'Conclave' Is a Thrilling Story of Faith, Doubt & Catholic Church Bureaucracy

The Catholic Church is known for many things, from centuries of tradition to painful public reckonings with its all-too-human failures. It is perhaps best recognized for its intricate rituals, from the comforting traditions of daily Mass to the pageantry of high feast days like Easter and Christmas. The Church has specific ceremonies to guide the faithful in everything from baptism and weddings to last rites and burial, and there's something deeply comforting about the eternal nature of its dedication to procedure. All that ritual is one of the big draws at the center of the prestige thriller Conclave, a film that revolves around one of the most famous ceremonies in the life of the Church: The election of a new pope.

These days, most feature films that involve the Church tend to be about one of two things: The fallout from devastating scandals or a fight against the literal forces of evil. After all, there's rich drama to be found in the Church's ongoing struggles to confront and atone for the darkest, most damning secrets of its history. At least one movie hitting theaters around Halloween is guaranteed to involve someone or something getting possessed*. A Papal conclave is, by necessity, deeply mysterious, full of rich symbolism, secrecy, and lots and lots of Latin. But they are also profoundly human affairs, full of political posturing, influence peddling, and frequently uncomfortable compromise.

(*But, hey, the Church has a literal how-to guide for handling exorcisms, too, so that tracks.)