The 2024 movie year has been a strong one, but it's thus far lacked a clear Best Picture contender.

While the uplifting prison drama Sing Sing is likely to secure a nom, Conclave feels like a sure thing. A rare crowd-pleaser that's also intelligent and intelligently made, this Vatican thriller makes the most of its talented cast and serves as a huge rebound for director Edward Berger, he of the overrated All Quiet on the Western Front.

As if atoning for the homework nature of that WWI slog, the filmmaker exhibits his gifts as a populist from the start of Conclave without sacrificing craft. Blessed with Peter Straughan’s whip-smart adaptation of the Robert Harrison novel, Berger wastes little time moving from the Pope’s deathbed to the titular gathering of cardinals who will decide his replacement, and rarely lets up until the end credits roll.

While the holy grounds are oddly under-lit, perhaps to reflect the metaphorical darkness resting on the church or simply due to lazy cinematography, the suspenseful actions occurring within likewise carry a shadowy aura.

Hours before he and his colleagues are set for sequestering, reluctant manager/dean Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) has an already stressful undertaking complicated by damning accusations against top papal candidates, a surprise new arrival, and other snares.

How Lawrence responds to these issues, infighting within his own liberal base that hopes to elect Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci), plus even more obstacles deserves to be experienced on one’s own. But safe to say that it's enacted with hero and viewer alike totally in the dark, perceiving everyone as a potential threat to what will hopefully remain an honest selection process.

Flanking the award-worthy Fiennes and Tucci is a stunning ensemble that also includes a textbook inscrutable John Lithgow as an American priest and a similarly suspicious Isabella Rossellini as a high-ranking nun. Their machinations, investigations, and alliances are masterfully scored by Volker Bertelmann’s strings, whose eerie bowing and plucking feel straight out of a horror film. (They’re also a significant upgrade from the three-note synth monotony of his baffling Oscar-winning All Quiet score.)

While the implications of Lawrence’s various suspicions are indeed terrifying, Conclave is primarily a tense, dramatic story, yet one that's also funny when appropriate. Berger’s expert blending of these genres, however, is no laughing matter.

Grade: A-minus. Rated PG. Now playing at Carolina Cinemark, the Fine Arts Theatre, and Regal Biltmore Grande.

(Photo: Focus Features)