got out to the public (which it would most certainly would) it would be close to if not most controversial issue of the Church. The film wisely ends shortly after the reveal so it doesn’t have to follow up on what would happen. Maybe in Conclave 2 they will.
Baseball is my favorite sport, so when I saw this was an option at the festival, I had to see it. On its face, this is the simplest of films. You are just watching two adult league baseball teams playing one last game on a field that will soon be torn down to build a school. What really works is all the intricacies in play that you only know or get if you have been at or part of these kind of games. I have friends that play in leagues like this. The film starts when all the players gather for the game, and it ends when they all drive home. It’s what happens between those two points that is fun for a baseball fan like me. This is just a small budget, low stakes film that you can tell meant a lot to everyone involved. The one bad part of this is for you. Currently, the release date of this is March 2025, so unless you see an early showing of this at a festival, you will have a wait for this. It is worth it though.
As the front runner for Best Picture in a lot of circles at the moment, I had high hopes when I saw this was playing in Chicago while I was there for the festival during it’s slow limited opening. While I won’t say I was disappointed, I just didn’t feel like a lot of people do about it. The story is about an exotic dancer who meets a young man who ends up paying her to be his girlfriend for a week. They end up in Vegas where they wed. The problem is though that the young man is the son of a Russian Oligarch, and his family is not happy he married a “prostitute”. Things do go so well, but I that is kind of the point. That isn’t why I don’t like it as much as other people. It is just that I didn’t like any of the characters. They all are kind of awful. The son is really the worse one for me. He was annoying, and I didn’t really see how Ani would want to be in around him if he didn’t have that much money. That is the point I took from this. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. I say all of that to get to this point. Mikey Madison is going to win Best Actress in March. She is what made this film what is was.
As the final part of a trilogy, this wrapped up the story ok I guess. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t awful. Leaving us right where 2021’s Let There Be Carnage ended off. Eddie and Venom are on the run after Detective Mulligan was reported dead (he wasn’t though). Also after they is an organization below Area 51 (Area 55), and the lackeys of an unknown big, bad named Knull that needs something from our duo to be released from his prison. That is a lot chasing our “heroes” but the story weaves everything together where it doesn’t seem too bad. Hardy has always been fun as Brock, and the Venom movies are maybe the only good Spidey-verse movies that don’t involve Spider-Man. The bar isn’t very high though. This was an enjoyable time, but we don’t need another one of these. Three is enough, unless we get a true hard-R Carnage movie in the future.
It shouldn’t take much to take first place this weekend. It only took $26 million last week, and Venom will be in its third weekend, Wild Robot it’s 7th, and Smile it’s 4. Heretic should get enough to be at the top on Sunday.
- Heretic
- Venom: The Last Dance
- The Wild Robot
- Smile 2
- The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
This week I have four more films lined up right now. As of me posting this, I’ve already seen We Live in Time and Don’t Move. On Tuesday, I am seeing Emilia Perez so I don’t have to think about the election that night. Then it’s Heretic on Thursday. I also have Memoir of a Snail this weekend, but that won’t show up here until the following week. As much as i want the election to just be over, please vote tomorrow if you haven’t already like I did this past Saturday. Your vote is important, and I will not even try an tell you who to vote for. This is a nice place here and there is no reason to ruin it now.
Mitten Film Nerd 
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