A Coppola bomb decades in the making.
Francis Ford Coppola is one of our most distinguished filmmakers. The “Godfather” trilogy, “Apocalypse Now,” “The Cotton Club,” and many others are classics from him. A genius like himself should know the art of filmmaking, and he does. But even he has made some bombs like “Jack” with Robin Williams playing a kid who ages into an adult, and now “Megalopolis,” which has been in the works since 1977, put on the back burner to pay his debt after box office bombs, and finally resurfaced in theaters.
It’s set in an alternate America, where New York City used to be and is now called New Rome. That means they can have Roman messages, a new Colosseum, and names like Caesar, Cicero, and Catiline. It’s Coppola’s vision that combines the fall of Rome and the future of America into his own take on the Catilinarian conspiracy.
Now, the art direction makes “Megalopolis” look like a Coppola movie, while many other elements feel like the ghost of Ed Wood has possessed the brilliant filmmaker. He takes his “Metropolis” movie into convolution, indulgence, and great cynicism, that it’s impossible to acknowledge all the characters, who are played by great talents.
The Caesar is named Caesar Catilina (Adam Driver) is an architect, who has the power to stop time and has visions for New Rome, while the Cicero is Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Eposito), who believes he’s a megalomaniac. Actually, Caesar was acquitted of poisoning his wife, while Franklyn was the D.A. to try to bring him down. Ergo, they’re both enemies.
Franklyn’s daughter Julie (Nathalie Emmanuel) is a medical school drop-out, who lives off her father’s wealth, but wants to tell off Caesar for his mean behaviors towards him. Only to find out that he acts mean so people will listen, as he makes a distinction about what kind of person society will acknowledge more-a good person or a bad person. And she’s able to see his vision of the future, and wants in. And eventually, it becomes an epic romance for the both of them. Or it looks that way.
The all-star supporting cast also consists of Jon Voight as Caesar’s rich uncle, Shia LaBeouf as his spontaneous and jealous cousin, Laurence Fishburne as the narrator and his driver, Aubrey Plaza as a money obsessed TV reporter, Kathryn Hunter as Franklyn’s wife, Dustin Hoffman as his fixer, and many others like Jason Schwartzman, Grace VanderWaal, Chloe Fineman, James Remar, and DB Sweeney come in.
“Megalopolis” is far from a Coppola classic, because of how his ideas of the future come crashing down with all these characters who act too colorful and their subplots which make us care less about the story. I can barely read them or what messages the movie unfolds for us. Driver, Esposito, and Emmanuel, and many of these great talents have done better and can do better than succumb to the bombastic nature.
At times, the movie looks stunning with the photography done by Mihai Malaimare Jr. (“The Master,” “Jojo Rabbit”) and some colorful lighting (some scenes use aqua). But at other times, it feels like a movie indulged by the modern age of filmmaking or in some cases, made by amateurs who think they know what they’re doing, but are actually screwing up. Like it has forgotten what a Coppola film is supposed to represent and the impact “The Godfather” or “Apocalypse Now” has made on film lovers. He is a genius and his films deserve to be in the books. “Megalopolis” may have a cult following in the future (lots of underrated films do), but for now, it doesn’t amount to anything.
And on a minor note, Hoffman and Voight, as you all know, were the stars of the 1969 classic “Midnight Cowboy,” but in this movie, they’re both not in the same shot. If they were, it probably wouldn’t make a difference.