Ignore the star rating at the top of this review. It’s there because it has to be, and it’s high enough to indicate that you should see “Megalopolis,” Francis Ford Coppola’s four-decade passion project finally brought to the screen in all its bonkers glory. That doesn’t mean you’ll like this movie. I wouldn’t argue that strongly with someone who either loved or hated it. And I really think my rating might be higher or lower on the next viewing. There’s just too much to take in on a first viewing, especially in the midst of exhaustion. The truth is, I’m not sure a traditional review of this cinematic madness can convey what it feels like to watch it, an experience that at times feels like wandering through the dreams of one of the most important filmmakers of all time.
“Megalopolis” is a film steeped in science fiction and classical influences, rendered with insane cinematic decisions that often place shallow interpretations against a backdrop of profound cinematic flourishes. It’s both baffling and astonishing, a film with a relatively traditional story when one steps back to consider its full arc. But this isn’t a film about storytelling as much as it is about the wonder of Coppola’s wild vision. It’s clearly a deeply personal project, and somehow the timing seems right for it even so long after its inception. Societies rise and fall, and only the dreamers and visionaries matter. It’s almost comforting to think that art will survive after our modern Romes burn.
This is where the plot usually kicks off a review. Bear with me. “Megalopolis” is set in New Rome, which is very similar to New York City, and contains similar political and personal struggles. Adam Driver plays Cesar Catalina, an architect who can stop time like Neo and works with a magical material called Megalon. Yes, the scenes where Cesar literally uses a lens to look around his city from on high are supposed to remind you of a director placing elements on a set. At least, I think so. Everything in this movie is open to interpretation, and I think some elements may even defy it.
We return to Caesar, who’s been feuding with the mayor of New Rome, Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito). The theme of how old systems respond to new visions weaves throughout “Megalopolis” as Cicero and Catherine battle for control of the city, which is complicated when Caesar falls in love with the mayor’s daughter, Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel), much to the dismay of Caesar’s cousin, Clodius Pulcher (Shia LaBeouf), who also has a crush on Julia. Her father, Hamilton Crassus III (Jon Voight), is the city’s billionaire power broker, and the old man becomes involved with Caesar’s mistress early in the film, a TV reporter named — seriously — Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza). Those are the six key players, but Laurence Fishburne, Jason Schwartzman, Kathryn Hunter, Grace VanderWaal and the legendary Talia Shire also appear.
“Megalopolis” is an explosion of ideas about social structures and how they often fail humanity due to their lack of vision. Not only does it recall an actual Roman coup attempt in 63 B.C. (which had actors named Catherine, Cicero and Caesar), but Driver’s first big scene involves quoting Hamlet at length. Literary and historical references fly like Marvel Easter eggs from this point on, including Siddhartha, Marcus Aurelius, Sappho, and the list goes on. Coppola builds a foundation of classical philosophy and dramatic storytelling into his political betrayals and machinations and then tries to propel all that into a vision of the future. Caesar is described as “A man of the future so haunted by the past.” That’s the movie. One that weaves Village in a story about an impossible substance that can change reality. Julius Caesartold by someone who wanted to make his own “Metropolis.”
Clearly, it’s tempting viewing, but some people will come away from this film infuriated by its inconsistencies. At times, the film is not solid in its foundations, and feels like something went wrong in the editing or that Coppola didn’t film the scenes he needed to connect his ideas. It starts a thread like a satellite crashing into Earth and then basically does nothing with it. The ending seems to build to a full-scale riot, which is even mentioned, and then not. Many of the bigger changes are impressive, though; a shot where Caesar drives through the streets of New Rome and statues like the Scales of Justice slump from exhaustion is stunning, a visual representation of a city in its final days. Some sequences are practically incomprehensible, at least on first viewing, or go on for too long; the first really long moment is a Colosseum-inspired wedding, where one realizes Coppola may have lost the narrative thread in favor of cinematic excess.
It’s also clear that this explosion of ideas left some of Coppola’s actors struggling to find something to hold on to. The older performers cope well enough with Driver, Esposito and Voight, but the younger ones sometimes seem adrift, unsure whether they’re playing archetypes or real human beings. several reports Coppola would improvise new ideas on the set, changing meaning and characters in ways that must have been impossible for his cast. Sometimes, it’s easy to see.
When it works, it’s a feature, not a bug. There are sections of “Megalopolis” that seem to be exploding, especially when the IMAX screen is split into three and each third has something mesmerizingly shot by the remarkable Mihai Mălaimare Jr. (who not only shot FFC’s “Youth Without Youth” but also “The Master,” among others). I genuinely wondered at some points if the characters were about to break into song; it feels that consistently broken from reality, expressing itself in ways that traditional character and dialogue cannot.
Coppola’s off-the-cuff approach proves most damaging in the last half hour, which is when I realized that I didn’t, in fact, care how it was going to end. It’s not that kind of movie. I’m not even sure Coppola traditionally expects you to care about the fate of Caesar and Julia as much as how we tell these stories of the future. “Utopias become dystopias,” says a character in “Megalopolis,” and it struck me as a line that might have worked in the tumult of Coppola’s prime in post-Vietnam America as much as it does today. In Shakespeare’s time, too. Even in 63 B.C.E. And I think the cyclical nature of human existence is ultimately one of Coppola’s defining themes. As utopias become dystopias again and again throughout history, it will be the visionaries who matter. Visionaries like Francis Ford Coppola.
This review was presented at the Toronto International Film Festival. It opens on September 27.He.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/megalopolis