the 86-year-old director of the critical and box-office flop said the book confirms his feeling that ‘art can never be constrained’
Megalopolis, Francis Ford Coppola’s $120m passion project, was neither a box office nor a critical success on release last year. Largely funded by the sale of Coppola’s own vineyards, the sci-fi epic starring Adam Driver took around $14m at the global box office amid unconvinced reviews and rumours of abnormal on-set behaviour by its director.
A marketing campaign attempted to leverage bad critical notices by flagging that previous works by Coppola now acclaimed as masterpieces – including Apocalypse Now and The Godfather – had been dismissed by critics at the time. But this backfired after it emerged all of the sniffy historical reviews had been fabricated.
The film failed to earn the attention of awards bodies other than the Golden Raspberries for bad movies, which voted the film both worst director and worst supporting actor (for Jon Voight).
Now, a new attempt to ensure the legacy of what may be the 86-year-old director’s final film has been announced: a comic book re-interpretation by Chris Ryall, titled Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis: An Original Graphic Novel.
In a statement on Thursday, Coppola explained that the book would not simply be a re-rendering of his film. “I was pleased to put the idea of a graphic novel in the competent hands of Chris Ryall with the idea that, although it was inspired by my film Megalopolis, it didn’t necessarily have to be limited by it,” he said.
“I hoped the graphic novel would take its own flight, with its own artists and writer so that it would be a sibling of the film, rather than just an echo. That’s what I feel Chris, Jacob Phillips and the team at Abrams ComicArts have accomplished. It confirms my feeling that art can never be constrained, but rather always a parallel expression, and part of the bounty we can make available to our patrons, audiences and readers.”
Said Ryall: “Coppola’s storytelling challenged and inspired me at every turn,” adding that he hoped he had “created something that both honours and expands the world of the original film.”
Although graphic novels are often used as source material for film, in particular for superhero movies, the reverse is considerably more unusual.
Lionsgate2024 was a strange year for movies, from the Wicked juggernaut to the strange case of Emilia Perez. But there was nothing quite like Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis
a self-funded dystopian fever dream apparently decades in the making
It starred Adam Driver as a self-obsessed architect with the ability to stop time
but that’s only scratching the surface of a tale that featured a character named Wow Platinum and a moment that necessitated a live actor in the theater
and Megalopolis’ final box office numbers placed it firmly in flop territory
According to The Hollywood Reporter
Megalopolis will be adapted into a graphic novel from Abrams ComicArts called Francis Ford Coppola‘s Megalopolis: An Original Graphic Novel
currently slated for an October 2025 release
will be written by Chris Ryall and illustrated by Jacob Phillips
The comic version of the story won’t just be a translation from screen to page
“I was pleased to put the idea of a graphic novel in the competent hands of Chris Ryall with the idea that
although it was inspired by my film Megalopolis
it didn’t necessarily have to be limited by it,” Coppola said in a statement
“I hoped the graphic novel would take its own flight
with its own artists and writer so that it would be a sibling of the film
Megalopolis’ graphic novel adaptation will be a “sibling
But what does a sibling to 2024’s wildest movie even look like
Will it be another story set in the same universe
the same story with new supplementary material
or maybe even the same story with an alternate ending
We may never see another movie quite like it, and that’s probably for the best, but at least its odd story will continue in another, much cheaper medium. It could be legitimately fascinating to see what other creators do with this universe, as long as there are no more random soliloquies from Hamlet or AI-generated critic blurbs
There are a handful of activities that I've never tried
but that I still quietly believe I'd turn out to possess near-prodigy levels of skill at if I ever did
(They include archery and “being a female woodworker.”)
Unless Megalopolis, Francis Ford Coppola’s self-financed $120 million sci-fi/Roman epic featured a component that breaks the fourth wall and requires a live performer to step in at the movie theater for a few moments
diabolically told me something like: “I need you to find a way to perform the live portion of Megalopolis and then write about it
once the actual details of the film started trickling out
which first became public knowledge when Megalopolis began to screen at film festivals
The moment comes about an hour and 20 minutes into the movie
after a Soviet satellite falls out of the sky and destroys part of New Rome
then the lights in the theater come up as Coppola cuts to Cesar Catilina giving a press conference
a flesh-and-blood human approaches the microphone and asks the question: “Mr
you said as we jump into the future we should be unafraid—but what if
there is something to be afraid of?” Catilina answers
At the press screenings myself and my colleagues attended
a PR rep for the film read the live portion
but it was unclear how this would logistically work when the film was released widely
When I contacted a nearby theater during my early attempts to star in Megalopolis
was not planning on continuing to include the live portion at all
Plenty of our greatest movie stars dealt with rejection earlier in their careers
among the names in the movie—Cesar Catalina
Wow Platinum—“Gabriella Paiella” slots right in
possibly too absurd for even Coppola’s wild imagination
the film’s reps found a way to fulfill my professional obligations dreams of stardom
select theaters would be presenting “Megalopolis: The Ultimate IMAX Experience”—and I would be participating
I took some time to reflect and consider how I would read the question in my debut
you said as we jump into the FUTURE we should be UNAFRAID
YOU said as we jump into the future WE should be unafraid
What if when we DO jump into the future there IS something to be afraid of
While lost in a reverie about accepting my award for Best Supporting Actress—“she’s not British?”—I received another email with very detailed instructions
“The reporter who breaks the 4th wall begins to cross stage from stage left [orchestra right] to stage right [orchestra left] with mic on mic stand from stage left to stage right/center) using a small flashlight or iPhone light to illuminate (walk briskly and leave a beat early to arrive on mark on time).”
Once the line is spoken at the press conference, “the reporter pretends to take notes while making eye contact with Adam Driver on screen.”
I checked my watch at regular intervals and, as the minute of my debut approached, I raced down the stairs. The theater lights went completely dark. And that’s exactly when I froze for a moment too long. I snapped out of it, grabbed the mic that was hiding in a corner, rushed to my spot and… missed the dialogue I was supposed to be mouthing by about half a second.
Going into this performance, I was certain that I would fully commit to my role as reporter and take real notes while Cesar Catilina was pontificating. But staring into Adam Driver’s humongous 20 foot IMAX face, feeling the heat of 600 pairs of eyes behind me, this is what I actually “wrote down” instead:
I exited the screening immediately after my performance, understanding that it would be too distracting for the rest of the film if the audience knew one of the stars was among them. All in all, my brief minute-long appearance wasn’t the best performance in Megalopolis. It was also not the worst. As for my next role as a professional thespian? Unlike Coppola—I’m retiring.
become basically a cliché to describe a film as a love letter to the genre
or any other such highfalutin assertions that could honestly describe most any movie made after late 19th century pre-cinema
every movie is a reflection of the movies that predate it; everything is in conversation with something else
Yet in our current streaming age we’re at the mercy of marketability
most formulaic slop available in order to cut costs and promote efficiency
Perhaps this is why we’ve seen so many cries for the return of real movies—movies that are tactile
Nearly every day now someone posts stills from The Red Shoes or Barry Lyndon or Seven Samurai and asks: “Remember when movies looked like this?”
Perhaps this explains why I was drawn to Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis
a deeply fraught futurist epic about what it means to leave a legacy in a world that might not exist as we know it for that much longer
A frequent response from critics and audiences alike was “Why would a legendary filmmaker do this to his legacy?” An odd reaction
especially when the notion of a ‘swan song’ is one of our most ancient and celebrated artistic traditions
Why wouldn’t a filmmaker want their last effort to take total advantage of the medium
Coppola attempted to make the definitive version of an iconic vampire story that honors the radical sexual experimentation of Stoker’s novel
was one of the harbingers of the end of the New Hollywood movement as a whole
Coppola likens the trade papers’ vitriolic negative reactions to Megalopolis to children initially being disgusted by adult food: “At first bite they grimace at it
I’m trying to show people a semblance of what I think cinema is free to do
From the interviews Coppola has given about Megalopolis it is clear that time—and time running out—are at the forefront of his mind
But despite the classically Italian-American “I’ll be dead soon” aphorisms
but rather a deep philosophy that penetrates every facet of Megalopolis and its worldview
it’s easy to see Coppola’s earnest sincerity as out-of-touch
Or at least that’s what Megalopolis’s protagonist Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver) posits
In Coppola’s New Rome—a near-future New York which teeters on the tightrope between utopia and dystopia—the government is run by a cadre of comically incompetent elderly statesmen whose perverse political ambitions are rivaled only by their more perverse libidinal impulses
Nobel Prize winner Catilina delivers a rousing speech about the possibility of using a particle called Megalon to rebuild New Rome
New Rome will be connected by a vast network of sidewalks that look like golden moving walkways in airports—an innovation that mirrors the real-life push for open streets and more pedestrian-friendly urban planning
“You’ll be five minutes from any park!” he declares
then begins to earnestly recite Hamlet’s “To be
Coppola gives the audience a choice: Will you align yourself with a flawed but well-intentioned protagonist and embrace a utopian future
or will you unintentionally side with Hamilton Crassus III (Jon Voight) and his band of sycophants
a not-so-subtle avatar for Coppola: a dreamer
a person misunderstood and even belittled by those around him
But there are also traces of Coppola in Crassus
the aging patriarch whose love of women begets his ultimate downfall
suggesting that he began his career as the enterprising Catilina
and Shia LaBeouf—could even be read against the grain
regardless of Coppola’s casting intentions
As ethically hairy as their onscreen presence might be
it can still be cathartic to watch these men fail within the narrative
Driver is a celebrated actor at the height of his career
while the actors who play his opponents are most likely in the final stage of their lives or careers
It’s not just Coppola’s swan song; Hoffman is unceremoniously crushed by a crumbling pillar in a brief flash-cut and Voigt is shot with arrows by his much younger wife
The film ends with a freeze frame that immobilizes everyone but Catalina’s newborn daughter (named Sunny Hope
who enlarges to fill the screen while an updated Pledge of Allegiance plays in the background
Coppola acknowledges that his generation has tried and failed; what matters is what we choose to do next
an ambitious adaptation of a James Joyce short story
premiered just four months after his death
a meditative documentary in which she chronicles her own six-decade career; she died one month after its debut
If there is one thing that filmmakers are almost too aware of
and Varda’s last gestures to the world were thus naturally preoccupied with making a final sweeping statement—something to remember them by
Perhaps it’s not unintentional that Megalopolis feels at times like an unfocused
Coppola is a filmmaker who believes in the power of movies so deeply that he’s willing to make the same mistake over and over again
His last major project must somehow encompass each and every cinematic influence—F.W
Murnau meets Orson Welles meets Satyajit Ray meets Federico Fellini
The cityscape is a chiaroscuro German Expressionistic nightmare
and the carnival scene is a Luchino Visconti film
He even chimes in on the 21st century’s most ubiquitous phenomenon
Is Coppola being tongue-in-cheek when virginal pop star Vesta Sweetwater’s descends from the ceiling to raucous cheers from her vestal virgin fans during Crassus III’s bacchanalia
but the image is so strong that I don’t care
While the idea of Woman as Unknowable Subject is outdated and in no way liberatory
there is something liberating about Coppola’s clear belief that
has the capability to un-fog your glasses; for Catilina
his love of and belief in Julia pushes him to imagine a better world for her and their future child
It doesn’t take too much extrapolation to see Megalopolis as a swan song for Coppola’s own wife
who died shortly before the film’s premiere
The ultimate choice in Megalopolis is between hoping against hope or wallowing in despair
Catilina ushers in a new era of prosperity where the city is a nurturing
Clodio Pulcher (LaBeouf) and his army of violent right-wing militants displace poor families and turn New Rome into a living hell
is that we’re already living in Pulcher’s world
Since Coppola originally began developing Megalopolis in the 1980s
the United States has increased its genocidal imperial presence even further throughout the world and walked back even the most minimal protections for marginalized groups within its own borders
Megalopolis shoulders an almost operatic overtone of too-late-ness as Catilina’s proposed utopian future comes to fruition at the end of the film
an aria in which the belladonna collapses on stage
sent downstream in the hopes of finding the right person
which may in fact have been Coppola all along
a review of Megalopolis that jibes with Coppola’s intent
I am so glad that we experienced it in a theater was my first thought
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By Josh Stephens
If the script for Francis Ford Coppola’s new film
It would not make it past a design review board or a building and safety inspection
Fortunately, for anyone who enjoys cinematic spectacle, Coppola needs to bow to neither democracy nor capitalism. He is a dictator
Coppola likely feels free to do whatever he wants
he has willed into existence one of the most monumental and bizarre films ever to explore the urban condition
It was nearly four decades in the making—in other words
about as much time as a major urban infill development in California
Although the end product is not worthy of such sustained effort
Megalopolis is one of those rare films that explicitly celebrates architecture and urbanism
(I don’t mind having taken one for the team.)
Megalopolis, which has nothing to do with the Boston-D.C. conurbation of the same name
is not so much a movie as it is a collection of other movies spliced into a loose plot inspired by ancient Rome
we get heroic shots of architect Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver)
peering down at New York City—which has the unsubtle allegorical name of New Rome
and where Catilina is head of the Design Authority—from on high
There’s a bit of Tim Burton’s wacky darkness
the film’s campiness occasionally veers into John Waters territory
including “To Be or Not To Be” delivered in its entirety by Catilina; Julius Caesar
for the fall of empire and the general obsession with the Classical world; and allusions to every other tragedy that deals in power
Catilina’s idealism runs into the pragmatism of Mayor Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito)
Both must confront the forces of wealth and unrest; both stalk the shadows of Gotham … er
contribute heartily to Catilina’s flimsy character: the brilliant
insufferable architect and the supergenius who invents a wonder material that can be used to heal bullet wounds
Catilina seems to have made a few trips to Wakanda.) The difference between Howard Roak
and Catilina is that Catilina is genuinely benevolent: he wants his designs and materials to uplift the masses
Catilina proposes for New Rome an updated version of mid-20th century urban renewal—although it’s not clear whether Coppola actually supports slum clearance or is simply daydreaming
he would have lived through the era of the great bulldozings and surely remembers it well
Catilina’s plan is a metaphor for human creativity and unattainable benevolence
which is a metaphor for the fact that humans cannot
Catilina’s brilliance is not entirely arbitrary. Coppola spent some of his $120 million to commission studies by the design firm Oxman
founded by Neri Oxman (who also appears in the film)
which relies on a lot of high minded rhetoric like “design solutions by
and with Nature while advancing humanity.” Those studies informed Catilina’s designs—and his idealism
(Whether Oxman can accomplish what Catilina professes remains to be seen.)
especially depictions of New Rome’s upper crust
comes straight out of Hunger Games (minus Stanley Tucci
with touches of Madonna’s “Express Yourself” video
Catilina occupies the penthouse office of the Chrysler Building
having apparently evicted one of the great icons of the modern world
Pan American Airlines President Juan Trippe
and there’s a cameo by one-quarter of the band Phantom Planet
In Lawrence Fishburn (Fundi Romaine) and Driver (Catilina)
we get veterans of the Star Wars franchise—in which
black-clad character terrorizes the townsfolk
about hard-luck cases getting by in the grittiest corners of 1969 New York
Coppola reunites the film’s stars in a decidedly different city
looking a lot healthier than he did last time he appeared with Voight
Coppola briefly quotes one of the strips of celluloid that started it all: A Trip to the Moon
And thus the history of cinema comes full circle
Megalopolis is not so much a movie as it is a collection of movies and cultural quotations
All of Coppola’s influences will remain frozen in time as our actual empire crumbles
If you can hold all of that together in your mind
you know what real cities are like: They are about design
Josh Stephens is contributing editor to the California Planning and Development Report and a freelance writer
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This critic’s Roman Empire is that Francis Ford Coppola sold a winery to make this film
approximately 300 drafts and some very unfortunate false starts
Megalopolis has finally become a reality for Coppola as he turns 85
This is made clear from the opening sequence where Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver) – the Chairman of the Design Authority in New Rome – dangles from the top of an overtly rendered skyscraper
a futuristic interpretation of New York City is frozen in time
but this magician of sorts has discovered a miracle compound that fixes brain damage
will rebuild the city to become an equitable
Between her raunchy twerking and Jafar-esque hypnotics
she attempts to use her influence over Crassus to control Cesar
and his vision for this perfect world gets closer to becoming a reality
Unfortunately the malevolent forces around him set in place a sequence of events that puts everything he holds dear in jeopardy
Apparently
despite investing 120 million dollars from his personal finances into this production
Coppola once again brought his trademark chaos to set
most of the visual effects and art teams were either fired or quit
This is quite noticeable when it comes to the final rendering of the VFX
Coppola’s “controversial” directing style was explored in his wife’s documentary Hearts of Darkness
Mike Figgis has a behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of Megalopolis
and one can only imagine what he’s caught this time around
Each element of the writing feels like a contradiction of another
the dialogue is unnatural – sometimes theatrical – and frequently punctuated by long
pontificating monologues that rarely reveal an emotional state nor further the plot
Perhaps this was because there was no cohesive story structure
rather flung onto the creative frying pan like unruly sausages that occasionally bash off one another
How do the physics of this futuristic world work
questions posed at various points that are never mentioned again
despite the cerebral and experimental nature of the film
so many of the metaphors are excessively heavy handed
the film is both cynical in its depiction of the corruption of society
but naively optimistic that one man’s vision could magically fix the future
if you played woman character cliche bingo
you’d have a full house: Psychopathic temptress
Also the casting of someone as controversial as LaBeouf is a pretty strong statement in itself
Yet even taking into account the problematic nature of all of the above
there’s a brilliant madness to Megalopolis too; this mushroom-induced Baz Luhrmann fever dream does have something to offer
This is a top tier cast delivering superb performers
all bring this varied flavour of complexity
expectation can carry a lot of weight; and with a catalogue as varied as Coppola’s
anyone expecting the weird magic of Apocalypse Now
or the more cohesive themes of The Godfather will be disappointed
Megalopolis is a brave independent exploration of creativity that can be more easily enjoyed when accepted for what it is
Megalopolis is available to stream online now
In 2014 she graduated with a First from NUIG’s MA Writing programme
Gemma’s play Spoiling Sunset was staged in Galway as part of the Jerome Hynes One Act Play series in 2014
Gemma was one of eight playwrights selected for AboutFACE’s 2021 Transatlantic Tales and is presently developing a play with the Axis Theatre and with the support of the Arts Council
She has been commissioned to submit a play by Voyeur Theatre to potentially be performed in Summer 2023 as part of the local arts festival
Gemma was the writer and co-producer of the five-part comedy Rental Boys for RTÉ’s Storyland
direct and produce shorts which screened at festivals around the world
She was commissioned to direct the short film
she’s the assistant editor for Film Ireland and she contributes reviews to RTE Radio One’s Arena on occasion
We take a look at some of the Irish films coming to screens in 2025
release dates and platforms and add reviews and interviews as they come in
Dev Murray takes a fresh slice out of Vingt Dieux’s tender portrait of rural youth
our contributors look back at some of their favourite films of the year
© Film Ireland
and Showgirls is an overcoat movie for men who don’t want to be seen going into a porno theater.”
I couldn’t believe LaSalle’s phrase “halfhearted lunges,” when the film is so clearly a swan dive—or maybe a cannonball?—into the chlorinated waters of camp
Each critic performing their disapproval and outrage in unison like the synchronized swimmers in a Busby Berkeley number
Everyone somehow took the film too seriously and not seriously enough
Similar things could be said of the reception of Verhoeven’s next film
they can’t believe that anyone seriously thought that the film was just another earnest action movie—an Independence Day by any other name
the aesthetics of the Hollywood blockbuster
and the aesthetics of teenage melodrama into a baroque farce
There are some critics in major papers that loved it—The New York Times
and The New Yorker all gave it positive reviews—but its admirers mostly commend it for the boldness of its vision and the earnestness of its final plea
what the defenses and the critiques of Megalopolis most have in common is their focus on the “sincere” aspects of the film
But just because the movie is about the concept of “sincerity” does not mean it is inherently sincere
but it engages in that concept through formal insincerity
I think many critics are refusing to view the end of Megalopolis through the same lenses that the rest of the film clearly demands: the lens of comedy
Even the elevator pitch of the movie—the Catilinarian conspiracy
played with grand Shakespearean theatricality
set in a fabulistic modern-day America that’s dressed up in Ancient Roman cosplay—begs to be seen as camp
And the film follows through on that promise: Shia LaBeouf in Roman drag with shaved eyebrows whispering “revenge tastes best while wearing a dress” is camp
A MAGA-red cap hitting a body that’s been strung up like Mussolini by an angry mob is camp
Adam Driver’s line delivery of “go back to the club” is camp
Jon Voight asking everyone to look at his “boner” only to unsheath a tiny cherubic bow and arrow is camp
Projecting panic-stricken shadows against skyscrapers as the Boomer boogeyman of a decayed Soviet satellite crashes to earth in tasteless 9/11 redux is camp
The sets seemingly borrowed from Joel Schumacher’s Gotham City are camp
The fact that every single actor is acting in a completely different register—so
the problem with calling something camp is that there’s always going to be someone wagging their finger
You don’t know camp!” For evidence see last year’s endless debate about whether or not May December is camp
Here I could point to a definition of this aesthetic sensibility from Susan Sontag’s Notes on ‘Camp’ (she offers many)
The quote I most think of when I try to define camp is one from Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart
when he was trying to describe his threshold test for “obscenity”: “I know it when I see it.” Camp is amorphous
the first two hours of Megalopolis are clearly not earnest
When critics point out the earnestness of Megalopolis
they are mostly focusing on the film’s finale
feel painfully sincere and naively hopeful
But it can’t be earnest—or at least can’t only be earnest—when viewed in the context of the rest of the film
“Our American republic is not all that different from old Rome
Can we preserve our past and all its wondrous heritage
to the insatiable appetite for power of a few men?” Cut to an extreme close-up of Adam Driver’s face in his role as Cesar Catilina
a character whose name is as on-the-nose as the voiceover that proceeds our introduction to him: Cesar
after the central figure in the Catliniarian conspiracy
historically regarded as the villain of the affair
Much has been written about Driver’s character clearly being the director’s avatar—which is why most readings of the film see him as the hero and take his messianic arc seriously—but from the very beginning
the film itself (cutting to Catilina’s face just after wondering aloud about “the insatiable appetite for power of a few men”) undermines his valorization
Catilina is an architect who can stop time and has discovered a magical substance named—there’s no way to say this with a straight face—“megalon.” He’s got plans to remake the city with this mysterious material and save humanity from the decayed “civilization” it has made for itself
He’s Robert Moses by way of Ayn Rand with a self-described “Emersonian mind.”
What’s one of the first things we see our “hero” do
He blows up poor people’s housing to make way for his project: the titular Megalopolis
in theory it’s a reinvention of the modern city
which would be able to grow along with its people
but really it just looks like a public park that moves and glows
How is this glorified High Line project going to save the American Empire from the brink of collapse
much of the details of Coppola’s world remain fuzzy—sketched rather than drawn
Why does the mayor’s daughter Julia not freeze like everyone else when time stops
Maybe the reason Coppola subtitled the film “A Fable” is because he didn’t want to answer such trivial questions
Sometimes things in folklore must just be accepted for what they are
Or maybe Coppola’s world-building is more like “world-blocking”
As I’ve argued elsewhere
there needs to be a term for an alternative way of building worlds
the world-building-in-negative that is practiced by Anna Kavan and Kōbō Abe (and forebears and contemporaries like Edgar Allan Poe
Some have called this process “inferred world-building” or “world-conjuring,” but “world-blocking” may be more apt
The term works in opposing directions to get at the paradox of these types of texts
The verb “to block” means to hinder or hamper
but it also means to plot out the movements of an actor on a stage or movie set
World-blockers build worlds through obstruction; they block out the moves of their world by blocking our full access to them
We may not be given the answers to our questions about Catilina
but we see enough of this cliched visionary to fill in the gaps ourselves
he tells us that questions are better than answers
That’s his deep understanding of the essence of utopia: “When we ask these questions
The scene in which Catilina says this hokey line about utopia—which comes immediately after an even hokier line about love—is worth interrogating
the scene quite literally invites our interrogation
a live person climbed the steps of the stage during this scene and addressed a question directly to the screen
Coppola wanted this live audience question to be a part of all screenings
but only a few theaters on its opening weekend were able to accommodate this request
The rest of us just hear the question in voiceover from someone off-camera
This Brechtian formal intervention places us
interrogating the director’s supposed avatar as though we are interrogating the director himself
if we are to believe this character is his cypher—comes off as both navel-gazing dreamer and pompous windbag
He’s a caricature of an artist who speaks in little more than juvenile platitudes: love connects us
Catilina is not the only caricature in Coppola’s film; the movie is populated with corrupt politicians
All of the named characters have at least three things in common: they’re rich
they’re “problematic,” and they’re more character-types than actual characters
amounting to little more than the victims of the whims of these titans of industry and culture
The only agency they have is when they come together to form a mob—and even then
Catilina’s main antagonist for much of the film is Mayor Cicero
whose first name happens to be—you guessed it—Francis
(They make a big deal of telling the audience this
just so we won’t miss it!) If Catilina is the more obvious Coppola avatar
that doesn’t preclude Cicero from being one as well
Case in point: a conversation late in the movie has these two men debating the nature of man
Catilina argues that man became the dominant species on the planet because of his amiability: “Wasn’t it human friendliness that stimulated our brains by learning and enabled us to outcompete all other species on earth?” Cicero disagrees: “We were fierce
warlike.” But fierceness or friendliness on their own aren’t enough
It’s the conversation between these two traits
If you only see Coppola as backing Catilina’s worldview
then you’ll miss the importance of the “dialogue,” which
The movie ends with a grand speech from Catilina at the unveiling of Megalopolis
while the unnamed poor look on with their Dickensian faces pressed up against chainlink fences
Catilina is seen on an outdoor stage with his one-time rival Cicero
Cicero’s daughter (whom Catilina has impregnated and married)
except…the poor—are they still behind the fence
Catilina says that “the gates of Megalopolis are open,” but we don’t get to see much evidence of what this means for the poor or how this access will bring about a utopia
But the rich cheer him on from below the stage
These elites have deluded themselves into believing they’ve saved humanity by building a fancy park atop the rubble of poor people’s homes
and the only character not frozen is Catilina’s (future nepo) baby
I don’t see the sincere happy ending others see
But Coppola has one more twist of the knife: a pledge of allegiance to “the human family” appears on screen and a collection of children’s voices recite it in unison
The movie ends as all fascist movements begin
Catilina’s messianic figure might actually want to help people—a lot of fascists do too
not all of them start as grifters!—but this guy’s no savior of humanity
“One is drawn to camp,” according to Susan Sontag
“when one realizes that ‘sincerity’ is not enough.” The film’s hodgepodge of cliches dramatizes the hollow scenes of the Holocene
I doubt Coppola truly believes that some Randian architect can suddenly save us with a magic material—even if that magic material is “art”—but he is rightly horrified
that the decadence and degradation that currently surrounds us might be the best civilization has to offer
Just as Starship Troopers works as both an action film and a satire of an action film
just as it uses propagandistic tools to its benefit even as it makes a mockery of propaganda
Megalopolis also is the thing it pokes fun at
It’s not that anyone is wrong to see some earnestness in the ending; it’s that there’s so much more to see
The ending is making fun of the idea that a bold dreamer and his muse could somehow save the world
but it also does believe that art and dialogue are the best way forward
Even if Megalopolis had been made by a camp connoisseur like Verhoeven instead of the more serious Coppola
I still doubt it would already be seen for the camp classic it is
This type of movie might just need to flop in order to be rediscovered later when audiences at midnight movies shout the non-sequitur lines back at the screen
It’s as if Coppola knows that the 12:00am timeslot is where this is headed by building in that moment where audience members can ask a question of Driver’s Catilina
But why wait? If you can give yourself over to the idiosyncratic insanity of Megalopolis, it will leave you with much to ponder, and even more to LOL at. The question of whether artists (writers, filmmakers, architects, etc.) are meant to save the world has recently found its way back into the discourse, thanks in part to Ta-Nehisi Coates
But I suppose it’s a question that never really goes away
If you take the finale of Megalopolis as a happy ending and a sincere appeal for a better world
Francis Ford Coppola agrees with Coates that this is indeed the charge of the artist
merely highlights the great incongruities of life
and the reason to consume any worthwhile satire or any camp classic—perhaps the reason to engage with any great work of art at all—is summed up simply by the film’s central character: “For laughs
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crazily ambitious “Megalopolis” during which an architect and city planner played by Adam Driver is giving a press conference to an unseen room of reporters
At the advance IMAX screening I attended earlier this week
it was at this point that the house lights came up and an actor hired by the production walked out in front of the screen to ask a question
The character in the movie answered the actor in the room with us
then the lights went back down and the film resumed as before
What a wonderful gimmick! Half Brechtian and half William Castle
the stunt explodes the boundaries between the audience and the film we’re watching
I have no idea how it can possibly be replicated at daily screenings in hundreds of multiplexes across the country
The point is that he went ahead and did it anyway
The whole movie is bursting at the seams with that spirit of reckless experimentation
the last gamble of an 85-year-old legend pushing all his chips into the middle of the table
Adam Driver and Nathalie Emmanuel in "Megalopolis." (Courtesy of Lionsgate)It feels like I’ve been reading about “Megalopolis” for as long as I’ve been reading about movies
Coppola started writing the script in 1983
and after four decades of false starts and development delays
he finally sold off his wine empire and financed the film himself
sprawling magnum opus is the work of an artist answering to nobody other than his own muse
To say “Megalopolis” is a mess would be an understatement
The movie staggers around discordant tones from stark solemnity to crass sex farce to romantic exaltation
Characters and storylines are lost track of or abandoned altogether while the visual effects whiplash from breathtaking to chintzy
plentiful and did not bother me in the slightest
An hour after it ended I was still smiling
Coppola’s maximalist treatise on the state of the republic is an old-school Roman epic decked out in digital media-drenched retro-future
Set in an alternate universe New York City called New Rome — where the Coliseum is inside Madison Square Garden and they have toga parties at Studio 54 — the film follows Driver’s tortured genius Cesar Catalina
a blueblood architect and inventor who dreams of rebuilding New Rome as a utopia equitable for all
He butts heads with the city’s pragmatic Mayor Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito) and earns the ire of his nefarious banker uncle Crassus (Jon Voight)
a priapic creature of capitalism who is basically all appetite
A blonde-wigged Dustin Hoffman is also on hand doing lord knows what as a perverted political fixer
Giancarlo Esposito in "Megalopolis." (Courtesy of Lionsgate)Cesar’s other enemies include his jealous cousin Clodio (Shia LaBeouf) — a druggy club kid who becomes the unlikely leader of a Trumpian populist uprising — and his ex-lover Wow Platinum
a tabloid reporter played by Aubrey Plaza in one of the movie’s most amusingly unhinged performances
indeed.) Cesar finds himself falling for his nemesis Cicero’s daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel)
who he had pegged as an airhead socialite but it turns out she can cite scientific arcana and Stoic philosophers with the best of them
These two realize they’re made for each other when they discover that they both share a supernatural ability to stop time
something that figures less prominently in the plotting than you’d probably expect
“Live your philosophy,” Julia tells her father during one of their conversations that becomes a Marcus Aurelius quoting contest — sometimes it feels like the movie should come with footnotes — and “Megalopolis” can never be accused of not practicing what it preaches
The film is structured as a 138-minute argument against conventional wisdom
endlessly extolling innovation and the freedom of working without a net
in one sequence we literally watch circus performers removing a safety net while Driver discusses what it means to be free.)
Every scene shows you something you’ve never seen before in a way you’ve never seen it
following through on seemingly any crazy idea that occurred to the artistic company at the moment
One scene is shot gazing up at characters from beneath their feet
Another begins with Driver reciting Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy in its entirety
The movie is bound by no rules of screenwriting nor any parameters of good taste
and judging from the snickers and heavy sighs I had to listen to in the press row
The movie is so earnest and achingly sincere that I’m inclined to feel protective of it
You can call “Megalopolis” a lot of things
but there’s not a cynical frame in the film
Aubrey Plaza in "Megalopolis." (Courtesy of Lionsgate)Wonderous images abound
like the mourning statues that come to life and lean despondently against buildings when characters are sad
or the 9/11-esque cataclysm seen entirely as an animated shadow play on the sides of skyscrapers
The movie also contains some of the goofiest sights you’ve ever seen — Driver’s architect holding a T-square like a lightsaber comes to mind — and boner jokes that wouldn’t be out of place in a frat house comedy
there’s a bizarre subplot involving a teen pop star auctioning off her virginity
and the movie’s convoluted explanation of a complex banking scheme is delivered by Plaza while she’s sitting on LaBeouf’s face
time-stopping kiss between Cesar and Julia is one of the most swooningly romantic movie moments in years
the director’s wife of 61 years who died in April
Her presence is very much felt in the film
with Cesar making nightly visits to weep alongside a high-tech hologram of his own dead wife
who the mercurial architect fears he drove to suicide with his mania and mood swings
The passage of time has been a recurring focus of Coppla’s work since the looming clocks and whizzing clouds of 1983’s “Rumble Fish,” up through the wistful reverse-aging fantasy of his 2007 “Youth Without Youth.” Cesar’s ability to manipulate temporality is one of the director’s most powerful projections
what is filmmaking but an attempt to control time
to slow down and speed up the minutes while preserving individual moments forever
There comes a point in a lot of aging directors’ careers when they stop trying to be sneaky about their central preoccupations and just straight out say what they mean
“Megalopolis” might be the ultimate example of this
as the movie is constantly in conversation with and about itself
It’s the closing argument of a man in his ninth decade who still has faith in the future
pouring his fortune into a deeply personal passion project designed as a proof-of-concept that we can build a better world for our children if we’re willing to put aside the old
entrenched ways and take big swings like this together
“Megalopolis” is now in theaters.
Sean Burns Film CriticSean Burns is a film critic for WBUR
Megalopolis was perhaps one of the strangest blockbusters of 2024, both because it was a strange film and also owing to the many, many circumstances and headlines surrounding its release
The 160-page book from Chris Ryall—who’s previously adapted Shaun of the Dead
and other films for the medium—and Jacob Phillips will release this fall and
is more of a “sibling” to the film rather than a full adaptation
“I [told] Chris that although it was inspired by my film
it didn’t necessarily have to be limited by it
I hoped the graphic novel would take its own flight
[…] It confirms my feeling that art can never be constrained
and part of the bounty we can make available to our patrons
the premise is that Adam Driver’s Caesar Catalina hopes to build a utopian city with his building material Megalon
and other elites in the city conspire to stop him from building his perfect city
and meanwhile Caesar falls for Cicero’s daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel) when they learn they can stop time together
Reactions were split between finding it flawed but endearing and too flawed to get fully invested
but audiences bounced off it pretty quickly
Ryall hopes his Megalopolis graphic novel “honors and expands the world of the original film,” and we’ll see how that fares when it hits stores in October
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In Slate’s annual Movie Club, film critic Dana Stevens emails with fellow critics—for 2024, Bilge Ebiri, K. Austin Collins, Alison Willmore, and Odie Henderson—about the year in cinema. Read the first entry here
Glide with me into the Slate Movie Club on this garishly lit walkway that cost $120 million worth of grapes
about how Francis Ford Coppola got a pass for making a movie that was total garbage simply because he also made The Godfather
Some of the reviews I read featured writers twisting themselves into pretzels to justify the logic of praising a movie they didn’t think was that good
(And the gimmick didn’t even sync properly—thanks
As much as I hated Megalopolis, part of me admired that it felt like a big middle finger from the filmmaker to paying customers, much like Eyes Wide Shut did when it came out. I’m all for pissing off the audience, even if I’m in that audience. Considering the way things are going right now, I think the world is Megalopolis and we’re just squirrels trying to get a glowing nut
thank you for that Joan Didion quote about film criticism
this is why your version of A Star Is Born is the worst one
You didn’t think I was gonna walk in here like a beacon of choirboy goodness
Isn’t it odd that Adam Driver and Adrien Brody are the cinematic architects of 2024
a duo of designing men trying to scope out territory for themselves
I don’t know if either of them fits the description
though Brody’s performance in The Brutalist is his best since The Pianist
Though I liked the first half of The Brutalist more than the second (yes
on not loving it enough for it to make my Top 20
Your story about interviewing Brady Corbet reminded me that I sat next to him at a dinner held for the talent during the Off Camera film festival in Krakow
I programmed a nine-movie sidebar on Black American cinema; he was there because Simon Killer was in competition
He held out his hand and introduced himself
and I recall that our conversation was quite pleasant
Who could have predicted he’d be helming a three-and-a-half-hour critical darling in 2024
we both have Hit Man and The Fall Guy in our Top 20
those seem more like “Bilge movies” than The Brutalist
perhaps because I once sat in front of Bilge at a screening of The Mask of Zorro
And as a lover of all those car-crash movies from the 1970s
I’d be afraid to ask what people think constitutes an “Odie movie.” Folks would probably say M3gan
To dig back into Dana’s commentary on criticism: 2024 worried me. In the introduction to my 10-best list at the Globe, I asked, “Am I broken?” The pandemic and this election did me in
I considered whether that affected me as a critic
as I’d given more zero and half-star reviews this year than I’d ever given in one year
But I also gave nine four-star reviews—also more than I’d ever given in a year
my initial viewing of it presented a problem for me that I had to work out on my own
The perspective in which it is shot—that is
RaMell Ross makes us see the film through its characters’ eyes—felt for me a bit like putting a hat on a hat
and I’m being given a perspective I already have
The level of redundancy made me feel profoundly uncomfortable
and I’m smart enough to realize that this is a “me” problem
It’s one of those times I was glad I had a few weeks before I needed to turn in my review
I’d read the book before I saw the film—and I turned it around in my head
when Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor’s character leans in to hug Turner (Brandon Wilson)
I subconsciously leaned forward in my seat
I could feel the arms of my late aunties who passed enveloping me
somebody yell at me for giving Anora the “polite three-star review.”
Read all of the entries in Slate’s 2024 Movie Club
The oddity of Megalopolis is that it is neither as far-reaching nor as demented as its reputation suggests
is a resounding commercial flop and a polarizer of critics everywhere
Even if it weren’t for its manifold flaws and eccentricities
the film is probably too unclassifiable to do well in this cultural environment: No intellectual property is mined and no real events are restaged
The star-studded cast simply isn’t enough of a draw and the word-of-mouth is a muddle.
I can’t offer two thumbs shot straight up in the air
Yet I do believe Megalopolis is more a success than a failure
and it contains ambition that is too often missing from contemporary artistic projects
I saw glimmers of Tom Wolfe and Thomas Pynchon in it
was an auteur who was going to leave it all on the field
The film’s poor showing at the box office doesn't bode well for the kind of expansive dreaming and gusto that it celebrates
but the mad determination of both the director and his protagonist suggests that our cultural future may not be completely listless
a takeoff on the Catilinarian conspiracy of Ancient Rome
a brilliant architect who has the power to stop time
and he has won a Nobel Prize for inventing a new building material called megalon
a barely disguised retro-futuristic New York City
and he is the bane of the existence of Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito)
who possesses a much more banal vision for urban development
Whereas Catalina dreams of a shimmering utopia known as Megalopolis—he will build it
from megalon—Cicero talks up a new casino to belch up tax revenue.
Cicero and Cesar have quite the past: When he was district attorney
Cicero prosecuted Cesar for the murder of his own wife
though the architect was acquitted and it’s made clear that her death was actually a suicide
and is engaged in an unsatisfying affair with a vapid talk show host
the world’s richest man and the financier of Cesar’s architectural dreams
Cesar falls in love with the mayor’s daughter
Cesar’s first cousin Clodio Pulcher—and Crassus’s other nephew—is a bumbling failson who wants to thwart Cesar
Played at a curious register by Shia LeBeouf
and he briefly leads a populist revolt against Cesar’s Megalopolis plan
in part by galvanizing residents displaced by the vast construction project
Coppola never seems fully invested in Clodio
and the uprising doesn’t gain serious steam; Cesar is not truly threatened
even after a gun is aimed at his face and the bullet discharges
There’s a Randian bent to Megalopolis’s deification of its visionary architect protagonist and its implicitly anti-democratic dismissal of mass politics
even if Coppola’s vision is fundamentally more humane
Cesar does not succumb to megalomania or fascism
and in the end proves to be nothing like his closest real-world analogue
who has a high school freshman’s conception of politics
For all its quasi-hammy acting and visuals that alternate between stunning and befuddling, it’s a film that one can’t look away from, and that is a credit to the director’s haphazard yet compelling world-building. Moreover, as Ross Douthat argued
Megalopolis is interesting because it’s attempting to communicate something about our world as it is
It does not race away from the present day
and it strikes at a few unsettling American realities
The great mayor of New Rome can think of nothing grander than a new casino
not unlike our own politicians who are trying to peddle gambling as an economic development model in New York instead of dreaming bigger.
Perhaps all of this is a metaphor for the existence of the film itself
which Coppola self-financed and finally dragged to life when he reached his 80s
Megalopolis is in movie theaters because Coppola directed the first two Godfather films and Apocalypse Now
Coppola was himself something of a Hollywood Cesar
and if he is no longer capable of such magic
Megalopolis will be regarded as a fantastic flop
and since movies are mainly judged in the most utilitarian way imaginable—a book with an enormous advance that doesn’t sell enough is not disdained in the same manner as a box-office dud—this could drive the film industry further away from innovation
and it seems we are going to choke on sequels of sequels and ever-duller IP until human civilization collapses
and there are no Cesar Catalinas riding in to save the decadent mainstream
from what has not been captured by sclerotic conglomerates
There is still a hunger for what is new and unusual
Ross Barkan is a writer from New York City
@RossBarkan
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unleashing his undiluted meditation on Roman History
written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Screening at Alamo Drafthouse Boston and other movie houses in New England
Adam Driver plays Cesar Catilina in Megalopolis
This is going to be a very hard review to write
because I haven’t seen Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis yet
I have the same feeling about Megalopolis that I’ve had about every Kubrick movie since Barry Lyndon
Kubrick’s control of his films became absolute
due to his brother-in-law Jan Harlan taking over producer duties on his movies
And I disliked and was bored by the self-indulgence of all of Kubrick’s movies from Barry Lyndon on… until I saw them again
Those first viewings were Kubrick the Titan out to innovate cinema
and my dislike and lack of engagement was my moviegoer brain trying to catch up with the neural rewiring Kubrick achieved with those movies from Barry Lyndon on
I’ve had the same experience with a few Michael Haneke movies
financed with 120 million bucks out of Coppola’s own pocket
and it has rewired my moviegoer brain in ways my frontal lobes have yet to process
I could process it and think it’s crap
But I know for a fact that walking out of Megalopolis
I had the same head buzz I had walking out of a 70mm showing of Apocalypse Now on opening night
set in a retro-future Manhattan standing in for Rome at the Fall of the Republic which is in turn standing in for the US at this political and cultural moment
an architect and city planner who is a blend
of Julius Caesar and Roman conspirator Catiline and maybe Robert Moses
Add a dash of Preston Tucker (subject of Coppola’s biopic
Tucker: the Man and His Dream) and you have the kind of innovator/superman who will have Ayn Rand fans making nocturnal Fountainheads in their John Galt Underoos
Catilina is the inventor of the “megalon,” a building material that earned him the Nobel Prize (and which has a mysterious connection to Catilina’s dead wife)
but the most pertinent thing seems to be its application toward creating cities that will (organically?) grow as the populations within them grow
yeah… Catilina also has a superpower worthy of one of The Flash’s villains: he can stop time at will
Catilina wants to knock down a bunch of multi-ethnic and affordable neighborhoods to build his Megalopolis development using the megalon
In opposition to him stands Giancarlo Esposito as Mayor Cicero
who’s much more conservative in his approach to… y’know… letting people have places to live
Cicero has a beautiful daughter named Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel) whose loyalties will be tested between Catilina and her dad
Megalopolis is a movie of incredible opulence… there are textures and colors and compositions that are as rich as Renaissance paintings
that Coppola doesn’t trust his own artistry regarding the power of this opulence
The world-building is disrupted by a number of quick cuts to build a kinetic sense of excess: the audience is not given an opportunity to acclimatize
There’s also an overreliance on voice overs and newscasts to stuff exposition into the audience’s skulls
and that comes off as especially ham-fisted
given the elegance of the film’s overall look and execution
just kind of disappears for too long a spell
All these are hints that make me think that
we’re going to have multiple cuts of Megalopolis in the future
There’s a lot of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis in Megalopolis
We have a conflict of the orders between the Have’s and Have Nots centered around urban infrastructure and resources
in terms of conservative forces standing in opposition to advancing technology
ponderous science fiction metaphors are stripped down and breezy affairs
It’s stunningly beautiful to watch him do it
just like there’s beauty watching Nijinsky faceplant
Coppola is making a movie about a guy playing God while he
The totality of his control is admirable… but maybe he’s not in total control of himself
There’s an Urban Purgatory of Injustice sequence which is one of the most stunning things I’ve seen in years
science fictional take on 9/11 and Ground Zero exudes a surreal beauty… followed a bit later by TV news clips of the real Ground Zero
which takes away from the power of the Ground Zero metaphor
Megalopolis is undeniably a gargantuan mess
maybe what’s unfinished is my viewing of it
Coppola has brought the full force of his cinematic genius to bear here
It could well be that I have yet to catch up with his vision
the epic vision of the director himself might need to be ratcheted down — to allow for the epic vision of the characters to be seen and experienced and understood
just as Mayor Cicero stands in the way of Catilina’s vision
it’s hard to see the forest through the trees of Megalopolis
and personal trainer Michael Marano (www.BluePencilMike.com) is often asked what his favorite movie is
His typical answer is The Godfather and The Godfather Part II
Maybe the “mess” of the film is exactly the point of it all
inability to orient oneself and the “unfinished” feelings are the true representations of the film and the whole
this world is becoming much more difficult to recognize and no matter how much it can be decorated
there is the underlying feeling that something is terribly off
I am intrigued by this film and from viewing the trailers
but will definitely want in my film library
The Lady’s Dressing Room (1732) BY JONATHAN SWIFT Five hours
(and who can do it less in?) By haughty Celia…
but this Littlefield review has convinced me to make the purchase
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and a career-redefining performance by Guy Pearce as the wealthy Pennsylvania businessman who becomes Brody’s patron
and—especially since Corbet went to the trouble of shooting it in VistaVision
a larger-format IMAX precursor from the 1950s
now used mostly for VFX shots when it’s used at all—it’s worth seeing on the biggest screen you can find when it opens in late December
don't look at Rotten Tomatoes—just go to a theater and see it for yourself
I’m not saying you should see it right away out of respect for Coppola and his legacy
Or that you should see it because by seeing it you will somehow help other movies like this get financed and theatrically distributed
There will not be any other movies like this—even if Megalopolis makes $4 billion
even if we all get together and charter shuttle buses to bring public-school kids and senior citizens to the multiplex in order to send a message to Hollywood
The antic more-more-more madness that suffuses every frame of this movie will vanish from the earth the day Coppola’s eyes close
Sometimes Megalopolis feels like the stoned cinematic fever dream that will flash through the auteur's head in the seconds before that happens
For a movie inspired by classical antiquity that’s been in the works for nearly 40 years
its references feel thoroughly modern; I found myself thinking about Metropolis but also about The Matrix
another filmmaker whose personal-technological vision quest culminated with actors speaking stiffly in fanciful digital environments; I also thought of Darkman
and the debauched Capitol from The Hunger Games (because of the Rome of it all
but also because of the Jason Schwartzman of it all); and
given what the movie has to say about the war between fearful and optimistic visions of the future
even before Shia LaBoeuf’s character enters politics and marshals an army of thugs (MEGA-chuds?) in red hats
Francis Ford Coppola’s 50-year-old dream is now an audacious
I had a series of dreams about a film the night after seeing it
as if Gordon Willis were still trying to lens a Francis Ford Coppola film from the great beyond
I dreamt of the Roman Senate convening at Madison Square Garden
I dreamt of futuristic femme fatales sleeping their way into the gaudy mansions of the wealthy and infirm
of ghostly women pregnant with their phantom children
of riots against living marble statues too exhausted with humanity to put up another 2000-year fight
of the techno-organic future twisting its way around the heart of Manhattan like vines
I’ve dreamt about movies before after watching them too late before bed
and those dreams were always abstract approximations of the movies I had seen
But my dreams of Megalopolis were absolutely indistinguishable from the real thing
to imagine Coppola having come up with his film’s fantastical scenes from his own dreams
trying to realize his grand ambitions for a City of the Future building brick by unnatural brick over the corpses of rich and poor alike
from Giancarlo Esposito’s Mayor Cicero accusing Catalina of murdering his wife
falling for Catalina anyway and giving up her former party-girl lifestyle to support him
to Shia Leboeuf’s hateful little genderfluid goblin
trying to manipulate the lower classes into tearing the city apart
to high-society gossip reporter Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza) power-screwing her way to the top
Aside from maybe one plot thread about a virgin
being outed as less innocent as she seems during a performance
and payoff aren’t among Coppola’s concerns
It’s certainly possible that some of the film’s plots are vestigial leftovers from God only knows how many iterations of a script that Coppola has been toiling over for decades
Catalina screams from the top of one of his alien structures that it’s time to have a debate about the future
But this is less of a debate than a TED Talk with a $120 million visualizer laid on top of it
We’re being talked at about the future through artfully indirect means
There’s a hallucinatory beauty and admirable sentiment behind that talk
the film’s biggest positive is its hopeless optimism—the kind of optimism that can only be espoused by someone who intimately knew post-war America
Megalopolis is a film artful enough to fully commit and make good on the idea of America as the new Roman Empire
though it’s perhaps more accurate that Coppola conceives of his city as every empire
what with the production design taking cues from the rot of opulence across the centuries
to the messy club culture-aesthetics of the present
The film accentuates the failure of this particular empire by weaving in allusions to Shakespearean tragedy—myriad tales of good intentions
even hammering it home with snippets of Latin dialogue and quoting Shakespeare directly
Megalopolis just cannot square its bull-headed industrial optimism with the exploitation
and roiling intolerance that any well-intentioned savior would have to fight through at every stratus of American life
The film’s vision of how captains of industry could make life better for the rest of us is
the conceit of someone who would sell off ownership of a winery to make a blockbuster-budgeted film about how the privileged are the only ones who can build a better nation
There’s no malice on the film’s part in how it delivers that message
It’s more that it’s the byproduct of optimism in a cynical age
There’s an undeniable allure to Coppola’s willingness to say “fuck it” to logic and cohesion
basking in the feeling of a golden utopian future rather than conceiving of the mechanisms needed to facilitate it in lurid detail
Even beyond the film’s astonishing visuals
there’s worth in its willingness to crawl out of every hole that its bourgeois menagerie of characters dig for themselves into a better tomorrow
and does it while never once questioning the how
marks the end of Coppola’s career as a filmmaker
and desperately believes that there’s a limitless world out there for us to explore
Certainly it leaves audiences just a tiny bit more willing to imagine a better world
Much like the child that we end Megalopolis focused on
it’ll likely just leave you confused at first
at least you’ll go to bed after it’s over and dream
Justin Clark is a gaming critic based out of Massachusetts
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Friends, Romans, critics attempting to plumb the riches of my Emersonian mind
On a sunny afternoon a couple of weeks after its release
I stole a little time away from my duties at the New York Film Festival to walk a few blocks uptown
to catch a matinee showing of Megalopolis in IMAX
and for the entire two-hour-and-change run time
No one held back on openly expressing themselves either—there was laughter
to a degree that impressed me after being so sure that Megalopolis was the kind of disaster that people would openly reject
I can’t think of the last time I had quite as much fun belonging to a crowd of theatergoers whose mental wheels were so clearly spinning for the length of an entire movie
When I saw Challengers—another 2024 movie with a reputation for inspiring its audiences to react out loud—the oohs and aahs at this bit of locker-room nudity and that bit of techno-steamy melodrama felt
as if the thirtysomethings in my midst had seriously never seen a dick before
My audience for Dune: Part Two erupted into applause and laughter (Javier Bardem’s proud-uncle “Lisan al-Gaib!” is one of the line readings of the year) at moments that had genuinely earned them
(I liked the movie just fine.) Megalopolis was my single best theatrical experience of 2024
but because—embrace it or dismiss it—they seemed enlivened by it
They were asking questions of the film and of themselves: questions about the margins of their taste
“bad,” what it means to be both suspicious of the film and completely enthralled by it
that the technocratic idealism of its protagonist-philosopher-hero is not a politics I can get behind
and that the swerves from high to low may demand that a viewer run to the nearest recompression chamber after the film ends
I had been led to believe that it was some errant misfire by a director who no longer knows what he’s doing
this is the guy who directed The Godfather—who so successfully merged popular moviegoing taste with serious
and frankly quite masculine Hollywood filmmaking
We still live in the shadow of that style of film today (see also: The Brutalist)
a filmmaker of complex set pieces: The wedding and baptism sequences of The Godfather come to mind
and the Madison Square Garden and “drive to Purgatory” sequences of Megalopolis are two great
Look at the way the MSG sequence breaks a huge social ritual down into various little microcosms all nibbling away at each other
not unlike The Godfather wedding—this has Coppola written all over it
I don’t see a film that’s beyond its director’s control
And I definitely don’t see a film that’s giving the audience the middle finger
I do see a film that knows that middle fingers might fly in the opposite direction
than a film that makes me reexamine why I feel the way that I feel
And I sensed these questions blossoming quite a bit among the moviegoing public this year—to Alison’s question about how my role as a film programmer has affected my view on these things
it’s made me way more aware of how people feel
what they think movies are “about.” Not always to my satisfaction
I think our culture is a little prone to exaggeration
And a little too quick to feel smarter than every film we see
but the people in my life who were quickest to call it dumb tended also to have the sloppiest critiques of it
(Why did so many people think it would be an MGM musical?) I similarly don’t care to debate whether The Substance is too obvious
You aren’t a bad viewer if you find its commitment to being on the nose a little stultifying
but you’re also not in the wrong to say that for genre films
The Substance doesn’t do enough to take its own obviousness for granted
But obviousness in itself is not the problem
I kept feeling that most of the “crazy” films people either caterwauled about or unduly gassed up were simply not as ridiculous
is a little gross but not really so extreme
The glimpses of horniness we get in Challengers would be a lot less notable
The response to that movie makes me feel as if the Puritans have already won
especially about some of my favorite movies of the year
which range from the wink-wink himbo intelligence of Richard Linklater’s Hit Man and the analytical despair of Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths to the lush surrealness of Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point and I Saw the TV Glow
But I’m stuck on the question of understanding why we feel the way we feel
All We Imagine as Light (Payal Kapadia)Between the Temples (Nathan Silver)Blitz (Steve McQueen)Chime (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point (Tyler Taormina)Close Your Eyes (Victor Erice)Evil Does Not Exist (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)The First Omen (Arkasha Stevenson)Green Border (Agnieszka Holland)Hard Truths (Mike Leigh)Hit Man (Richard Linklater)I Saw the TV Glow (Jane Schoenbrun)Janet Planet (Annie Baker)Juror No
2 (Clint Eastwood)Last Summer (Catherine Breillat)Megalopolis (Francis Ford Coppola)Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross)No Other Land (Basel Adra
and Rachel Szor)Red Rooms (Pascal Plante)Sasquatch Sunset (David and Nathan Zellner)Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (Johan Grimonprez)
In Francis Ford Coppola’s latest film
a visionary architect with utopian dreams navigates political chaos and conspiracy to rebuild a declining American city
Adam Driver as Cesar Catilina and Nathalie Emmanuel as Julia Cicero in Megalopolis
• • •
After three decades occupied with for-hire work
Francis Ford Coppola is swinging for the fences
and his first in many moons to be visible outside involuted cinephile circles
picks up where his last big-budget auteur projects left off: its stylistic debt to German Expressionism and its Hollywood heirs connects it to Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992); its depiction of a visionary prodigy hemmed in by the running dogs of the status quo to Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988)
The genius with clipped wings in Megalopolis is Adam Driver’s Cesar Catilina
an architect / urban planner who aspires to transform the dilapidated face of “New Rome”—a municipal agglomeration bearing more than a passing resemblance to Manhattan and its environs in long shots
to downtown Atlanta in close-ups—with the assistance of a miracle substance of his invention
while facing stiff opposition from Giancarlo Esposito’s Mayor Franklyn Cicero
Giancarlo Esposito as Mayor Cicero in Megalopolis
“in the Third Millennium of the 21st Century,” Megalopolis—the title reflecting the name of Catilina’s proposed garden city—overlays the Roman republic in its waning years of crisis onto a contemporary American scene
Several monikers in Coppola’s film refer to key participants in the Catilinarian conspiracy
a failed coup d’état of 63 BCE led by Lucius Sergius Catilina
and put down by consul Marcus Tullius Cicero
becomes in the movie Jon Voight’s Hamilton Crassus III
Catilina’s venal plutocrat uncle; Publius Clodius Pulcher
a shit-stirrer alleged to have cross-dressed his way into an assignation with Julius Caesar’s wife
becomes Shia LaBeouf’s Clodio Pulcher
such as Aubrey Plaza’s unscrupulous financial-sector reporter Wow Platinum and Nathalie Emmanuel’s Julia Cicero
the mayor’s daughter and Catilina’s lover
Nathalie Emmanuel as Julia Cicero in Megalopolis
The word “mess” has appeared in more than a handful of slighting reviews of Megalopolis
This pejorative might be applied to everything that recommends the film: its stylistic eclecticism
(The death of Dustin Hoffman’s political “fixer,” ostensibly of some importance to the plot
is handled in a tossed-off flashback that’s like a Family Guy digression.) In other regards
at times near to the binarism of a morality play
lacking any convincing challenge to his principled
superior-minded righteousness or suggestion of troubling hidden depths to his character
The wildest excesses of his personality—a moody workaholic monomania partly responsible
for driving his first wife to an early grave—appear to have been reined in by the time he comes to pay court to Julia
His overindulgence in drink and drug is seen to be but a handmaiden to his brilliance; his fondness for public histrionics
like crashing a press op to recite Hamlet’s soliloquy
just good old-fashioned ballyhoo: he is but mad north-northwest
Adam Driver as Cesar Catilina in Megalopolis
from what we see it shows every promise of offering a panacea to all the world’s problems
and his opponents can therefore only be motivated by entrenched blinkered conservatism (Mayor Cicero) or rankling jealousy (Pulcher)
There are occasional flashes of ironic circumspection—Catilina’s program for urban renewal gets a significant boost after large swaths of the city are flattened by chunks of a decaying Soviet satellite falling to earth
the detritus of another century’s idealist project clearing ground for a new one—but these scarcely suffice to dampen the general tone of messianic optimism
There is nothing here of the cynicism that marks actor Sam Bottoms’s description of the dysfunctional set of Apocalypse Now
pitched by Coppola as a communal endeavor: “Like any utopia
the truth is there is one person who gained
and everyone else suffered.” On the whole
the treatment of uncompromised rugged individualist architect Howard Roark in King Vidor’s 1949 adaptation of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead
which shares some DNA (but not a moral compass) with Coppola’s film
leaves the viewer more space for ambivalence concerning its hero
Aubrey Plaza as Wow Platinum in Megalopolis
Coppola runs into the old DeMillian paradox: the representatives of vice dominate his plea for virtue
modeling the same pretzeled-asp brassiere worn by Theda Bara in 1917’s Cleopatra
sporting a raffish rattail and castoffs from Michael Jackson’s HIStory World Tour
The latter two will emerge as the film’s villains
with Pulcher casting himself as populist demagogue in order to lead an uprising against cousin Catilina
effortlessly winning over a throng of gormless commoners with barked sloganeering (“Don’t tread on me!”)
Rather than tapping into familiar nativist talking points
he builds his base from a group referred to as “immigrants”; they appear
like most representatives of the masses seen
to have emigrated from the 1930s—a crowd of newsboys
Shia LeBeouf as Clodio Pulcher (right) in Megalopolis
There is nothing in Megalopolis to confute opportunist Pulcher’s view of the plebians as easily manipulated rubes
a curious omission in a movie that’s positioned as a humanist hymn to our species’ higher potential
that the fate of the American republic will be decided by a clash between aristocratic factions is not
but for a film that bills itself “A Fable” and fairly froths over with utopian sentiment
it does represent a certain limitation of imagination
low-angle composition recalling the triumphal conclusion of Vidor’s film
though gazing up at a newly installed family dynasty rather than a lone Übermensch
They are shot from the underside of what appears to be an acrylic platform
which gives the disconcerting impression that they are standing on top of you
Nathalie Emmanuel as Julia Cicero and Adam Driver as Cesar Catilina in Megalopolis
best hope for the future is a benevolent ruling-class technocracy ushering us into a new Eden of ’90s CD-ROM game graphics is not a particularly stirring one
a spend-it-all splurge crackling with cinematic bravado: the screwily busy choreography of the meet-cute between Catilina and Julia
the eerie augury of a divine hand snatching the full moon from the sky
allegorical statues across the city slumping on their pedestals as if in a laudanum trance
shadows of writhing bodies projected onto the faces of skyscrapers to suggest a modern-day Pompeii
Catilina’s platitudinous public-forum sermonizing on possibility and potential is more eloquently expressed by the giddy ingenuity of Coppola’s filmmaking
and in fact the character in the film nearest to its director may be Voight’s Crassus
who impulsively decides to unburden himself of his fortune for the public good—let us call him Francis the Generous
All of which is not to say that Megalopolis
as an AI-resurrected Roger Ebert said of Bram Stoker’s Dracula in an early (and speedily shelved) trailer for Coppola’s latest
is “a triumph of style over substance.” A real human being with a real feeling for art understands that they are much the same thing
Nick Pinkerton is the author of the book Goodbye, Dragon Inn, available from Fireflies Press as part of its Decadent Editions series. His writing on cinematic esoterica can be found at nickpinkerton.substack.com
a film from his original screenplay directed by Sean Price Williams
premiered in the Quinzaine des Cinéastes section of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival
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In the early 1980s, Francis Ford Coppola, with classics like The Godfather and Apocalypse Now under his belt
set his sights on his next magnum opus: an ambitious
fable-like drama that would draw parallels between the U.S
But after the costly flop of his 1982 musical
Coppola wasn’t able to get another big-budget labor of love off the ground
It was only a few years ago that he returned to the project
selling off part of his wine business and putting up $120 million of his own money
from challenges finding theatrical distribution to reports that Coppola had behaved inappropriately with women on the set
and whatever you have or haven’t heard about it
like some of the critics at this year’s Cannes Film Festival
didactic ideas and muddled historical allusions — an epic folly from a once-great filmmaker who long ago lost his mojo and possibly his mind
To which I can only say that every folly should have as much guts and passion as Megalopolis
and both times I’ve come away dazzled by its beauty
The story takes place in a city called New Rome
from the classical architecture to the bacchanalian parties and even a Colosseum-style sports arena
The plot essentially updates a famous Roman power struggle from 63 B.C
Furthering the conflict is Cicero’s daughter
a hard-partying medical-school dropout played by Nathalie Emmanuel
There’s a speechy stiffness to Coppola’s dialogue that takes some getting used to
But the story itself is a fairly straightforward mix of romance
much more: horse-drawn chariots and nightclub unicorns
Old Hollywood-style film techniques and kaleidoscopic visual effects
whose “to be or not to be” soliloquy Cesar at one point performs
He’s in the throes of an existential crisis
fearful that humanity’s time may be running out
The trippy production design is full of clocks and sundials
Cesar has the supernatural ability to briefly freeze time in its tracks
but even he cannot halt its forward march for long
including the four decades he spent trying to get Megalopolis made
But whatever resentment Coppola may feel toward an industry that has both honored and shunned him over the years
there isn’t a trace of bitterness in the movie
the planet can be saved and people can choose to live in a more inclusive and equitable society
Coppola clearly believes in the future of movies
there’s still room for a big-screen work of art as grandly improbable and deeply human as Megalopolis
Like so many of Francis Ford Coppola’s movies
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Typically the job of a movie critic is not that difficult
the nuances can get a little tricky and deadlines are a pain
but in general you go to a movie and then you relate your impressions of it
And it seems as if he has stuffed every single idea he had in the meantime into the movie
To say it’s all over the place is a huge understatement
We’re left with too much of everything except a coherent story
But it’s sort of like having too many beers with your genius friends — I’m lucky enough to have a few
but they can’t quite put everything together
'My Old Ass' review: Aubrey Plaza will make you cry in an unexpected delight
it’s about a power struggle of a quasi-Shakespearean nature
a little “Julius Caesar” there (a lot of “Julius Caesar,” in fact)
There is the “to be or not to be” soliloquy from “Hamlet” delivered straight up
without irony and only a little bit of context
It suggests more than it actually reveals; an attempt to lend some gravitas to what is really a throw-it-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks exercise
That the speech is delivered by Adam Driver helps
a genius (there’s that word again) Nobel-prize winning architect and futurist who has invented a miracle substance called Megalon
with which he hopes to construct a utopian city on the grounds of New Rome
his daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel) goes to work for Cesar
Cesar is having an affair with a Maria Bartiromo-like financial reporter (“the Money Bunny”) named Wow Platinum — yes
She schemes to wed the richest man in town
There are set pieces that can only be described as insane
a long circus-like wedding at a Roman-inspired coliseum chief among them
This also results in scandal for the arrogant
who it’s never clear exactly how we’re supposed to feel about
One of the things the film lacks is anyone to genuinely root for
although I suppose the Marcus Aurelius-quoting Julia comes close
particularly Cesar’s fever-dream plans for the future
Some of it is laugh-out-loud funny — not all of it on purpose
The performances seems inspired by the over-the-top techniques of actors who tried to do too much when sound finally came to films
there’s a part when someone goes onstage to ask Cesar a question
like a reporter in a press conference (Cesar answers)
a beyond-meta blending of real life and the artistic rendering of it
(I’m curious if this will happen at every screening
like when there are six people in a theater on a Tuesday afternoon.)
which are among the greatest in history — “The Godfather,” “The Godfather Part II,” “The Conversation,” “Apocalypse Now.” If you happen upon one of these on TV late at night
If these are exclamation marks in the history of movies
But it has a confidence in its structure that this film lacks
He’s certainly earned the right to try something outside the norm (and he paid the film’s $120 million budget out of his own pocket)
Spike Lee and Robert De Niro sat for a virtual question-and-answer session
Coppola talked about how he cast actors from differing political views and ones who had been “canceled” (presumably he meant Voight and LaBeouf)
De Niro and Lee looked a little skeptical about the casting
but what Coppola stressed was that it offers hope
Whether it’s worth seeing is a more complex decision
Watching Megalopolis carries with it a lot of baggage
and you can practically hear critics straining under that weight in their reviews
One wishes it was for a film that was truly worth it
Also, Cesar can stop time. I feel like I need to mention that here. How does it do it? Don’t expect answers from Megalopolis. We’re told this film is a fable but that feels like a cheap excuse to wave away its illogicality and its mess of script.
2024Nathalie Emmanuel and Adam Driver in a scene from Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis.”Photograph courtesy LionsgateSave this storySave this storySave this storySave this storyThe good news is that the Fountain of Youth exists
The bad news is that it costs a hundred and twenty million dollars
for his own version of it—the making of his latest movie
“Megalopolis.” But he got value for his money
in which he seems like a younger director than he has ever been
the film is more floridly and brazenly youthful than anything else Coppola has made
But with “Megalopolis” he cuts looser than ever and is able to do so precisely because he’s also more serious than ever
and this rhetoric fuses with the visual rhetoric of what the camera does—an aesthetic flamboyance in the movie’s visual compositions
and the scale and tumult of its spectacular action
“Megalopolis,” a movie made with hubristic ambition
is not only a tale of hubristic ambition but is indeed a celebration of it
The film is a tragedy in which everything comes out right: Coppola builds his protagonist’s absurd overreach into a foreordained happy ending
and the movie itself is a happy outcome from the very start
The subtitle of “Megalopolis” is “A Fable,” and a fabulous extravagance is proclaimed both in its premise and its action
The movie takes place in the course of a year or two some time this century
in a city that features many of the landmarks of current New York and is called New Rome
The cast of characters and a smattering of Latin words and phrases imbue this futuristic setting with conflicts and myths borrowed from ancient history
The movie’s visionary splendor and its carefree incoherence are on view in the first dramatic scene
a symbolic blast both of giddy unrealism and of aesthetic audacity: Adam Driver
stepping out onto a narrow ledge near the top of the Chrysler Building
leans out and peers down to the busy street below
Stop!” The traffic freezes; so do the clouds drifting overhead; so
Then he regains his footing and coolly snaps his fingers to get the world moving again
(Does he also reverse gravity?) Cinematically
It’s not a chain of dominoes set up to fall with gaudy precision but a mighty contrivance magnificently envisioned yet insubstantially joined
It wouldn’t withstand a push; it would just collapse in a disastrous
The fragility of conception isn’t a bug but a feature of this cinematic soap bubble of a dreamy wonder
Coppola offers a vision as phantasmagorical as it is absurd
Two things keep this contrivance held together in tenuous balance: a clear dramatic framework and Coppola’s sheer strength of feeling
Driver is at the center of the movie throughout
playing the polymathic protagonist Cesar Catilina
Not only has Cesar won a Nobel Prize for inventing a sort of biological metal called Megalon; he’s also an artist
and the head of New Rome’s Design Authority
He’s Robert Moses if Moses had had Leonardo da Vinci’s spectrum of talents
and his ambition is to transform the city’s neighborhoods
The movie’s title comes from Cesar’s name for his dream project
a city-within-the-city that will be built using his wonder substance
What he has in mind is a techno-utopia in which form and function are united
in which beauty will be matched by abundance
not least because it requires the demolition of existing neighborhoods and
devoted to the citizenry’s practical needs (jobs
education) and leery of grand-scale projects
lest they threaten the interests of the city’s many constituencies: working people
He opposes the construction of Megalopolis and
at a site where Cesar has demolished an apartment building (stopping time to savor the implosion)
believes in Cesar’s work and hopes to smooth matters out between him and her father
incurring Cicero’s wrath and setting up a mighty clash in civic and romantic dimensions
Coppola’s imagination is excited above all by the volatile intersection of power and family
and that’s the principle with which he builds out the movie’s prime conflict
a flashy TV business reporter known as the Money Bunny
who is frustrated; she wants to be “half of a power couple” but Cesar works alone
a populist politician who riles up public sentiment against Megalopolis and launches a defamatory campaign against Cesar
The sassy swing of a sequence in Cesar’s studio
with his entire staff collaborating in efforts closer to play than to labor
has the feel of a Vincente Minnelli set piece
with the long-limbed Driver doing dancelike maneuvers in a swivel chair
As Cesar prepares to show Julia the wonders of his scientifico-artistic contrivances
Fundi Romaine (Laurence Fishburne)—who’s also a historian recording the events at hand—and the elegant shiver of his shoulders invests the instant with momentousness
Yet at a moment of physical and emotional agony
Driver is also capable of rending the screen with a simple repeated one-syllable incantation that constitutes one of the most indelible inflections I’ve heard in a movie
The actors all seem to be having the time of their lives
As Wow Platinum (whose name has an origin story too snappy to spoil)
Plaza brings a coruscating intensity to machinations in the bedroom and the boardroom
as well as brazen flair to her character’s on-the-air allure
fiercely Shakespearean in his worldly crudeness; LaBeouf brings a lizard-like protean desperation to Clodio’s needy stratagems; and
Kathryn Hunter gets a welcome and radiant turn displaying warmth
(She even gets to dance—with Jason Schwartzman
even as she brings a lyrical lilt to the most exquisitely designed scene in the movie
a skyhigh romantic reunion on cable-dangling girders
Though much of “Megalopolis” is wildly subjective and built from hallucinatory effects
the movie’s relentless energy is captured in images that are graphically eye-catching and straightforwardly composed
Coppola’s work shows in their imaginative power
produced by way of unexpected and revelatory angles and graceful gestures that are heightened by the simplicity with which they slip onto the screen
a few sharp camera glances catch both the vast skies over Cesar’s head and the slippery-soled shoes on his feet
is realized with mercurial editing that also spotlights the high-relief images that it joins
The most grandiose compositions are reserved for displays of Megalopolis
starting as a work in progress and culminating in a vision of the cosmic that combines startlingly biomorphic forms with eerily flowing motion and a palette of colors and a style of glowing light that are as unnatural as they are seductive
and its accessories are as showily assertive as the images and the performances—not to mention the hulking old-school Citroën in which Cesar tools around town
the gold headdress that Wow dons for a costume party
and a touchless floating ball that’s Julia and Cesar’s domestic toy
and the documentary evidence that underlies them
is deeply devoted to the memory of his late wife
melodramatically fervent demonstrations of enduring devotion are echoed in Coppola’s onscreen dedication of the movie to his wife
There’s also a brief but jolting live-performance element that
is crucial to the experience—a moment of theatrical interaction with the filmed image
which highlights the immediate physicality from which even the most elaborate cinematic images are made
The movie only gets clumsy when dealing with something of which Coppola has little recent experience: ordinary life
extras) whose homes are demolished to make room for Megalopolis; or who appear destitute on ravaged streets late at night in an obscure neighborhood that Cesar happens to be passing through; or who support Clodio’s political campaign (up to a point)—these are caricatures
I wanted to know what they may have noticed
when Cesar stopped time and thus stopped them in their tracks
“Megalopolis” rises to its philosophical climax with speechifying in a vein of eyerollingly adolescent humanism
Its open-minded sincerity is coupled with a vision that’s less a matter of joyful creativity than of what Cesar calls debate
and which brings to mind bureaucratic conferences and PowerPoint presentations—a utopia in which the plenitude of art and science supplied from above yield earnest
But there’s nothing boring in Coppola’s realization of this culminating drama
and none in Driver’s declamatory enthusiasm
The romantic visionary gets an exultant sendoff in a sentimental display of family life on the public stage
the contradictions at the heart of “Megalopolis”—the incompatibility of the order of art and the loose ends of life
the artist’s unifying imperatives versus society’s centrifugal uncertainties—remain unexamined
merely papered over in a mighty paean to harmony and progress through reason and inspiration
A long-ago crime, suddenly remembered
A limousine driver watches her passengers transform
The day Muhammad Ali punched me
What is it like to be keenly intelligent but deeply alienated from simple emotions? Temple Grandin knows
The harsh realm of “gentle parenting.”
Retirement the Margaritaville way
Fiction by F. Scott Fitzgerald: “Thank You for the Light.”
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the legendary filmmaker behind The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now
is back with his first new film in over a decade
It reimagines the fall of Rome through a futuristic American city
and has a lot of big and messy ideas about time and the fate of humanity
It's also jam-packed with stars like Adam Driver
Francis Ford Coppola loves people yet remains wary of the gormless masses
producing a fascinating tension at the heart of the project
a concomitant rejection of populism and desire to aid a populace yearning for something bigger and better
That bigger and better future can only be delivered by Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver)
an architect who has not only developed the magical building material megalon
but also serves as an important bureaucrat in the world of New Rome
It’s not clear what the point of this time-bending ability is
But it looks pretty cool when he stops an implosion mid-plosion
And it helps connect him to Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel)
the daughter of the mayor and the only other person who can see him bend time to his will
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And yes, this is all a metaphor. (Or a fable, perhaps, as the film’s subtitle posits.) For American politics, for the film industry, for … everything, all of it. We live in a rut of our own making, one that keeps recycling fashions and intellectual property and musical strains because it’s what the people want. All we need is someone who sees it all to come along and give them something better.
Megalopolis is idealistic to a fault, a desperate plea to the people who believe in the power of the arts to let the artists—the architects, the playwrights, the musicians, and, yes, the filmmakers—guide humanity forward. As such, I feel comfortable citing lyrics, just for a moment, just to set the tone. This is from “The Pioneers,” off of Bloc Party’s brilliant 2005 debut album, Silent Alarm:
If it can be lost, then it can be wonIf it can be touched, then it can be turnedAll you need is timeAll you need is timeAll you need is timeAll you need is
We promised the world we’d tame itWhat were we hoping for?
The wildness of the world, the desire to tame it through force of will (and projection of force), the belief that time enough is all that’s needed to accomplish our goals, and the danger of what happens if you try and fail: listening to this on an iPod in a cubicle at the Weekly Standard, a few yards away from the closet that housed the Project for a New American Century, “The Pioneers” was a song that hit hard when I heard it in 2006 for … a variety of reasons.
Not the least of which is that utopian ideals often spur a furious backlash.
the most visible signal for commercial success and failure
This is less a prediction than a fait accompli
Nothing this ambitious can succeed because its success is based on convincing people to see a thing they’ve never experienced before and me telling them to see this thing will do nothing in the face of their buddy who says it looks like garbage
The movie will fail and the nine figures invested in the picture by Coppola will be lost
recouped pennies at a time over decades as the movie finds an audience at home
Maybe it fades into the ether like other works of mad genius
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But that’s almost literally what this movie is: Like Snyder
Coppola was gifted both a tool to visualize the world in any way he saw fit and the budget to realize that vision
and the result is practically experimental
Megalopolis is ethereal and messy with limited concern for little things like “linear storytelling” or “audience understanding.” It is
and an interesting failure remains far worthier of your attention than a successful mediocrity
If Megalopolis serves not as a moment of rebirth for the art of cinema but something closer to its death knell
at least it did so with a murderer’s row of hams chomping down on every bit of set dressing they can get their teeth on
Megalopolis isn’t a good movie, precisely—I think it fails on relatively fundamental levels as both standard storytelling and airy metaphor—but I’m glad it exists and happy to know that the thousands of dollars of Coppola Merlot I’ve consumed over the years helped in some small way to will this unwieldy monstrosity into existence.
But so many brilliant actors going “bonkers” at “110% of the required wattage” …I kinda have to watch this movie now.
(Also as an admittedly generic and poorly aimed protest vote against the big studios’ assumption that only the lowest common denominators are worth pursuing)
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Megalopolis is an act of remarkable hubris: a self-funded cinematic plea for humanity to assert its least-base nature and give itself over to the possibility of utopia
It\u2019s not clear what the point of this time-bending ability is
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And yes, this is all a metaphor. (Or a fable, perhaps, as the film\u2019s subtitle posits.) For American politics, for the film industry, for \u2026 everything, all of it. We live in a rut of our own making, one that keeps recycling fashions and intellectual property and musical strains because it\u2019s what the people want. All we need is someone who sees it all to come along and give them something better.
Megalopolis is idealistic to a fault, a desperate plea to the people who believe in the power of the arts to let the artists\u2014the architects, the playwrights, the musicians, and, yes, the filmmakers\u2014guide humanity forward. As such, I feel comfortable citing lyrics, just for a moment, just to set the tone. This is from \u201CThe Pioneers,\u201D off of Bloc Party\u2019s brilliant 2005 debut album, Silent Alarm:
We promised the world we\u2019d tame itWhat were we hoping for?
The wildness of the world, the desire to tame it through force of will (and projection of force), the belief that time enough is all that\u2019s needed to accomplish our goals, and the danger of what happens if you try and fail: listening to this on an iPod in a cubicle at the Weekly Standard, a few yards away from the closet that housed the Project for a New American Century, \u201CThe Pioneers\u201D was a song that hit hard when I heard it in 2006 for \u2026 a variety of reasons.
Nothing this ambitious can succeed because its success is based on convincing people to see a thing they\u2019ve never experienced before and me telling them to see this thing will do nothing in the face of their buddy who says it looks like garbage
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But that\u2019s almost literally what this movie is: Like Snyder
Megalopolis is ethereal and messy with limited concern for little things like \u201Clinear storytelling\u201D or \u201Caudience understanding.\u201D It is
at least it did so with a murderer\u2019s row of hams chomping down on every bit of set dressing they can get their teeth on
Megalopolis isn\u2019t a good movie, precisely\u2014I think it fails on relatively fundamental levels as both standard storytelling and airy metaphor\u2014but I\u2019m glad it exists and happy to know that the thousands of dollars of Coppola Merlot I\u2019ve consumed over the years helped in some small way to will this unwieldy monstrosity into existence.
Due in part to a less-than-successful theatrical run
Megalopolis became available to watch online sooner than most movies
If you're wondering how to stream Megalopolis online
take a look at the (disappointing) info below
the movie was pulled from most of the marketplaces alongside listings for the 4K physical release
every digital listing for Megalopolis comes up as "unavailable."
Given distributor Lionsgate's licensing deals
one would guess Megalopolis will eventually be released on Peacock
there has been no word on a streaming release for the movie
which seems to have been almost entirely scrubbed off the internet
The physical release for Megalopolis is a similar tale. While Amazon still technically has a listing up for Megalopolis in 4K, it's currently unavailable, and word is the retailing giant started cancelling existing preorders
Megalopolis is an original modern epic from legendary writer-director Francis Ford Coppola
Here's the official synopsis from Lionsgate:
Megalopolis is a Roman Epic set in an imagined Modern America
a genius artist who seeks to leap into a utopian
who remains committed to a regressive status quo
Torn between them is socialite Julia Cicero
whose love for Cesar has divided her loyalties
forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves
Megalopolis was written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola
The film runs for a total of 2 hours and 18 minutes including credits
Looking for more coverage from IGN? Check out our lists of the biggest movies of 2024.
Jordan covers games, shows, and movies as a freelance writer for IGN.
Where to WatchPowered byNot yet available for streaming.
And \"Wow Platinum?\" Why not \"Holy $#!+ OMG?\"
Less than 50% audience or critic scores on rotten tomatoes make this a curious trainwreck at best
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I talked to one filmmaker who said that they watched Megalopolis alternating between gazing at the screen with awe and holding their head in their hands from secondhand embarrassment
That’s pretty close to how I felt when I saw Megalopolis at Cannes in May
The movie has genuine passages of great beauty but often falters at basic storytelling
but just as many scenes feel overlit and flat
Its conceptual peculiarities — the dialogue in verse
the neo-Roman hair and costume design — can be endearing
but the performances are all over the place
and not every actor appears to have gotten the memo
critics will not agree on what that memo even was
campy performance a sly part of the film’s nutty design
but they also took everyone’s attention away from the most interesting aspect of the trailer: In advance of the movie’s release
were targeting critics for failing to appreciate the maestro’s work
Their thesis seemed to be this: “The Godfather
and Bram Stoker’s Dracula were all huge hits
then how can they possibly be trusted about the new one?”
Never mind that this was not an accurate reading of history — or the present
have been kinder to Megalopolis than average audiences likely will be
I revisited Coppola’s picture at the Toronto International Film Festival and came out of it pretty sure that I’ll watch it again before it leaves theaters
I might have to act fast.) Megalopolis will never be a normal movie
but it plays infinitely better on repeat viewing
And while it would be easy to dismiss as the bizarre rantings of an out-of-touch
over-the-hill artist lost in his own ideas and surrounded by yes-men
the way it mixes raw sincerity with an unabashed goofiness
it helps to have some familiarity with its creator’s life and career
“I grew up in a family that moved every six months,” Coppola said to me in an interview years ago
“I went to 22 schools before I got into college
And that kind of impression when you’re really young you never can quite shake
Why did I make a movie like The Conversation
a film that features a lonely older guy who lives by himself and eavesdrops on people
There’s got to be some aspect of that in me.” But a filmmaker by nature must have some extrovert qualities: It’s hard to make dozens
Coppola was always trying to create collectives
He surrounded himself with other filmmakers
and in some cases helped fund their passion projects
He longed to have a studio like the early days of United Artists
there was something aloof and solitary about him
Watch his wife Eleanor’s great documentary
Coppola was famous for prepping his productions by inviting the cast over to his home for home-cooked meals and collegial rehearsal sessions
he was reportedly often confined to his famous Silverfish
the state-of-the-art Airstream trailer from which he could direct the action like a solitary god
This has always been the paradox of his career
The director’s notion that utopia isn’t a fixed state but a conversation about the future reflects his approach to filmmaking itself
“I’ve always felt that when you’re making a movie
you’re essentially asking a question,” he said in our aforementioned interview
But Megalopolis itself doesn’t contain much of a debate about the future of the city or the world in which it takes place
There’s some general language about “the now” and “the forever,” but little actual specificity
undefined properties; it’s more magic than science
the conversation about the future that the film lacks may well be provided by its very existence
Coppola has created a movie that we can fight over
a film like this might have caused riots at screenings; nowadays
it’s more likely to play to empty auditoriums
But that won’t stop us from talking about it — whether it’s about form
or the wild risks of spending one’s own money on a crazy dream project
or whether the director has lost his marbles
maybe Coppola has in fact achieved his dream
he’s created in the world outside his head the conversations he’s apparently been having inside it
The audience-participation element of Megalopolis isn’t some poor zhlub standing in the dark with a dead microphone
Password must be at least 8 characters and contain:
you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York
$150 million which will never see a return on investment
sexual misconduct allegations and a trailer with fake AI quotes
Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” has arrived in theaters to the utter bewilderment of audiences
factions are already forming within the film community
you have the vehement auteurists who believe “Megalopolis” is a stunning
uncompromising late-style masterpiece from a singular visionary
Others deem it as incoherent rubbish from an octogenarian who has gone insane
While I love auteurism and take pride in championing polarizing work
“Megalopolis,” while commendable for its audacity
is often a tedious mess that collapses under the weight of its imagination and ideas
The film’s bizarre story stems from Coppola’s fascination with Rome’s past and America’s future
the film takes place in “New Rome,” a New York City that is part of a hypothetical continuation of Ancient Rome
the “American Republic.” It’s an intriguing slice of alternative history
and the film’s gaudy costuming and set design fully capitalize on the idea
Coppola’s narrative in this setting is full of squandered potential and nonsensical detours
It centers on Cesar Catalina (Adam Driver) — a brilliant
strange architect who aspires to build a utopia
within New Rome using a newly invented substance
Catalina is rivals with Mayor Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito)
who admonishes his progressive ideals and advocates for more conservative governance
Cesar is also a member of the uber-wealthy Catalina banking family led by patriarch Hamilton Crassus (Jon Voight) and his grandkids
including nemesis Clodio Pulcher (Shia LaBeouf).
One would think the man who made “The Godfather” would be able to once again tell an engrossing tale of political intrigue and familial drama
yet “Megalopolis” is somehow both overly complicated and simple
The characters of Megalopolis are goofy and absurd
but it leaves the film with minimal dramatic stakes
which are often feelings as basic as jealousy and greed
change on a whim after one pompous conversation
There are also so many digressions and bits of exposition that introduce information that adds nothing and leaves you even more confused about the characters and their past.
The political commentary of “Megalopolis” has its focus in the right place
Coppola advocates for progressive ideals uncompromised by the status quo and reactionary sentiments
and condemns billionaire rabble-rousers who use populism to placate the masses and convince them to betray themselves
but their execution is annoyingly lackluster and daft
Cesar delivers breathless screeds full of archaic syntax that fail to stir
and characters inexplicably don confederate flags and Nazi black suns because Coppola can’t think of a more subtle way to portray fascism
The film’s defenders will say these traits are features
but I find such crude political messaging to be bad and a disappointing copout from the very rich potential of the world Coppola has crafted
While most of the performances are shockingly good and attuned to the film’s idiosyncratic wavelength
one central performance really brought the film down: Nathalie Emmanuel as Julia Cicero
Cesar’s love interest and Mayor Cicero’s daughter
I can tell Emmanuel was trying to deliver a campy performance that aligned with the crazy script she was given
and while this approach worked for her castmates
and only exacerbated the film’s bombastic lines and vapidness
Emmanuel made some scenes unbearable and distracted from the incredible work her frequent screen partner Adam Driver was doing
I could go on and on about “Megalopolis,” but I’ll leave it there
earnest and imposing work that exists outside all conventions and industry standards
that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good movie
It frequently becomes high on its own grandiosity and fails to deliver on its premise and lofty themes of art
I wish I could see it as the masterpiece its fans think it is
Since its debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May, Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” has divided critics and audiences alike. A renowned director well-known for “The Godfather” trilogy, Coppola delivers yet another disappointment on the screens and at the box office
Much like the development of some of Coppola’s previous movies — such as “Apocalypse Now” — the production of “Megalopolis” was not without numerous challenges and controversies
The initial idea for the film was conceived during the late 1970s
but production was stalled by debts Coppola accumulated from prior box office failures.
Coppola continued to struggle to convince studios to sign his project
“Megalopolis,” which takes place in a fictionalized
Romanesque version of New York City aptly named “New Rome.” Production was delayed after studios at the time felt its plot was too evocative of the terror attacks
The $120 million of funding for “Megalopolis” ultimately was paid for by Coppola
who sold part of his wine estate to finance the film
it had bizarre elements and was mired in controversy
Coppola allowed actors to improvise and re-write parts of the script during the filming process
Coppola also fired the entire visual effects team along with much of the crew in the art department
a decision that was likely responsible for the numerous gaffes on set and in the final cut of the film.
Although it was made apparent that New Rome was a modern-day parallel to the Roman Empire in its final days
other worldbuilding elements were simply overlooked by Coppola
One cutscene featured a flag with the letters “NYSE,” representing the New York Stock Exchange
even though the movie was set in the city of New Rome
The license plates on cars were identical to the real-life New York State license plates
the US and the Confederacy were used at various points throughout the film
These numerous contradicting elements made it quite confusing to understand the historical background of the film
Was it an alternate history based on the Roman Empire
or was it merely New York City with Roman aesthetics
the visual effects and CGI in the film missed the mark
Rather than striving for the realism seen in other high-budget films
scenes in “Megalopolis” resembled poorly green-screened middle school projects edited in iMovie.
The film begins by introducing its central conflict between architect and mastermind Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver) and New Rome mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito)
Catilina seeks to redevelop New Rome into a futuristic utopia
whereas Cicero resists these potential changes and attempts to preserve the city’s current state
Catilina is in a relationship with Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza)
a TV presenter who values power over morals
Platinum soon leaves her relationship with Catilina to marry his multi-billionaire
This semi-incestuous trope reoccurs later in the film
when Platinum seduces Catilina’s cousin and Crassus’s nephew
As Crassus and Platinum have their wedding celebration
Catilina is seen having drug-induced hallucinations outside the venue
mirroring the experience one has while watching this film
pop sensation Vesta Sweetwater (Grace VanderWaal) — advertised as New Rome’s own “Vestal Virgin” — delivers an utterly absurd performance with her multiple clones to advertise the desirability of virginity
Sweetwater is revealed to be a fraud (and Catilina a womanizer)
when a video of her having sex with Catilina is projected on the venue’s screens
misled by the dramatic nature of the film’s trailers
may be confused by the comic intermissions that appear excessively throughout “Megalopolis.” As the film progresses
it becomes increasingly tumultuous and chaotic
making it feel more like a 138-minute-long SNL skit rather than a potential blockbuster
Catilina ridicules Cicero’s daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel)
telling her to “go back to the club,” but the unserious delivery of this line undermines the dramatic nature of the confrontation between Julia and Catilina
some moments of comedic relief were welcome
Scenes featuring Platinum seemed more like intentional gags
rather than hilariously awkward lines or nonsensical circumstances
The film features surprisingly strong performances from Plaza and her co-stars
considering the lack of quality material.
One particularly creative moment in the movie occurs when Catilina holds a press conference during the middle of the film
a live performer plays the role of a reporter interviewing Catilina
Although this sort of act is impractical at most locations
it is a unique method of capturing the attention of audiences which is especially needed in a movie like this
it is a passion project doomed by Coppola’s own involvement
“Megalopolis” leaves audiences bewildered and makes them wonder: What the hell just happened
concentrating in International and Public Affairs
he likes attempting the daily Connections puzzle or falling down Wikipedia rabbit holes
a distributor was secured (with Coppola shouldering marketing costs himself)
Amazon’s technology was replaced with a live performer in certain
“Ultimate Experience” screenings (not included at Regal Ithaca Mall
and the time had finally come for me to see Coppola’s decades-in-the-making epic
The question became — was all the effort worth it
Megalopolis is unlike anything else I have ever seen
architect and inventor Cesar Catilina comes into conflict with New Rome mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito) as he attempts to use his inventive new material
Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel) to become his muse
Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza) and Clodio Pulcher (Shia LaBeouf) grapple for power
At times the dialogue shifts into blocks of Shakespeare quotations
borderline-incomprehensible mess — and I think I loved it
Megalopolis is rightfully labeled a fable — but I believe that there is something timely beneath all the absurdity
an intellectual and lover of science and literature
dream of a future utopia where people can be inspired by the world around them
without caring what happens in the present
Mayor Cicero argues that reforms are necessary to help the city right away
without ever imagining what the future of New Rome will be
Although the film takes place in an alternate reality
Coppola clearly parallels current-day politics
with Clodio Pulcher’s mob sporting red caps and “Make Rome Great Again” signs
These issues are wrapped up quickly in the admittedly-haphazard third act
but with how many philosophical questions Coppola packs into its two-hour runtime
it seems purposeful that Megalopolis introduces more food for thought than answers
It almost demands a second viewing to truly grapple with all Coppola has to say here about creation
The humanity of Megalopolis is best seen in Adam Driver’s performance
He visibly transforms throughout the film from the standoffish man who brushes off Julia’s intellect because of her affinity for partying to a smiling
softer version of himself as romance blossoms between them
Catalina’s perspective shifts greatly throughout the film
and Driver’s performance makes this clear to the audience
With a screenplay as inaccessible as Megalopolis
having an actor so clearly understand the material and communicate it so expertly to the audience is invaluable
but it’s refreshing to watch something made with so much passion
something that’s been lacking from the mainstream film industry
Megalopolis definitely won’t be for everyone
Nicholas York is a sophomore in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations