Megalopolis (2024)

Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, Bram Stoker's Dracula) has finally done it....he has completed his long-in-the-works passion project, an original story which he began developing as far back as the late '70's.  It's about the fictional futuristic city of New Rome where a brilliant architect (Adam Driver) has been tasked with redesigning the city to become more like a utopia.  The only people standing in his way are the mayor (Giancarlo Esposito), the power-hungry son (Shia LeBouf) of a local industrialist, an attention-starved reporter/socialite (Aubrey Plaza), and......the wrath of critics and festival audiences from around the world who have been savaging this film for the past several months since it first screened at the Cannes Film Festival. :o  

Is it really THAT bad, is this another example of a misunderstood masterpiece, or....is the truth somewhere in between?  Only one way to find out....let's head to MEGALOPOLIS! 

Host & Editor: Geoff Gershon
Producer: Marlene Gershon

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Transcript

MEGALOPOLIS - 2024

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola 

Starring Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Kathryn Hunter, Grace VanderWaal, Chloe Fineman, James Remar, DB Sweeney, Isabelle Kusman, Bailey Ives, and Dustin Hoffman

Genre: Philosophical Epic (Audio clip)

It feels as if I have hearing and/or reading mentions of this movie for decades...I'm pretty sure Coppola brought it up during his press tour for Bram Stoker's Dracula. :o It has always felt like one of those long-delayed passion projects which seem to be occasionally brought up about wistfully but were never gonna actually happen....like Guillermo del Toro adapting At the Mountains of Madness or Fincher directing Rendezvous With Rama....or Jodrowosky's Dune if we're being honest. A gestating production which never happened but at the very least, the story BEHIND making it could end up being interesting in itself. 

And yet here we are - this is not only Coppola's original vision but was financed almost entirely BY him. Pretty impressive when you see the scale of this $120 million film which is a sprawling sci-fi parable/love story with a lot of ideas and a stacked cast to boot! It tells the epic story of Caesar, a mythic architect who has been tasked with redesigning the slowly dying fictitious metropolis of New Rome. He's played by Adam Driver with distractingly short hair, seemingly always sporting a cape....or at least a large oversized jacket which he alwaya can flap like a cape. 

Honestly for much of the first act of this film (40 or so minutes) I found myself mostly distracted by Driver's performance....he is literally a collection of tics and off-kilter facial expressions. He's laboring very hard to deliver the "Great Man" trope in a manner not THAT dissimilar from what he was doing as the titular Ferrari last year (a performance and film which I overall found disappointing)....only with less awkward Italian accent and more random smiles. He's making choices, that's for sure....

And Driver's not alone....Shia LeBouf is giving an arguably more cohesive performance as potential rival Clodio, only with even worse hair. 🙄 Jon Voight returns as LeBouf's industrialist father (or uncle I think) Hamilton....mannered performance also with weird hair. Giancarlo Esposito's inexplicably kind of underplaying things as Mayor Cicero who's immediately at loggerheads with Driver's Caesar - at least his hair seems fine as does Aubrey Plaza's playing the brash TV reporter/socialite Wow Platinum (!) whose machinations seem to set the plot in motion. 

Plaza's a kick to watch genuinely playing against her typically deadpan persona and also it's nice to see the return (albeit brief) of Dustin Hoffman who Nush Berman, the "Fixer" for the Mayor. His hair's pretty bad too and he's mumbling a bit much but he does get off some good lines. Natalie Emmanuel likely delivers this film's most normal performance as Julia, the Mayor's daughter who also strikes up a romance with Caesar - she also looks great, including her hair. ;) You also have the likes of Jason Schwarzman, Talia Shire, Chloe Fineman, and Kathryn Hunter ALL having fun as if they're in the latest Hunger Games sequel! 

Speaking of which, there is definitely a Hunger Games-like vibe to this production: over-the-top character names, flamboyant costumes, strong lip service given to dystopian concerns about society, and then there's the overall look of the film. If Coppola was going for a dream-like, often heightened atmosphere, he generally succeeds with a mixture of nutso set design and often very artificial-feeling green screen surroundings. New Rome is clearly modeled on New York but with a couple of dollops of Lynch's Dune and Schumacher's Gotham for good measure. There's always something interesting inhabiting the frame from a collapsing multi-story statue on the sides of city streets to holographic images of news reports floating above those same streets.

There ARE stakes to the story but more often than not, they are kept vague - the future of the city and its citizens, with SOME politics driving things and nary even a mention of law enforcement or social services? 😆 The sheer amount of power and influence assigned to Caesar as this city's "designer" is never really explained except that we are never in doubt that Driver is playing this story's main protagonist. Well that and the main MacGuffin driving his efforts is his recent discovery of a miracle building material known as "Megalon." 🙄

Yes Megalon is in the grand tradition of stuff like Unobtanium or Vibranium, miracle catch-all's which can serve all sorts of convenient purposes for the sake of the plot....including HEALING, because of course. 🫣 Beyond that we've got indoor chariot races, kinky sex shown in shadow, and glowing moving walkways....this movie is the textbook DEFINITION of a go-for-broke passion project long-developed by a master autuer. Where the creator's eyes were apparently bigger than his stomach....SO much thrown in there and a distinct lack of discipline to carry it through to the finish line. Coppola's (who also wrote the screenplay solo) been here before as a filmmaker....

And I was here for most of it. :) Watching this at this particular time was actually fortuitous timing as I have also recently watched or rewatched out-of-control-passion-projects from the likes of Oliver Stone, David Lynch, Kevin Costner, M. Night Schmalyan, and Ridley Scott. Mostly notoriously DERIDED failures too....and I still inexplicably enjoyed most of them. Megalopolis is right in that vein. It's well-intentioned and ambitious and messy and funny and at the end of the day, it does NOT achieve what it sets out to do. However, I was never bored and I can't fault Coppola for trying....

Best Needledrop (best song cue or score used throughout runtime of film): 

If I’m being honest, the overall score for this film didn’t really leave much of an impression on me….some of it even sounded like temp track music.  However there was the song which played at the very end over the closing credits….which sounded both new AND familiar.  And that’s because it came from a new wave synth pop band which first formed in 1979 and has existed in various forms since then with only one consistent member….London’s own Matt Johnson and his band is called….The The.  They charted better in the UK than in the US but undoubtedly you heard some of their catchier stuff on the radio during those two decades… (Audio clip) 

And looking back on Brit-Pop-obsessed ears back in the day, I’m kind of surprised that I never latched on to these guys back in the ‘90’s….because the song we hear over the closing credits is a very catchy, hopeful mid-temp rock ditty from their 1992 album, “Dusk.”  It’s definitely a nice note to end the movie on….and with lyrics which speak DIRECTLY to the themes of the movie….possibly in an even more effective manner than the movie itself. The song is called “Lonely Planet.” (Audio clip) 

Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film):

Now about that main lead….Adam Driver, nope he does not work and his miscasting is one of the bigger stumbling blocks to this movie actually working.  Sorry but I could see William Hurt or Raul Julia just KILLING the role of Caesar back in the '80's....Nicholas Cage or Lawrence Fishburne in the '90's. Driver's just trying WAY too hard here....after this, Ferrari, and yeah...the Star Wars sequels (I KNOW I'm in the minority on his Kylo Ren 🫤), I just feel like he fits better in more grounded material from the likes of Jim Jarmusch or Noah Baumbach. Driver being wrong for big productions is likely my biggest take-away from all of this.

Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie):

With all of the pomp and circumstance coming off of the screen – as entertaining as it was – my favorite scene I believe occurred around 90 minutes into the movie…..mainly focusing on four characters – played by Driver, Esposito, Emmanuelle, and Hunter - sitting for a meal….and talking, discussing stuff.  From what I can remember, it’s the ONE portion of this film when we have folks on-screen just acting like HUMAN BEINGS…..and I could appreciate that. 

MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film):

There’s just no need for me to be contrarian about this….this movie might not completely succeed but it’s Coppola’s accomplishment through and through….he toiled to get it made for more than forty years.  I also might not agree with every choice he made but I’m GLAD that he got it made…..I HONESTLY hope that he doesn’t lose THAT much money over it…..and I’m glad that I got to see it on the big screen.  I wouldn’t have seen it if not for him and it’s also proof positive that even a genuine MESS from a filmmaker with his level of talent can results in an entertaining experience.  Francis Ford Coppola is the MVP. 

Final Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5

I DO feel as if this might have felt much fresher at least 25 to 30 years ago - pre-Avatar, Nolan, Zack Snyder, Marvel, and Star Wars prequels with their varying levels of quality - and with a different main lead.  Well that and I am now DONE with miracle substances as a key plot point in movies moving forward.....we're also running out of clever things to call them. 😁

Now Playing in Theatres

And that ends another ONE FROM THE HEART review!