I started the newsletter version of this website back in July 2023 and one of the titles that I have always wanted to recommend has been missing in action – until now.
Paolo Sorrentino‘s biting religious satire, The Young Pope, originally screened ten years ago but dropped off the Neon streamer in New Zealand along with the sequel, The New Pope (2020). If, like us, you are a little bit tired of the usual streaming diet of space, crime and space-crime, you’ll find that Sorrentino’s Popes provide a striking alternative.
When none of the leading contenders for the role of pontiff can command a majority, a compromise candidate is chosen. He’s young (natch) and American and the powers behind the throne believe that his relative inexperience will allow them to manipulate him into maintaining their lucrative and influential status quo.
Instead, Lenny Belardo from Queens turns out to be strong-willed and surprisingly conservative. Scornful of anyone who puts their own position over service to God, he rapidly becomes a thorn in the side of the establishment and a source of faithful mystery to many ordinary church followers.
But – as you would hope and expect – nothing is quite as it seems and – because this is a Sorrentino production – even the surprises are weird and wonderful.
Jude Law proves to be a real heavyweight as Belardo and he is well-supported by a quality international supporting cast. The late1 Diane Keaton plays the nun that raised him in the New York orphanage that appears to be the source of his anger and his resolve. The brilliant Italian actor Sylvio Orlando plays the often outwitting (and equally often outwitted) secretary of state Cardinal Voiello, Spanish genius Javier Cámara is the gentle Monsignor Gutierrez and Cécile de France is the Vatican marketing manager.
10 episodes of intrigue, metaphysics and often furious debate about faith and its mechanics later, and we are left with a cliff-hanger that was eventually resolved several years later with a new series (The New Pope) and a new Pope – pitch-perfect perfect John Malkovich.
Where to watch The Young Pope and The New Pope
Aotearoa: Streaming on Neon
Australia: Digital purchase from Fetch
Canada: Streaming on Crave
Ireland & UK: Streaming on Sky
India: Streaming on Prime Video or Lionsgate Play
USA: Streaming on HBO Max
Further listening
I was pleased to be able to recommend both series to listeners of RNZ Nights last Friday, along with the new heavy metal documentary Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition and the 1982 New Zealand tax write-off Battletruck (aka Warlords of the Twenty-First Century).
- Typing that stopped me in my tracks, let me tell you. ↩︎
