At least since Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola has chased grand visions, not all of which he’s been able to fully realize. Megalopolis, based on his own script, is an even grander vision than the likes of The Cotton Club, One From the Heart, and, possibly, Apocalypse.
The movie essentially reimagines ancient Rome, in its final days, as a futuristic variation on contemporary New York City. As we come upon it, this New Rome is awash in unrest, impoverishment, corruption, and greed—all uneasily governed by a fractious group of the wealthy and politically powerful. Among these are genius inventor/architect Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver); banker Hamilton Crassus III (Jon Voight); mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito); and the mayor’s headstrong daughter, Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel), with whom Cesar falls in love. Cesar, it turns out, has a vision of his own: to transform New Rome into the utopian Megalopolis, using a bio-based material he has invented known as Megalon. Unfortunately, his plans are opposed by the others because … well, that’s not entirely clear.
Narrative isn’t Megalopolis’ strong point. Many, many things happen in the film: a colosseum-style wedding celebration between Crassus and conniving financial television reporter Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza); flashbacks involving Cesar’s dead wife, whom he’s accused of murdering; performances by a virginal pop star (Grace VanderWaal) whose career takes a randy turn; and a cynically populist political campaign launched by Crassus’ lewd grandson (Shia LaBeouf). And let’s not even get into the brief section during which Cesar, after being shot, uses Megalon to reconstruct his face. Most of these threads seemingly exist because they popped, at some point over the last several decades of the movie’s development, into Coppola’s head, allowing for vague references to everything from Taylor Swift to Donald Trump to cable news, as well as possibly Ayn Rand. (Will someone else please write the essay comparing this and Rand’s The Fountainhead?)
What, then, is Megalopolis ultimately interested in? Mostly itself—that is, artistic impulse and ambition, as well as what can come from following those instincts with wild abandon. (Coppola self-financed the film, which reportedly cost well over $100 million.) You could call this indulgence, but when it comes from the filmmaker behind The Godfather, The Godfather: Part II, and The Conversation, it’s too astounding to be blithely dismissed. Amidst the incoherence, Megalopolis contains evocative imagery that carries its own sort of meaning: the giant statues of New Rome, representing law and justice, crumpling over in exhaustion; a hand extending from a cluster of nighttime clouds to snatch a full moon; a triptych screen for a lengthy duration. And my favorite image: Cesar and Julie on the roof of a skyscraper, whose surface is the face of a clock, stepping out onto a series of suspended construction beams. When he reaches out to kiss her, she drops one of the flowers she’s holding, which freezes in mid-air. (Did I mention that Cesar can stop time?) These moments are surrounded by half-baked notions and less-polished images, yet they endure. When a master chef breaks a few eggs, even the messy yolk can be delectable.
The cast, unfortunately, is mostly full of bad eggs—though to be fair, that’s largely because of the dialogue and scenarios with which Coppola saddles them. (Poor Plaza has to sell this: “I’m oral as hell.”) Only Driver seems comfortable—indeed, invigorated—by the apparently improvisational atmosphere and haphazardly operatic material. Attempting to outdo his outre performance in Annette (if not Nicolas Cage’s turn in, well, almost everything), Driver spews Shakespeare and blood, at turns giving loquacious oratories about the future of civilization and wailing in pain beneath mummy-like bandages. He’s a spectacle, but no more so than the rest of the movie. And as Cesar, he gets to repeatedly deliver a mantra that could serve as Megalopolis’ own: “We leap into the unknown to prove that we are free.” Francis Ford Coppola has never been freer.
(10/2/2024)
