Adam Driver plays an architect fighting to build Utopia in Francis Ford Coppola’s long awaited cinematic fable.
Francis Ford Coppola first conceived the idea for the epic Megalopolis in 1977 and began developing it further in 1983, only to put it on hold in the late eighties to make up his debts to the Hollywood studio system after a string of box office bombs, then picked it back up in 2001 only to table it again after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, vowing to self-finance the project if the timing ever felt right for its release following a loss of faith in the studio system. After almost four decades in development hell, Coppola has finally completed his magnum opus at 85 years old, but the results sadly amount to a mixed bag of trippy visuals and wondrous sound design but half-baked ideas, baffling dialogue and incomprehensible storytelling.
Coppola’s vision for Megalopolis sets a star-studded ensemble in the city of New Rome, an American metropolis that blends architecture from contemporary New York City and ancient Rome. At the forefront of this design is Cesar Catalina (Adam Driver), a wunderkind architect with the remarkable ability to control time, as well as a dream of demolishing New Rome and reorganizing it into Megalopolis, an urban sprawl made from shining gold skyscrapers and roads constructed from the fictional element of Megalon which has the magical ability to repair flesh.
In opposition to this is the Mayor of New Rome, Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), who clashes with Cesar at every turn in a battle of artistry versus politics for the keys to control the city. But Franklyn enlists his daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel) to spy on Cesar in hopes of digging up the truth behind the death of his ex-wife, only for her fascination with the eccentric artist to morph into romantic passion, to the chagrin of Cesar’s cousin Clodio Pulcher (Shia LaBeouf) who pulls out all the stops he can to incriminate Cesar out of jealousy.
The loaded cast of Megalopolis consists of some of the most talented actors from generations past and present (in addition to the canceled and non-canceled), and they do what they can with the material they’ve been given. Truth be told, the movie is best when Coppola’s taste for the theatrical is most apparent, like an early conversation between Cesar and Julia in the former’s penthouse that sees both Driver and Emmanuel projecting their dialogue as if they’re on a stage while the camera meanders back and forth between the two in one long, continuous take.
And the world Coppola has envisioned is unique in its successful merging of American construction with towering sculptures from the old days of Rome. The wonder of New Rome is gorgeous to look at from the giant statues of legendary Roman figures that topple over when a car carrying a nefarious figure passes them and the vibrant colors of the togas and robes the characters wear in every location, to a house made from a flower whose petals change colors when tensions rise mid-dinner conversation and the interior of Madison Square Garden decorated with modern arena graphics circling around gladiator battles and chariot races.
What’s also worth noting is the stellar musical score from Osvaldo Golijov, whose work here evokes the sweeping sounds of classical Hollywood epics, while other sequences are dominated by the ringing of high-pitched bells to create an aural psychedelia. There’s also potential for Megalopolis to be a surreal mix of genres at least from a visual standpoint; some parts nail the aesthetic of swords and sandals sagas ala Spartacus, while others appear straight out of a neo-noir, such as a moment where Julia follows Cesar as he rides in the rain to destination unknown underneath lighting stylized with blue colors and sparkling bokeh effects.
Unfortunately, that aptitude is squandered by Coppola’s maddening ambition that renders Megalopolis into absolute nonsense that’s completely devoid of any narrative threads. The result amounts to a two-and-a-half hour incoherent hodgepodge of different, unfocused ideas that feel written in depending on what the auteur saw in the TV news cycle on a given morning. One example comes later in the film where Clodio is a Trump stand-in giving a rousing speech in front of a swastika sculpture in one scene, only to suddenly be plotting an assassination with television personality Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza) in the next. There are also intriguing character arcs set up early on such as one where Cesar is unable to use his abilities after becoming mired in scandal, only for the resolution to happen just a few segments later, leaving no room for viewer engagement or contemplation on the consequences of pride and ego.
Coppola’s aimlessness also extends into the editing room, as some scenes contain confounding asides possibly just for the sake of giving his friends and family more screen time. One baffling instance is when Cesar’s mother Constance (Talia Shire) expresses a cutting resentment for her son within his earshot for reasons unexplained. In fact, sequences within chapters move at a breakneck pace to the point where scenes end as soon as they start, jumping from one location to the other with flat dialogue and no clear motivation or throughline for spectators to understand what’s going on before their eyes if they’re not glazed over in confusion.
What also doesn’t help is the lack of a comprehensible story structure. Megalopolis begins with a surface level quote encouraging dialogue about our differences, only for title cards reminiscent of Roman stone carvings to serve as chapter markers, making the movie feel like two different films playing at once. The dialogue also does the audience no favors; characters often quote philosophers and famous literature verbatim in dense, exhausting tangents that make their main theses difficult to grasp, such as an instance where Cesar recites the ‘To be or not to be’ monologue from Hamlet in his first public spat with Mayor Cicero. But that’s nothing compared to the most ridiculous of phrases from Wow Platinum: “You’re anal as hell? I’m oral as hell.”
Coppola’s meandering epic does have moments of brilliance amongst the bizarre tedium. There’s an interactive moment where a planted member of your theater crowd in select cities asks Cesar a question during a press conference, to which the complicated artist directly responds in a cool moment of breaking the fourth wall, and as aforementioned, the production design team did a standup job on the elaborate sets and costumes, as did the talented cast on their performances.
But despite the solid efforts of everyone underneath the writer/director, this grandiose call for conversation on both sides of the political aisle is the cinematic equivalent of a well-meaning old man yelling at clouds, and a film best served for Coppola enthusiasts only, or for those who enjoy the man’s wine, which is needed to understand, let alone enjoy what’s going on in this bewildering disaster. Megalopolis begins with Cesar commanding time to stop, upon which the environment around and below him freezes to a halt. If only Coppola had the wisdom to do that himself, look back at his long-gestating tour de force and realize when he’s gone off the rails.