'Megalopolis' is an Engaging Dud
Is true genius often misunderstood? According to a trailer, Lionsgate removed from theaters and the internet, it is. It's never a good sign when your trailer generates fake A.I. quotes from reviews that never existed to inform the public that The Godfather was misunderstood. Forget the fact that it was the highest-grossing film of 1972 with raved reviews, including snagging the Oscar for Best Picture. There's an entire article I could write about that trailer. But you can observe it for yourself here. The point of the trailer was to combat the mixed reception Megalopolis recieved at the Cannes Film Festival. Is it as bad as things looked for it? Yes and no.
Let's start with what works. Megalopolis is extremely ambitious. The entire film takes place in one Fritz Lang-inspired Metropolis called Megalon. The picture glistens with strong orange-to-gold colors that evoke a powerful color scheme that Coppola has used in spades throughout his career. The film's protagonist is a multilayered character. He's a genius and a magician with the ability to stop time. But he's also a philanderer and an addict. He's not a know-it-all God. Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver) is a flawed human being similar to any other person of enormous wealth. The concept of the picture is wildly original. It's about the fall of a modern-day Rome. Before the movie started, there was a thirty-minute live-streamed Q&A with Francis Ford Coppola, Robert De Niro, and Spike Lee. During the panel, Coppola declared that in two months, we are likely to regress into a Roman Empire. Like any Empire, it will come crumbling down when the people have had enough.
The conception of a modern-day Rome is timeless. Democratic Backsliding is commonplace worldwide. Two famous examples are Russia and Germany. At least Germany bounced back from their fascism. Democracy is under attack at every moment. What happens to its people when they don't realize everything is falling apart around them until it's too late? The film has a fantastic score from composer Osvaldo Golijov, who has collaborated with Coppola since 2007's Youth Without Youth. The music is reminiscent of the biblical epics of the 1950s, like Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments.
The humor works great. Megalopolis is downright hilarious at times. Shia LaBeouf's character, Clodio Pulcher (a nod to Roman demagogue Publius Clodius Pulcher), is every bit as wild as Shia is in real life. LaBouf's instability is played perfectly for a power-hungry gangster wannabe character placed in a setting that is exaggerated to the tenth degree. The film also includes a hilarious line from Jon Voight where he asks a scantily dressed Aubrey Plaza if she enjoys his (clears throat) rising bed sheets.
Adam Driver delivers a convincing performance with a level of gravitas appropriate for the movie's large setting. Lastly, with the good, there's a scene in the film that surprised everyone with its novelty. I wonder if every theater will have its staff replicate it. How are they going to do it on home video? Will they just add the audio in post so you don't have to speak to Adam Driver's face on the screen while in your underwear? With so much working for the film, what is it that doesn't work? More than what does.
With all of its strokes of "genius," Megalopolis is self-indulgent. The movie preaches its theme to the choir, yet the notes are off, so the choir isn't listening. You know the preaching doesn't work when I agree with everything Francis says, but I am rolling my eyes at how he says it. The dialog comes across like it came from George Lucas' playbook. Everything must be on the nose so the audience doesn't get confused with what the characters are trying to say about the theme of the film. Lines like "artists can never lose control of time" are cringy. I get it. Cesar is an artist who musn't give up on the journey of making his work, much like how the struggling filmmaker lives for his movies. Or even more blatantly obvious, two bystanders watch Clodio running for office while he's yelling obscene things on the streets during one of his rallies. The two bystanders get turned on. One says to her friend, "he has no boundaries and is an entertainer. That's what people want in a political leader." Gee, I wonder who they could ever be really referring to.
Despite the movie's 120 million dollar budget coming from Francis Ford Coppola's pocket, the film looks cheap. As time has moved on, so has Mr. Coppola's talents. It happens to a lot of filmmakers. The overreliance on CGI makes an epic vision look like a student film. Something a more experienced VFX-driven filmmaker like David Fincher could handle better. Much of Megalon looks like a cartoon background. There's a seqeunce early on in the film where a building is getting demolished. In the shot it's painfully clear that the crumbling building is nothing more than a blank green canvas that the actors are reacting to.
The cast is too large, causing the narrative to falter. The film pits Cesar Catilina against Megalon's Mayor Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito). Cesar wants to rebuild Megalon, while Cicero wants to keep it as it is. The plot gets muddled when Hamilton Crassus III (Jon Voight) wants to keep ownership of his bank, although he's dying. The focus should be on Cesar and Cicero's feud. Not the inner power dynamics of Cesar's family. To make the tension worse, Cesar begins to date Cisero's daughter.
The love story doesn't do the film any favors, as it's dryer than a desert. Nathalie Emmanuel, as Julia Cicero, has trouble pronouncing a believable line. Her acting is too serious in a film that plays like a dark comedy. She may be the most forgettable part of the movie, other than Jason Schwartzman, who doesn't do anything in the movie or have any dialog. He just stands in front of the camera like he's some kind of background actor. Then there's Dustin Hoffman, who plays Nush 'The Fixer' Berman. Hoffman is on the screen to act like a goofball, then goes away. There's no reason his character should be in the film. Lastly, Laurence Fishburne as Fundi Romaine is used as an unnecessary narrator.
Romaine transcribes the film's exposition while also being Cesar's driver. At one point in the movie, Fishburne almost breaks the fourth wall by the camera cutting to him narrating while sitting in his car. The narration reaches out to those deemed idiots in the audience who might have trouble following the story. I'm sorry, Francis, but your audience is smarter than that.
There's a lot of ambition in Megalopolis. I appreciate it for that. It may not be resonant, it may look cheap, it might have unnecessary characters, and it may be too long, but it's not forgettable. Megalopolis is audacious. It takes big swings but strikes out. Its allegories to Roman history are too blatant for the drama to really land. Do we really believe in a future society we still have Colosseums featuring chariot races?
Coppola is trying to depict an oppressive society, but we hardly see the oppressed. The film should be about someone who's been abused by the Roman Empire and decides to make a difference. Instead, we follow the story about another nepo baby rich guy. Cesar seeks to use his power to stop time to rebuild Megalon, creating a peaceful society free of oppression.
The movie builds up to a grand conclusion that uneventfully ends on a positive note. It's forcefully pushed into the film to shove its message down the audience's throats, per what Coppola said in the movie's pre-Q&A. He wanted to hire actors who were canceled or disagreed with him politically to bring a sense of togetherness to the film. Although they had their differences, everyone worked together creatively as a family. That's a kind sentiment, but the ending's delivery is as anticlimactic as the conclusion to The Matrix Revolutions. Megalopolis is an example of a spectacular failure. The film is unintentionally hilarious, earning a possible spot on midnight mock viewings at the local arthouse theater.
Megalopolis may be Coppola's farewell to cinema. He wanted to make the film for over 40 years. Even Paul Newman came in to audition for one of the roles way back in the film's infantile stages. At 85, I think Coppola has accomplished enough. Megalopolis may not be the legendary filmmaker's best exit, but it's certainly an unforgettable one.
