The Young Pope

In some places, it seems like "we are following the time-proven quality TV plot at all costs", but this certainly does not mean that it would be to the detriment. The ambivalent character of the young pope as a real dark Catholic who believes in nothing but himself and who hides his own groping/searching in the guise of real dark Catholicism and a powerful uncompromising Old Testament God, whose love we are unworthy of. If you are into a Machiavellian scheming full of dialogs, where each sentence is ambiguous and where there is an unspoken tangible tension under seemingly friendly sentences about nothing, in which the sentence stated has the same weight as silence, then the Young Pope is definitely for you. Because the movie is excellent at that. Problematic so far are the occasional WTF sequences à la CGI kangaroo, which are… Simply WTF. Also, some characters a little bit insignificant, but the acting saves the situation, no doubt about it. You can immediately tell it’s a Sorrentino's distinctive style. Occasional insights into the every day routine of life "behind the monastery walls" are nicely civil. Symbolism is (mostly) not annoying. A seemingly apolitical pope with a clear agenda versus scheming of the cardinals magnificently satirical. Contemplation of existence and God full of points that are not cheap, dry apt humor, football Naples is present. The Pope is subversive as the exact opposite of the current progressive Pope. Great acting (Jude Law and Silvio Orlando as the icing on the cake), refined audiovisuals and, as expected, the story line is completely absent. This is about the characters, not the story and twists. It’s kind of a "thriller of inner faith". However, we cannot say the experience in unbalanced. There are really great sequences as well as the rather dull ones. And exactly this proves the best that the footage of ten episodes is not entirely justified. These are the (weak) strong points of The Young Pope in a nutshell. (11/09/2016)

A great disappointment, given mainly by the expectations from the first episodes. The detached and unpredictable first half is a pleasure for the spiritual and earthy in us. In addition, Law acts as an irritating object that never behaves the way we want it to. Sorrentino recalled the days when he was not the grandmaster of flat populism, but could conquer quite fundamental existential concepts with his image and sound. The Vatican is his next terrarium full of lazy human reptiles searching in vain for meaning - and in this respect The Young Pope is finally a viable substance. But then there is the second half, especially some parts of episodes 6-10. What was spontaneous is rigid here. What was imaginative is random here. Ambivalence turns into literality, provocativeness into superficiality. The character of the pope becomes a trivial "incomprehensible saint". Sorrentino wanders, does silly screenwriting idiocies (the case with the letters in the table? Wtf?), sometimes uses the music downright demonstratively (Kalinka? Wtf?). The final point is unfortunately the Paolo model of Youth. Puffy, empty, convulsive, banal... I appreciate this series for its original energy with which it disrupts traditional notions about the genre and dramaturgical concept, but in the end it turns out that a little rigidity would not hurt at all. Sorrentino is full of everything, but certainly not the ability to self-censor. Brilliant moments alternate with uncertain moments. P. S. The real popes of this series are the magnificent characters of Cardinals Voiell and Gutierrez. P. S. 2: I keep (gladly) returning to the Pope's best moments in my thoughts. That’s why I’m giving it a better score. (12/13/2016)

At first, I expected Paolo Sorrentino to film something more rough and more critical towards the Church. And he’s technically done it, although I don’t think that he’s offended the Church at all. He’s simply pointed out a certain state of it and he’s accepted everything else with humility, because Jude Law plays a fictional Pope character who is extravagant, but also conservative at the same time. He smokes, he likens himself to Daft Punk and openly claims that he doesn’t believe in God; because he’s the true God. And Sorrentino has filmed the entire show the way only he could – without a deeper story, but with strong moments, effectively, with the perfect soundtrack and at the same time, he managed to get maximum out of the actors. Thus the 10 episodes of this show won’t suck you in for the basically nonexistent story, but for the characters none of which is more relatable than the next one, but you can’t deny that they’re interesting. The Young Pope is an incredibly strange show and I’m fascinated that something like this can even exist. What’s more, I even watched till the very end. And I decided to ignore the people who view this show as an insult to the Church, because I personally didn’t find anything insulting about this, the opposite is true. It’s a very interesting project that – according to me – will get people talking for a long time and that will only amplify the fact that Sorrentino is a director unlike anybody else recently; and it will probably stay like that for a long time. And the Czech flags in the crowd as a response to the Czech National Symphony Orchestra were an overwhelmingly nice touch. :-) (11/28/2016)

A delightfully satirical drama that takes place in the untraditional setting of the Vatican Church. Sorrentino puts his money on symbolism and the visual side, right from the beginning. Law is fantastic and his Pius XIII is obviously just getting warmed up. I can’t wait to see how is this going to turn out… An emotional story about life. It doesn’t matter whether you are religious or not. Cynical scenes blend naturally with spirituality and the brilliance lies in Sorrentino’s way of handling the whole story and in fitting soundtrack. Because it is self-standing miniseries, the creators didn’t have to hold back and were able to conclude everything that they wanted to tell us. Another high point of the year, and again from HBO. (10/29/2016)

From the moment you realize Sorrentino is going to bring this whole thing down to parent issues, you're praying he'll wrap it up as quickly as possible and not totally decimate everything that made half of the series so breathtaking. It was a close call this time around, but the question is whether his general tendency to pull all the truths of the world down to one simple point will stimulate or irritate me more in the future. On the other hand, I will not deny that this question is for me more than for him. (12/30/2019)