If you're going to see a movie, let it be this one

Stop what you're doing, tune your laptop/phone/tv to Netflix and go watch The Two Popes. Unless you're at work, because I wouldn't want you to get into trouble with your boss. This is perhaps one of the better films of 2019, which says something in the year of Rocketman, Joker, and Green Book.

In short: take Anthony Hopkins as Benedict and Jonathan Pryce as Francis and you get a pair of popes that you can savor. What fascinates me even more is that Bergoglio a.k.a. Pope Francis is the current pope and just last week he gave a corrective tap to an intrusive fan. Yes, being a pope also comes with groupies. Of course, he regretted it within a nanosecond and apologized. More pious than the... right.

Put Anthony Hopkins in a movie and it's already heading for success, but if you almost correct Ratzinger (the interim pope Benedict himself) in being himself, then in my eyes that's almost messing with the creator. The Two Popes tells the story of the two popes, who couldn't be further apart in ideology. One as a conservative (it says something when you're called God's Rottweiler) and the other as a free spirit from Argentina, but learning to appreciate each other in a nearly respectful way.

Why does the film captivate? It's based on facts, such as the abdication of Benedict, which is a unique occurrence among popes. It gives you the feeling of being able to look inside Vatican City, which seems like an unreachable world. It brings you a little closer to being a pope, not as a career switch of course, but in understanding and you start to see them as people. Which, by the way, is not encouraged among Catholics, because if you're so close to God, it should remain a bit elusive.

But that Bergoglio, now better known as Francis, is the humble, honest, football-loving pope who easily wins your heart. Perhaps precisely because he doesn't have a clean slate. What I'm saying: go watch it.