By Seth Lukas Hynes
Megalopolis
Starring Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito and Aubrey Plaza
M
2.5/5
In Megalopolis, a sci-fi epic drama and the passion project of legendary director Francis Ford Coppola, Cesar Catilini (Adam Driver), a renowned architect who can control time, wants to create the utopian city Megalopolis, but faces opposition from multiple fronts.
Conceived in the seventies, Megalopolis saw several false starts and a chaotic production (including Coppola firing the visual effects department and the art department quitting), and Coppola sold his winery to finance the film himself.
I’m glad Coppola finally realised the film he always dreamed of making, but it’s a shame it turned out so terrible.
Megalopolis features awkward dialogue, sledgehammer-blunt symbolism and a disjointed plot that meanders along with little sense of urgency.
Somehow, Cesar’s bitter rivalry with Mayor Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), a sex scandal, frozen accounts, getting shot in the face or even a crashing satellite levelling the city never stand as meaningful obstacles to Cesar’s vision, and the mysterious death of Cesar’s wife carries hardly any dramatic weight.
Coppola offers a window to a technological utopia, but has very little substantive to say in its construction, save for Cesar’s many waffling monologues.
The film seems self-aware about the ludicrous decadence of its Rome-styled upper-class and the poverty of the masses, but commits to its corny tormented genius protagonist without a drop of irony.
As for the positives, Megalopolis is a visual feast, and the performances are engaging despite the clunky dialogue.
The film is often fascinating in its fumbles and bizarre decisions, and Aubrey Plaza is extremely fun as the backstabbing seductress Wow Platinum.
Playing in most Victorian cinemas, Megalopolis is a bloated, pompous, bad but beautiful movie that will leave you more confused than disappointed.
