Conclave ***1/2
A movie about the election of a Pope might not be as hard a sell if the marketing department were able to reveal the kind of movie it actually is—but the complexity it ultimately reveals is part of what makes it so fascinating. Director Edward Berger (the Oscar-winning 2022 All Quiet on the Western Front) and screenwriter Peter Straughan adapt Robert Harris’s 2016 novel that takes in the aftermath of the sudden death of the Pope, leaving Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) responsible for overseeing the conclave of cardinals that will select his successor. Several prospective candidates emerge—including a close friend (Stanley Tucci) of the deceased pontiff, an Italian arch-conservative (Sergio Castellitto) and an American (John Lithgow) who may have been at odds with the previous Pope—and at times the narrative feels like a political thriller about how the human realities of fear and ambition pollute what is theoretically a spiritual endeavor. But gradually, Conclave’s roots as a psychological drama take hold, with Fiennes’ rich performance capturing the role of uncertainty and doubt in matters of faith, and Berger’s direction adding some vibrant imagery and a sense of genuine suspense. Like All Quiet on the Western Front, this turns out to be a war movie, but where the war is one of ideas, deciding what the role of an ancient religious institution should be in the messy modern world. Available Oct. 25 in theaters. (PG)

The Remarkable Life of Ibelin ***1/2
In case you needed proof that digital communities are just as “real” and important as in-real-life communities, Benjamin Ree’s wonderful documentary delivers it to powerful tear-jerking effect. That significance certainly wasn’t clear to the parents of Mats Steen—a Norwegian man who died of the degenerative muscular condition Duchenne dystrophy in 2014 at the age of 25—until after his passing, when they placed a notice of his death on Mats’ blog, and discovered that Mats had spent a decade as part of a “guild” in the online game World of Warcraft. Ree spends most of the film on animated re-creations of Mats’ online life as Ibelin Redmoore, and it becomes clear early on why this universe would appeal to a wheelchair-bound person, as we see his liberated avatar running, slaying dragons and even getting a chance to be a romantic lead. More significantly, Mats’ online friends share stories of how he touched their lives and helped them, at times through significant troubles, even as we also get a chance to see that he was occasionally rude and off-putting—in other words, an actual person, not a saint. As Ibelin, Mats fall in love, make mistakes, make amends and generally live a rich, full existence that didn’t feel accessible to him in his physical body. The emotionally wrenching conclusion underlines the extent to which the connections we make virtually still matter, leaving ripples into the real world. Available Oct. 25 via Netflix. (NR)

Venom: The Last Dance **
It’s kind of fitting that this (allegedly) final chapter in the Venom trilogy ends with a montage the likes of which you’d typically find in a romantic comedy, since these movies have always worked best as a weird kind of love story between Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and the brain-eating alien symbiote sharing his body. So it’s a bummer to find that Kelly Marcel—screenwriter for all three installments, now taking over behind the camera as well—seems so determined to make this exactly like every other Marvel movie. There’s a blah-blah-blah plot about a tesseract or horcrux or whatever that a cosmic bad guy needs to be free and wreak terrible vengeance, and a couple of new familiar faces in the supporting cast—Rhys Ifans as an alien-obsessed dad leading a family road trip to Area 51; Juno Temple as a trauma-haunted scientist; Chiwetel Ejiofor as a government heavy. But it really should be all about Hardy’s willingness to go gung-ho with the physical performance, and his Venom voice contributing goofy comic relief. It’s too bad all of that gets overwhelmed by toothy indestructible alien creatures and an army of symbiotes in the kind of “too much is never enough” finale that turned so many MCU entries sideways. The flashes of idiosyncratic weirdness are too few and far between, losing the thread of a love that dare not shriek its name. Available Oct. 25 in theaters. (PG-13)

Your Monster ***
Over-the-top genre fare is consistently a better spot to find interesting performances than earnest awards-bait dramas, and writer-director Caroline Lindy’s expansion of her 2020 short gets a big boost from its two leads, even when its attempt at allegory falls a little flat. Melissa Barrera stars as Laura Franco, a struggling New York actor whose life is in a shambles: recovering from cancer surgery, dumped by her composer boyfriend (Edmund Donovan) while she’s still sick, and living once again in her childhood bedroom. That’s where she encounters a monster (Tommy Dewey) living in her closet, and becoming an unexpected confidante. It’s clear Lindy wants this adult-skewing Beauty and the Beast tale to say something about women in unhealthy-bordering-on-abusive relationships, though the nature of Laura’s relationship with her monster is nebulous enough that the message never entirely pulls together. Fortunately, the filmmaker can lean on genuinely hilarious work by both of the actors at the center of the story: Dewey nailing the goofy complexity of an idealized romantic partner, and Barrera playing enthusiastically to the balcony as a woman trying to pull her life back together. Even when it’s not as perceptive as it seems to be aiming for, Your Monster is too much weird fun for it to be a major problem. Available Oct. 25 in theaters. (R)