Split Decision: “Conclave”

In the Split Decision series, two of our writers face off on an Oscar-nominated movie one loves and the other doesn't. Today, for the last convo of the season, Abe Friedtanzer and Cláudio Alves tackle Conclave...

CLÁUDIO: As the Academy congregates to elect a new Best Picture winner, here, at The Film Experience, we continue our Split Decision convos. However, this debate won't finish with the white smoke of agreement - we never seem to come to such conclusions around these parts. And yet, we persevere in arguing because it's fun. Oh, how I wish Conclave were as fun to watch as it is to reflect upon and talk about. I've fallen in love with the movie those Yaoi girlies saw and keep promoting online, but that's not the movie I watched at TIFF. Edward Berger's too self-serious for such levity, even if this adaptation would have significantly benefited from a surrender to its gossipy pleasures. Give us RuPaul's Drag Race: Vatican with a matching Untucked, not this mirthless drudgery that only elicits laughs because it treats its characters as fodder for shock rather than people. I guess that's enough for an introduction. So let me do like Cardinal Lawrence and wrap up this homily. Or should I emulate Bellini and declare war? Whatever the case, let's go, Abe. Come defend your Catholic fave.

ABE: We're off to a good start with this bevy of puns and references, which should make for a great conversation…

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Oscar Volleys: Best Supporting Actress is a Disappointment

The Oscar Volleys are back for some post-nomination talks. Tonight, Nathaniel Rogers and Cláudio Alves discuss Best Supporting Actress...

A COMPLETE UNKNOWN | © Searchlight Pictures

NATHANIEL: Cláudio it falls on us to discuss Supporting Actress. I thought it only fitting that we approach this as a callback to Supporting Actress Smackdowns of the past, and start the hype by discussing their character's introductions. But I could only remember two of them so there goes that idea. I'm beginning this way so as to not bury the lede: I REALLY don't like the category this year. I would not have been tempted to nominate a single one of these performances even though I like three of them just fine. The fact that I've already forgotten how they're introduced in the context of their films reinforces the mediocrity of the chosen five. To dispel this immediate negativity (sorry sorry) let's just say that I felt like one of the extras in A Complete Unknown in the sequence where we meet Joan Baez.  Had I been in that cafe I, too, would have fallen silent utterly bewitched by stage presence and voice. The film doesn't make much room for Baez/Barbaro thereafter but what a voice! 

Did you love any of their introduction scenes? Or, alternately if you also feel the category is weak, were you excited by any of their introductions in terms of anticipation as to what that character and that actress might bring to the rest of the film?

CLÁUDIO: Oh, how I wish I could come in as a contrarian and sing the praises of this lineup. Sadly, that would be dishonest and we're all about truth-tellin’…

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Oscar Volley: Best Supporting Actress Isn't Supporting Anything

The Oscar Volleys, in which various TFE members discuss specific categories, begin... now

Rossellini & Gomez are two of only four supporting actresses who MIGHT show up in the five-wide Supporting category... if they can get around about seven leading ladies.

BABY CLYDE: The Academy can be a stuffy and old fashioned institution. Adverse to change and reluctant to move with the times, it’s taken decades of pressure to finally get a casting prize added. The poor stunt performers are still without a statue in their honor, so it’s come as a great surprise that a new award has been instituted this year a without any prior announcement or fanfare at all.

They’ve done away with Best Supporting Actress and introduced the ‘Best Lead Actress in a ‘Supporting’ Role’ category. To secure spots for all of those poor unappreciated A List, millionaire, billed above the title, Leading Lady Stars, they’ve been given their very own spill over category. This will ensure the ceremony has as many big names as possible and isn’t encumbered by character actors, theatre performers or anyone over the age of 50 that Tik Tokers won’t recognize...

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Mother-Daughter Duos at the Oscars

by Cláudio Alves

Fernanda Montenegro in Walter Salles' I'M STILL HERE.

This past week, Fernanda Montenegro celebrated her 95th birthday. A living legend of Brazilian culture in various mediums, she is our oldest living Best Actress nominee. Montenegro is back on the awards trail with Walter Salles' I'm Still Here. While her late-film cameo won't excite many voters, Brazil's Best International Film submission is raking in Audience Awards at festivals worldwide and sterling reviews to match. Perhaps Sony Pictures Classics can even look away from Saoirse Ronan and Almodóvar's leading ladies for a moment, and mount a Best Actress campaign for Fernanda Torres. Her performance as Eunice Paiva is nothing short of magnificent. 

Though a longshot, Torres' nomination would be amply deserved, making her and Montenegro one of the few mother-daughter duos to score acting Oscar nominations. It's a very exclusive club that includes…

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TIFF: Ralph Fiennes carries the engaging and tense "Conclave

by Matt St Clair

Ralph Fiennes in "Conclave" © Focus Features

After taking audiences through the treacherous WWI battlefields in the Oscar-winning epic All Quiet on the Western Front, director Edward Berger crafts a different exercise in tension in the form of a Pope election with Conclave, a high-stakes thriller based on the 2016 novel by Robert Harris that is full of high-stakes political intrigue and stellar performances...

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