According to writer-director Sean Baker’s Anora, working as a stripper is just another job, albeit an unusual one.  First there’s the disorienting atmosphere of the club, with its loud, thumping music and rotating colored lights.  Then there’s the job itself, which involves coaxing payments to pay for a few minutes of fake intimacy with a semi-nude woman.  Although it certainly helps to be a good erotic dancer, as Ani (Mikey Madison) is, it’s even more important to convince patrons that she likes them.  If they don’t believe her initial performance, they won’t pay for her services.  Being a successful stripper is about the art of pretending, convincing others that illusions are real and that dreams can come true–for a price.  It’s a theme that reverberates throughout the movie, reaching beyond its transactional origins to produce consequences both expected and unexpected.

In what may be cinema’s most perplexing title card sequence ever, The Straight Story begins with “Walt Disney Pictures Presents…A Film By David Lynch”.  No, this isn’t a joke on Lynch’s behalf.  This movie really was released by Disney in 1999.  It was also Lynch’s only “G” rated film, which makes the odd juxtaposition easier to comprehend.  If you’re a Lynch devotee like myself, I want to assure you that although the movie is for general audiences, it does includes many of Lynch’s signature artistic touches that his fans will recognize immediately.  In other words, The Straight Story is just as  “Lynchian” as Blue Velvet or Mulholland Drive, two of his most highly regarded films.

Contrary to what you may read elsewhere, Conclave is not an Agatha Christie style murder mystery.  First, there are no murders within the story.  The Pope who if found deceased at the outset died from natural causes.  Apparently, he kept his health status close to the vest, for reasons that become clear through the actions of those in his inner circle following his death.  Additionally, none of the other players–cardinals, nuns and monsignors–wind up dead either.  Second, while there is mystery surrounding one key character, the plot is not dependent upon its resolution.  While the revelation of this person’s secret comes as a complete surprise, it doesn’t affect the actual outcome of this incredible and thoroughly engrossing story.

The genius of Conclave is in how it disguises the mystery at its core until the very end.  In the interim, the movie presents a series of ancillary mysteries that, as they are addressed, combine like puzzle pieces to reveal what the story was actually about.  Only then do we understand that the story was about how the pope did everything he could to ensure that the right man succeeded him.  In other words, the pope works in mysterious ways.