10 Actors Who Just Recently Did Their Best Work Ever

The great Ralph Fiennes is another one of those actors who, despite being in so many things over the years, has always felt somewhat underutilized at the same time. In the same way that Tom Hanks has been pigeon-holed into playing nice guy roles, Fiennes usually plays villains or supporting authority figures. Conclave, as such, was a refreshing change of pace for him and a chance to headline a movie with a meaty dramatic performance. The result is one of the very best film performances of 2024. 

Is it Ralph Fiennes' best film performance ever? Honestly, it might just be that. Fiennes plays Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, the Cardinal Dean facing the formidable task of overseeing the election of the new Pope. Lawrence is a man weighed down by his responsibilities and by his own religious doubts, and Fiennes beautifully performs the part in a subtle yet devastating performance that does so much with so little. 

Even when the film's story loses its way a bit in the second half, Fiennes keeps it all together, and it seems a foregone conclusion that he'll receive his first Oscar nomination in over 25 years for this magnificent performance. And if he won, it would not only be completely deserved, it would also be a bit of poetic justice after he was on the receiving end of one of the most frustrating Oscar injustices of the last 30 years, losing the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Schindler's List back in 1994.