S Poddar
Years may pass before people can truly appreciate Francis Ford Coppola, but that has never stopped him from making ambitious, often tumultuous projects over the course of years. Will his latest endeavor, this epic self-funded passion project Megalopolis, find its place alongside The Godfather and Apocalypse Now in time to come, or will it be another lot like One From The Heart? Only time will tell. This is, however a film that calls for reflection and interpretation.
Set in a future America, Megalopolis is the kind of fantasy city his New York looks like, only called “New Rome.” Architects and artists and politicians fight over its soul. It’s more of an ancient myth with politics, social collapse, almost like James Joyce’s Ulysses, the influence that Coppola has mentioned. Like the book, the movie, a huge, sprawling, cantankerous beast, swings between entrancing and maddening.
At base, Megalopolis is an epic fable about the birth and death of empires. It gives ripping commentary about modern America, with quite obvious analogues to ancient Rome—tackling such themes as power, corruption, progress, and the fundamental conflicts between creativity and the established order. But much of the plot often devolves to something as mundane as urban planning, wrapped in a $120 million movie.
The vision of Coppola is woven through the character Cesar Catilina, played by Adam Driver. The man appears visionary; he is an architect who possesses irreplaceable zealousness to reconstruct New Rome with an elusive new material called Megalon, almost miraculously in nature. Brilliant and impulsive, his grand schemes conflict with those of the city’s mayor, Franklyn Cicero, played by Giancarlo Esposito. While core to the film, the two’s rivalry takes abstract dimensions-a stark contrast to the highly evocative and sometimes surreal sequences comprising the movie.
Driver enters the film dramatically: his imposing figure dominates a futuristic, Metropolis-like cityscape where he defies both the laws of physics and metaphysics. From here, the visual tone wildly fluctuates. In one scene, Cesar is lost in hedonistic, Baz Luhrmann-esque fantasy; in another, Lady Justice literally falls apart or an Elvis impersonator is warbling “America The Beautiful.” Even images of 9/11 are woven into the fabric of the film. If subtlety is what you’re looking for, Megalopolis won’t deliver the goods, as the subtext becomes text with Herculean frequency.
The plot twists don’t stop there. Just when you think you can grok the plot, Coppola throws another curve. Drivers are suddenly spouting Shakespearean soliloquies, speaking lines that seem ripped out of another century. There’s even a side plot involving some sort of bizarre “virgin pledge” and Shia LaBeouf playing a super-lame, eyebrow-less version of Donald Trump Jr. Dustin Hoffman appears only briefly, then is found dead in a flashback. Aubrey Plaza plays ‘Auntie Wow,’ in another bizarre role, as Jon Voight’s visit builds towards a bizarre erection-having moment at its conclusion. The chaotic mess is full of ideas.
Coppola stuffed it so full of themes and philosophical insight that he goes on riffs about the tensions between utopia and dystopia. He encourages the viewer to connect on their own and, even unknowingly, make comparisons between him and his protagonist. Like Cesar, Coppola is an artistic Renaissance man whose mastery is often blinding on many occasions. That is at 85 years old; this very well may be Coppola’s last feature film-one last blow out on his illustrious career. His creative spark is visible but with less force than it once was. “There’s still so much to accomplish,” says Cesar near the end of the film. “But is there time? ” Time, indeed, will reveal if Megalopolis becomes another cornerstone of his legacy.
Ultimately, Megalopolis isn’t just a film about city planning or politics; it’s a grand meditation on the future of America and the history of civilization. It doesn’t always cohere in the way you’d like it to, in a conventional sense, but sheer bravado in its scope makes this an awful lot of fun. Coppola is in his twilight, but he shows that he’s as bold as ever with this film that’s both mysterious and awe-inspiring.
