I don’t know what planet or year Francis Ford Coppola lives in, but I doubt it’s Earth in 2024. MEGALOPOLIS is the result of a mind addled by time and strange illusions, and completely detached from reality. It truly has to be seen to be believed, just not in a good way.
The story is set in New Rome, a.k.a. New York in the 1980s/’90s -- with heavy ancient Roman influence. Adam Driver plays Cesar Catalina, a genius architect who can stop time at will. The name of the movie comes from the concept of a utopian city that Cesar wants to build using a material he invented, called Megalon.
How Megalon works and why it’s impressive isn’t really explained. It can be made to look invisible -- and that’s about it. Megalon is one of a few plot points in the movie that is set up early on and either doesn’t pay off or is resolved in an unsatisfying fashion.
The main issue with the movie is the lack of imagination, which is surprising since the great Francis Ford Coppola is at the helm. This film had a budget of over $100 million, stars big-name actors, and has a story that’s meant to be an allegory to the fall of the Roman Empire. Despite all it has going for it, MEGALOPOLIS manages to be both baffling and boring.
Many critics and viewers have been saying that the movie makes no sense, but it’s not as simple as a convoluted plot. The basic story is easy to follow; the confusing parts are the bizarre scenes that happen in characters’ minds. They seem to be devoid of any real substance and are only there to give the movie a trippy feel, so to speak. The problem is they add nothing to the movie and eat up time in something that already feels too long.
The idea of New York as a modern-day Rome before its fall is rather trite, but could still be interesting. Coppola’s execution on that premise is lazy. A scene in the first half shows a celebration in Madison Square Garden (the movie refers to it as the Colosseum, even though the MSG branding is all over the place) and it was the perfect time to show unique action. What would modern Romans watch for fun? Some kind of futuristic bloodsport, perhaps? No, in this scenario, just chariot races and bad pro wrestling.
There were so many opportunities for Coppola to flesh out the world of the film and make New Rome a character unto itself. Details on what the rest of the country is like, how New Rome came to exist, what people actually do in the city, or even why Cesar Catalina is so famous are all left in the dark.
I feel bad for almost every actor involved here. I’ve seen Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Giancarlo Esposito and others deliver great performances in other works, but their work here is like watching real people act out a bad cartoon. And just like a cartoon, everything that was set up earlier is rushed into a neat and happy ending with a hamfisted message.
There were times during this movie that I had my hands on my head and l was looking around to make sure I wasn’t experiencing a fever dream that no one else could see. It’s a two-hour experience that felt a lot longer. It’s hard to believe this film was made by the same mind behind Apocalypse Now and The Godfather. Then again, Coppola hasn’t produced anything on that level in a long time. Apparently, Coppola had been working on this script since the ‘70s, which makes sense because it feels decades behind on what modern America is really like.
Author Bio:
Ulises Duenas is a senior writer and film critic at Highbrow Magazine.
For Highbrow Magazine