SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
The Academy Awards are less than two weeks away, and this past weekend, the BAFTAs - the British Film and TV Awards - offered some clues as to which direction Oscar voters might be going.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
That's right. "Conclave" and "The Brutalist" - they were big winners in London, and there's still time to watch them before the Oscars on March 2.
DETROW: But if you don't want to or you can't, critic Bob Mondello is here to help with his reviews. You can make your own predictions for the big night or at least sound like you know what you're talking about.
KELLY: (Laughter) Right. I mean, none of us know, obviously, who will win big at the Oscars, and I think that's part of the fun, just like the unpredictable process of selecting a new pope, at least as depicted in the thriller "Conclave."
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: A throbbing score accompanies Cardinal Lawrence, played by Ralph Fiennes, as he walks briskly through the Vatican to join fellow cardinals at the pontiff's bedside, where John Lithgow's Cardinal Tremblay makes a somber affirmation.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CONCLAVE")
JOHN LITHGOW: (As Cardinal Tremblay) The pope is dead. The throne is vacant.
MONDELLO: This means convening a conclave, sequestering all the world's cardinals in the Sistine Chapel while they select a new pope. Lawrence will be the organizer.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CONCLAVE")
RALPH FIENNES: (As Cardinal Lawrence) The supervision of this election, this is a duty I never thought I'd have to perform.
MONDELLO: He is briskly efficient, taking care not to play favorites, though he's friends with Stanley Tucci's liberal American cardinal, who some think has an inside track.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CONCLAVE")
STANLEY TUCCI: (As Cardinal Bellini) Have you seen the papers? Apparently, it's already decided. It's to be me.
FIENNES: (As Cardinal Lawrence) And I happen to agree with them.
TUCCI: (As Cardinal Bellini) What if I know in my heart that I am not worthy?
FIENNES: (As Cardinal Lawrence) You are more worthy than any of us.
TUCCI: (As Cardinal Bellini) I'm not.
FIENNES: (As Cardinal Lawrence) Well then tell your supporters not to vote for you, to pass the chalice.
TUCCI: (As Cardinal Bellini) And let it go to him? Then I could never live with myself.
MONDELLO: Him is an Italian conservative who wants to take the church back a few decades. There's also a candidate from Nigeria who's angling to be the first African pope. And just to throw a wrench in things, there's a wild card.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CONCLAVE")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Another cardinal has turned up. He was never on our list.
FIENNES: (As Cardinal Lawrence) He has to be an impostor.
MONDELLO: At which point, things get squirrely fast. There's a secret letter...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CONCLAVE")
TUCCI: (As Cardinal Bellini) Where did you get this?
MONDELLO: ...Suggesting intrigue...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CONCLAVE")
FIENNES: (As Cardinal Lawrence) The Holy Father was spying on all of us.
MONDELLO: ...Threats...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CONCLAVE")
LITHGOW: (As Cardinal Tremblay) You should be careful, Thomas.
MONDELLO: ...Watchful nuns who weigh in.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CONCLAVE")
ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: (As Sister Agnes) Although we sisters are supposed to be invisible, God has nevertheless given us eyes and ears.
MONDELLO: Fiennes investigates...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CONCLAVE")
FIENNES: (As Cardinal Lawrence) What did you discuss with the Holy Father in that final meeting?
MONDELLO: ...Which raises hackles.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CONCLAVE")
LITHGOW: (As Cardinal Tremblay) I shall pretend this conversation never took place.
FIENNES: (As Cardinal Lawrence) But it has taken place.
MONDELLO: Starting to sound like an episode of "House Of Cardinals," right?
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CONCLAVE")
FIENNES: (As Cardinal Lawrence) This is a conclave. It's not a war.
TUCCI: (As Cardinal Bellini) It is a war. And you have to commit to a side.
MONDELLO: Wars, let's note, are something director Edward Berger knows a bit about. His last film, 2022's "All Quiet On The Western Front" laid out the German side of World War I so effectively it was nominated for nine Academy Awards and took home best international feature. In that one, he trafficked in mud and blood. In "Conclave," he's got mud-slinging and scarlet - ceremonial robes, swirling in the persuasively reproduced Sistine Chapel - along with a bit of purplish prose.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CONCLAVE")
FIENNES: (As Cardinal Lawrence) There is one sin which I have come to fear above all others - certainty. If there was only certainty and no doubt, there would be no mystery and therefore no need for faith.
MONDELLO: It's all terribly serious and a bit silly in the way the plot twists pile up. You'll see some of them coming. But the screenplay lobs one Hail Mary that'll knock viewers sideways, which means "Conclave" has made the transition from a good airport read to what will someday be a good in-flight watch. In the meantime, it's going to fill a lot of the pews at your local cinema.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DETROW: And next up, here is Bob Mondello on "The Brutalist," a 3 1/2-hour epic about a Jewish architect getting a taste of the American dream.
MONDELLO: When Laszlo Toth staggers up to the ship's deck after his transatlantic voyage in 1947, leaving concentration camps behind, the first thing he sees is the Statue of Liberty. Toth grabs a fellow passenger, laughing, dazed, as the camera pans up to catch Lady Liberty's torch looming weirdly upside down - a trick of perspective, maybe a portent of how things will go. Toth, played by Adrien Brody, finds his way to Philadelphia and a cousin who tells him his wife and niece have been found. They're alive.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE BRUTALIST")
ADRIEN BRODY: (As Laszlo Toth, crying).
MONDELLO: The cousin takes him to his furniture store, where Toth, who's an architect and designer, will sleep on a cot in a storeroom and work on projects. Miller & Sons, it's called.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE BRUTALIST")
BRODY: (As Laszlo Toth) Who is Miller?
ALESSANDRO NIVOLA: (As Attila) I'm Miller.
BRODY: (As Laszlo Toth) No, you are Molnar.
NIVOLA: (As Attila) Not anymore.
BRODY: (As Laszlo Toth) No Miller, no sons.
NIVOLA: (As Attila) The folks here, they like a family business.
MONDELLO: They also like no traces of Judaism. The cousin's wife is Catholic, his furniture conventional.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE BRUTALIST")
BRODY: (As Laszlo Toth) They're not very beautiful.
MONDELLO: But never mind. A wealthy client wants to renovate his dad's library as a birthday surprise. Can they do it by Thursday before the elder Mr. Van Buren gets home?
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE BRUTALIST")
NIVOLA: (As Attila) My cousin here, specialist in renovations. He even designed a whole city library.
JOE ALWYN: (As Harry Lee) What city is that?
BRODY: (As Laszlo Toth) Budapest.
ALWYN: (As Harry Lee) Never been.
MONDELLO: Toth visits the space, looks at the high ceiling, domed skylight.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE BRUTALIST")
ALWYN: (As Harry Lee) I know. It's terribly dated, isn't it? I'm thinking shelves up to the ceiling and some good reading lamps.
MONDELLO: Oh, he'll get so much more than that. Toth rips out everything, turns the space into a forced-perspective marvel of modernism, louvred teak.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE BRUTALIST")
BRODY: (As Laszlo Toth) The long panels. And the shelves have varying heights.
NIVOLA: (As Attila) So 45 degrees. Three, two, one.
BRODY: (As Laszlo Toth) Perfect.
MONDELLO: And as they're putting on the finishing touches...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE BRUTALIST")
GUY PEARCE: (As Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr., shouting) What is all this?
MONDELLO: ...The elder Van Buren, played by Guy Pearce.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE BRUTALIST")
PEARCE: (As Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr., shouting) Who authorized you to come into my home and tear everything apart?
NIVOLA: (As Attila) This was all supposed to be a surprise. Your son, Harry, told us not to expect you.
PEARCE: (As Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr., shouting) It is a damn surprise.
NIVOLA: (As Attila) Well, we were just putting everything back in its place.
PEARCE: (As Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr., shouting) You've turned it all inside-out. How do you know its proper place?
BRODY: (As Laszlo Toth) We are finished here. It's quite all right.
PEARCE: (As Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr., shouting) It's quite all right? This is not all right. This is my home.
MONDELLO: After fighting with his cousin, Toth spirals down, ending up on the street, addicted to opiates. But months later, Van Buren shows up with a just-published magazine spread on the library he's come to realize is a masterpiece.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE BRUTALIST")
PEARCE: (As Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr.) Have you seen that? I can assure you everyone else has.
MONDELLO: Not only that, he wants Toth to design a community center as a monument to his mother.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE BRUTALIST")
PEARCE: (As Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr.) Something boundless. Something new.
MONDELLO: It will be that - a massive, brutalist structure unlike anything Bucks County, Pennsylvania, has ever seen. Unlike anything I've ever seen, frankly. And filmmaker Brady Corbet makes all of it so persuasive, I spent the intermission - "The Brutalist" is a brisk 3 1/2 hours - searching the internet for images, convinced Laszlo Toth's community center must exist. It doesn't, of course, but if it did, it would be fashioned of concrete, tears and blood.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONDELLO: The film's breathtaking second half is all about building the monument and, in the process, exposing cracks in the foundation of the American dream. Toth's obsession with his work is total, even when he's reunited with his wife. His patron is a man of many prejudices, who doesn't just appreciate art but must control it and the artist. And the post-war world they inhabit? Well, we know what that's like.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE BRUTALIST")
BRODY: (As Laszlo Toth) They do not want us here.
FELICITY JONES: (As Erzsebet Toth) Who do you mean?
BRODY: (As Laszlo Toth) The people here. They do not want us here. We are nothing.
MONDELLO: "The Brutalist" is about antisemitism and the luminescence of carrara marble, about wariness for outsiders and the way moonlight strikes a line of columns. Filmmaker Brady Corbet's film is gorgeous conceptually, dizzying in its savagery. Truly a monumental achievement.
I'm Bob Mondello.
(SOUNDBITE OF DANIEL BLUMBERG'S "SEARCH PARTY") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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