The Young Pope

The Young Pope (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. :-) (28.11.2016)