A mortgaged winery, $136 million Budget, quite a few complaint Non-consensual kisses, and later crossdressing Shia LaBeouf, Megalopolis Finally here – and it’s a “Mega-flowpolis“
The film is a confusing, oversaturated modern riff on the waning days of the Roman Republic – if Rome were New York City by way of Baz Luhrmann and Fellini. Satyricon — made a surprisingly low $4 million in its opening weekend While this may speak to the public’s appetite for a CGI-laden Shakespearean play without the benefit of Shakespeare in the first place, it is perhaps aided by the confusion and division surrounding the film. Even more so for director Francis Ford Coppola, who is known for intense sets that resemble masterpieces godfather And Apocalypse is now Also a critically acclaimed flop the conversation and his musical instruments One from the heart, Megalopolis Chaos and controversy have been accompanied by an unusual degree. As Coppola has described many times, he is trying to create Megalopolis For decades, and eventually stopped funding it Debt against His own fate – a costly risk that may not pay off now.
Yet after all this hoopla, even the arrival of the film in theaters cannot provide a satisfactory answer to the main question: what even is Megalopolis, anyway?
Here’s an attempt to answer that question – although as with all things related to this film, opinions can vary considerably MegalopolisWhat it aims for, and what, if anything, it achieves.
Megalopolis by Ayn Rand Fountainhead with a dash the beginning And huge help from Theater Camp
Megalopolis Adam Driver stars as a futuristic architect named Caesar Catiline. Giancarlo Esposito plays his rival, Cicero, the mayor of New Rome. Cicero’s daughter Julia (Game of Thronesof Nathalie Emmanuel), who falls for Catalina, oscillating between the two (even calling Catalina the socialite “Return to cluuuuuub“). He may or may not hold the secret to mastering “megalon,” a golden glowing material that looks like gold foil but, we’re told, is made of space-time. Using megalon, Catiline wants to create a version of New Rome. What he calls an immortal school-town.
His vision turns out to be just a slightly more sci-fi version The high lineBut this is apparently enough to start the utopia of his dreams. (It also helps that he’s inspired by the memory of his late wife, whose death he may have precipitated in his obsession, a la the beginningdespite an official verdict of death by suicide.) Also like Christopher Nolan the beginningThe architecture seems like a metaphor for the movie — Catiline as a persecuted, misunderstood artist who decides to name her son Francis.
Although this basic plot seems swiped from Ayn Rand’s FountainheadThe execution story is full of oddities — the driver can stop time, when he can’t? — and curiosity; In many shows, a live performer interacts with the screenLip-syncing with an off-screen image. While the all-star cast is huge, many of the characters seem to have little to do with the plot. They seem primarily window-dressing or an excuse to cast many members of Coppola’s own family, including nephew Jason Schwartzman to several young grandchildren. Like Kevin Costner the horizonAnother $100 million writer box office failure, Megalopolis Features a curious mix of deliberately improvised language and literary allusions: the driver recites two-thirds of Hamlet’s soliloquy at his entrance, ostensibly for drama. Julia and her father battle-slash-communicate using quotes from Marcus Aurelius.
the story, as itA surprisingly flimsy CGI unfolds against the city whose skylines and blurred edges don’t do enough to convey the vision of the ever-growing future in Coppola’s mind. In contrast, scenes of crowded crowds and the orgiastic, wild, decadent party life of the streets (embodied by Oubre Plaza and sleeping on top of him) so Felliniesque It’s hard to take it as anything other than pastiche. Overall, the concept might work better as an anime — it’s less like a fully coherent narrative and more like a fun project for theater kids and their friends who are new to computer animation.
made of Megalopolis The film itself was over-the-top
2024 brought a strange attack Megalopolis The long build-up to the film itself is news. The first, in May, was a deep-dive Guardian investigation While in production coincided with the film’s debut at Cannes, where it debuted without a distributor, the piece depicted a troubled set. Numerous anonymous crew members belittled the sensitivity of Coppola’s direction and claimed to be confused by not being able to work well with CGI; At one point, Coppola allegedly told a crew member, “How do you know what Megalopolis looks like? i am Don’t even know what megalopolis looks like?
This particular CGI-induced crisis is something that bothers many filmmakers (Christopher Nolan comes to mind), so it’s not like the Guardian’s report alone was enough to cast doubt on the film. However, reports also alleged that he misbehaved with many women on set by going round topless women in an elaborate scene and reportedly trying to kiss them. These allegations are against Coppola Partially deniedAdmitting that he kissed women but denying anything was untoward — as he instructed, he reportedly declared on set that “if I come up to you and kiss you, know that it’s only for my pleasure.” It is unclear how that statement sets something clear for the actors; It doesn’t exactly paint the picture of a trouble-free production helmed by a focused, clear-sighted director. According to the Guardian, the now-85-year-old writer will allegedly smoke weed in his trailer before announcing a brand new scene to shoot.
Shortly after this, the story of the Guardian came about the film Polarized reception At Cannes though its director received a wild ovation from an enthusiastic audience made up of many people directly involved with the movie (another the horizon parallel), this was countered by critics who generously called the film, “absolute madness“and”A completely bonkers test“Or, less generously, “It’s disgusting to lose your head” consists of “138 distasteful themes, half-finished scenes, blackboard performances, word-salad dialogue and ugly visuals all in search of a story that’s seemingly not there.” yes
Finally, in July, we got the trailer, which is immediate Faced with criticism To use critics’ quotes about Coppola’s earlier work, not about Megalopolis. While audiences were still debating what kind of intentional meta-commentary this was, the trailer was is quickly recalled by Lionsgate, which apparently apologized profusely to Coppola for a genuine mistake.
All this leads to the resounding question Sort of a ride we were in for. Even after the film’s release, it’s still not entirely clear — but it’s certainly anything but boring.
What does it all mean?!
There is a cupola claimed that Megalopolis An exploration of an America on the brink of fascism and a warning, but the film, despite its unyielding Roman metaphors and harsh satire of modern media, obfuscates that message in many ways. For starters, Coppola seems to be – and Megalopolis It seems time and time again – albeit inadvertently – that the greatest danger to fascism comes from the politically correct, rebellious left rather than the oppressive system. The film instead seems to see a wealthy upper class as a potentially beneficial force, and Coppola stated that he deliberately cast “cancelled” actors (like LaBeouf) to avoid the appearance of being “woke”. LaBeouf plays an opportunistic figure who embraces populist causes for his own manipulation, all the while wearing a robe and a rat-tail and cozying up to power; It’s all equal parts ugly and incoherent.
Then there’s Caesar Catiline himself, the nephew of a powerful billionaire (Jon Voight), who despite nominally claiming to work for the people, pursues power and his vision for the people with pure Randian entitlement. Although, or perhaps because, his name is Caesar, the film ultimately upholds his righteousness without any self-reflection. The film ends with Catiline winning her battle with the mayor to build the city she wants to build — but her former enemy stands by her, Grandpa stands by her only son, and the family portrait is accompanied by haunting chants of schoolchildren promising to build an America dedicated to education and opportunity. Politically, the message is completely muddled.
Beyond that tenuous morality, it’s unclear where MegalopolisThe primary claim to genius rests. A lot of movies have been made about a lonely hero lost in a dystopian New York. (give Michael Keaton subsection alone!) The idea that what the city really needs is a new, futuristic architectural vision is not new either; This is the central theme of Fritz Lang’s silent masterpiece metropolisas well as film adaptations Fountainhead. 1927 silent classic East Side, West Side The main character finds, just as in Megalopolismonologuing with his starstruck girlfriend about building immortal skyscrapers.
dislike East Side, West Sidehowever, Megalopolis Filming was not done on location in New York, but in Atlanta, where Coppola was apparently so unhappy with the living arrangements that he Bought and renovated An entire motel for his family during filming. The film’s opening weekend box office might not cover those purchases.
This contrast is one of many that make up Megalopolis Feel, for all the money and time and obvious emotion that went into it, like a rough draft of a film that needed several more revisions to find a coherent thesis. Despite several dizzying ideas and moments of sheer theatricality, the film often gives way to bloat and incoherence. What an interesting one Inconsistency? Well, yes, if you enjoy watching movies ironically, as many people do.
Still, amidst all the scandal and CGI, there’s a real sense of sadness here. This may be Coppola’s last film, so seeing it for the lulz probably wasn’t on most moviegoers’ 2024 agenda.
