Legendary director Francis Ford Coppola has finally made the movie he always wanted to make, for better or worse.
A long-term passion project, Coppola has been trying to make his Americanized Roman epic Megalopolis for the better part of 40 years. He even entirely self-funded the film’s massive $120-million budget by selling a large portion of his winery, ensuring he could fully realize his vision uncompromised by the studio system. To an extent, I admire Coppola’s commitment to creating a project of such a grand scale with even grander ideas. However, my respect only goes so far when the end result is one of the most incoherent movies I’ve ever watched.
The plot, as best as I can describe it, is this: Taking place in an alternate modern-day New York City titled New Rome, the film follows Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver), an architect with the ability to stop time. He embarks on an ambitious project to tear down and reconstruct the struggling city into a utopian society using a unique, adaptive material he discovered named Megalon. However, his ambitions put him at odds with the current mayor, Frank Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), who would rather deal with the city’s current ills.
Complicating their ideological battles is Frank’s daughter, Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel), who ends up falling in love with Cesar. There’s also a host of other characters who get involved in Cesar’s life in various ways, including his uncle, bank owner Hamilton Crassus III (Jon Voight), his scheming cousin Clodio (Shia Labeouf), and his former mistress, the hilariously named TV reporter Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza).
“Megalopolis is somehow needlessly complex and blatantly on-the-nose at the same time.”
It’s hard to know where to begin because the movie itself is all over the place. Megalopolis is somehow needlessly complex and blatantly on-the-nose at the same time. One minute, Cesar is quoting the “to be or not to be” passage from Hamlet out of nowhere. The next, quotes narrated by Laurence Fishburne (also playing Cesar’s driver, Fundi Montaine) practically hammer home the movie’s themes in your face.
Yes, it’s America’s mirror to the fall of the Roman Empire—that much is obvious when a literal chariot race happens a few minutes into the movie, and the central relationship is between characters named Julia and Cesar. The same goes for the movie’s litany of subplots, and there are many of them. At one point, Clodio turns to Trump-style populism in a bid for mayor. Wow schemes to gain power by marrying Crassus while still lusting after Cesar.
There’s also a short subplot involving Cesar’s possible sexual misconduct that feels even ickier considering Coppola’s own allegations on the set of this very movie. Very few of these other stories feel like they contribute to the overall narrative or provide depth to the movie’s world. Instead, it feels like four or five different movies are playing at once. The central storyline isn’t particularly interesting either, as the otherwise intriguing ideological conflict between Cesar and Cicero is hobbled by awful dialogue. Even Cesar’s time-stopping ability is shown to be completely useless.
“Megalopolis is the result of wildly unchecked ambition, one that even exceeds the grasp of the guy who made The Godfather.”
That incoherence applies not only to the story but also to the performances. None of the movie’s massive ensemble (which also includes Kathryn Hunter, Jason Schwartzman, and Dustin Hoffman in shockingly small parts) feel like they’re acting in the same movie. Adam Driver does a solid job reciting some of Cesar’s many monologues with conviction, but then a montage would play of him doing something completely wacky, undercutting the seriousness of everything he just said.
Nathalie Emmanuel’s character feels underwritten, with Julia’s only major trait being her unabashed love for Cesar. While I most enjoyed Aubrey Plaza going full camp and Shia Labeouf going full sleaze, their performances don’t match what Driver, Emmanuel, and Esposito are doing, which also doesn’t match whatever Jon Voight is doing. At one point, Voight’s character states he has a boner, which turns out to be a hidden crossbow. It’s a whole thing.
The only glimpse I saw of Megalopolis’ potential was in the much-hyped gimmick. Just like at the Cannes premiere, my screening had a “live interaction” scene where a real actor walked up to the screen to ask Cesar a question, who then responded. Even though the scene doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of the movie, it felt genuinely innovative for a narrative feature. However, most people won’t even get to experience this, as Lionsgate announced the live-action component will only happen at a handful of “enhanced IMAX” screenings during opening weekend.
As I was walking out of the theatre, my friend described Megalopolis as “a Shakespearean Neil Breen flick.” That analogy somehow made everything clear to me. Megalopolis is the result of wildly unchecked ambition, one that even exceeds the grasp of the guy who made The Godfather. Some people will undoubtedly come out of Megalopolis loving it, and I wouldn’t fault them for that.
But for me, it’s a colossal mess of a movie and a disappointing career statement from one of cinema’s most important filmmakers. Megalopolis is the result of wildly unchecked ambition, one that even exceeds the grasp of the guy who made The Godfather. There will undoubtedly be people who come out of Megalopolis absolutely loving it, and I wouldn’t fault them for it in the slightest. But personally, it’s a colossal mess of a movie and a disappointing career statement from one of cinema’s most important filmmakers.
