The papacy is upon us, and you’d be excused if you were getting a little disordered with your supreme pontiffs. It’s definitely Vatican season in pop culture right now. First, yesterday we had the trailer for “The New Pope,” Paolo Sorrentino’s HBO series (a continuation of “The Young Pope“) starring Jude Law and John Malkovich and today we have not-at-all-confusing “The Two Popes,” a Netflix film from Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles (“City Of God“) starring Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce (“Game Of Thrones,” “Brazil“). While the former is about a young, American pope who takes the Catholic church in a radical direction, the “The Two Popes”—the film at hand here— is based on a true story and intimate look at a historic turning point in the Catholic Church when the conservative Pope Benedict and the liberal future Pope Francis had to find common ground to forge a new path for the Catholic Church following Benedict’s resignation in 2013.
“The Two Popes” was an unexpected success at the most recent Telluride Film Festival (our review). It may not have received “Parasite” and “Uncut Gems” hype and love, but all Oscarologists, know the film has a good shot at awards love. Anthony Hopkins stars as Pope Benedict XVI, and Jonathan Pryce plays Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the future Pope Francis. Pryce received a lot of acclaim for his performances, and he’s touted to be one of the contenders for a Best Actor Oscar nomination this year.
Here’s the official synopsis:
From Fernando Meirelles, the Academy Award-nominated director of “City of God,” and three-time Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Anthony McCarten, comes an intimate story of one of the most dramatic transitions of power in the last 2,000 years. Frustrated with the direction of the church, Cardinal Bergoglio (Jonathan Pryce) requests permission to retire in 2012 from Pope Benedict (Anthony Hopkins). Instead, facing scandal and self-doubt, the introspective Pope Benedict summons his harshest critic and future successor to Rome to reveal a secret that would shake the foundations of the Catholic Church. Behind Vatican walls, a struggle commences between both tradition and progress, guilt, and forgiveness, as these two very different men confront elements from their pasts in order to find common ground and forge a future for a billion followers around the world.
“The Two Popes” opens in theaters on November 27 and then arrives on Netflix on December 20. Watch the new trailer below.