The Witcher and the best new Netflix movies and shows to watch in December 2019

33. The Two Popes

Release Year: 2019

Directed By: Fernando Meirelles

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Pryce, Juan Minujin, Sidney Cole, Lisandro Fiks, Thomas D. Williams, Maria Ucedo, Emma Bonino

Release Date: Friday, Dec. 20

December’s new releases on Netflix feature any kind of movie under the sun that you would ever want to watch. James Bond movies? There are four of them. Underrated throwbacks? There’s Heartbreakers and Burlesque. Major Netflix original premieres? There are Marriage Story, 6 Underground and the latest A Christmas Prince installation.

But there’s also a new biographical drama film called The Two Popes that looks, sounds and feels like a documentary but isn’t. This new under-the-radar original film makes a case for one of the month’s best new releases.

Based on Anthony McCarten’s 2017 play called The Pope, Netflix’s The Two Popes stars Anthony Hopkins as Pop Benedict XVI and Jonathan Pryce as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio and tells the story behind one of the world’s most dramatic transitions of power. When Cardinal Bergoglio becomes disillusioned with the direction the Catholic Church is headed, asks permission from Pope Benedict to retire in 2012. Pope Benedict instead invites Cardinal Bergoglio to Rome, where the avoid certain scandal, and the pope reveals a shocking, church-shaking secret.

The Two Popes comes from director Fernando Meirelles, who also directed such films as The Constant Gardener, Blindness and City of God. The film first made its premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in August 2019 and later screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in September before receiving a limited theatrical release in November. The Two Popes currently holds a 91% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, paving the way for an awards season dark horse entry. Be sure to catch the film when it begins streaming on Netflix just before Christmas.