A Review of Megalopolis: My Friend And I Had Very Different Opinions
Francis Ford Coppola thinks about the Roman empire all day, every day.
As William Shakespeare once said: All the world is a T-square and everyone else is a project.
I'm not sure how long you need to be in the game to write, direct, and produce your own movie. I can tell you Francis Ford Coppola knows. Coppola was all those and likely more to his latest and possibly last film, Megalopolis. I consider this to be Coppola's opus. He stepped up, dropped 60 years of cinema knowledge on us, and will likely take his bow after his wife passed away earlier this year.
Before we start, let's get a few things out of the way.
Coppola has been with us since 1939 and has been a filmmaker since 1962 and an acclaimed filmmaker since 1972 when he released The Godfather.
At 84 years old, Megalopolis will likely be Coppola's last film. I could be wrong though. Coppola could be like Hayao Miyazaki and try to die on a film set.
Megalopolis is a film that says a lot about a lot. It covers the past, present, and future in a myriad of visually interesting ways.
Two things that are excellent in this film are the visuals and the acting. Coppola went to the tippy top of his rolodex with talent.
So far, this movie is a bomb. The price tag is at 120 million, but it allegedly made 4 million in its opening weekend. That has nothing to do with its greatness or how much it sucks. It is simply a fact that I think is important to know.
So now with that out of the way...
What is Megalopolis about?
The Roman Empire. The United States of America. Clubbing. Sex. Hatred. The United States in the moment we're in right now. Love...kinda. The future. The past. Death. Purity culture. Bread and circuses complete with wrestling and acrobatic clowns. Sugar mamas. Desperation. Failure.
Megalopolis is a lot of movie about a lot of things. A bomb means nothing when you're using all the skill you've accumulated over your long life to make a movie you knew you had to make. Using all of the best actors and cinematographers in the world to take your vision and offer it to the world. Coppola could have never created something like this without the most solid of teams. In that way, Megalopolis is a testament to his greatness.
That is way too vague...
At its core, Megalopolis is a film about a visionary architect (Adam Driver) that can stop time, and the mayor (Giancarlo Esposito) of their city hating this man despite all of the "boos" the populace gives him. Everyone in the film has a rivalry with a different character in this film. There are a myriad of battling personalities all centered around the falling empire of the Unite- I mean, Rome. Their city is called Rome.
What Megalopolis is about...
Lawrence Fishburne plays the narrator/driver for Adam Driver. Ramsey from Fast and Furious 7 (Nathalie Emmanuel) plays the opposite of a hacker and is a socialite who becomes Adam Driver's assistant, love interest, and baby carrier. Jon Voight is the world's richest banker getting richer every minute. Aubrey Plaza is a sugar baby reporter trying to make a power couple with Adam Driver but gets rejected so she trades up with Jon Voight.
This movie is hard enough to explain already, so rather than more of a breakdown, here's more of Coppola's rolodex instead.
Jason Schwartzman
James Remar
D.B. Sweeny
Shia LaBeouf
Chloe Fineman
Talia Shire
That's enough star power to start the revolution this film was playing at. Because too many things are going on at once to do a full recap, so let's talk about the disagreement that I and my friend Andrew had centered around Megalopolis. Can you guess which one liked it and which one didn't?
This sounds fun! Give me a second.
Ready?
I, Mike Dynamo, did not care for this film.
Andrew enjoyed it quite a bit.
We both went in cold. All I knew was that Francis Ford Coppola used his exhaustive rolodex and long-time film career to call on every actor he knew to be in this thing. Andrew told me the movie cost 120 million to make but only made 4 million on opening weekend. It looks like the world did not enjoy this film either.
MIKE HATES MEGALOPOLIS
I don't want to quote Peter Griffin from Family Guy, but Megalopolis "insists upon itself." All of the problems Peter mentions about the other great Francis Ford Coppola film, The Godfather (which I did enjoy) are present here. Megalopolis is filled with allegories about everything. It touches upon the world we've made and how bad it is, but it explains very little as it moves along. I made it through all 2 hours and 30 minutes, but I really didn't want to.
There are so many things to pick up on, but the story moves along in a nonsensical way. There's a romance but Andrew and I were stuck arguing over how passionless I felt it was. We find out that Adam Driver was prosecuted by Giancarlo Esposito when he was a District Attorney. They thought Driver might have poisoned his wife. Only we find out he was married about 30 minutes into the film. Meanwhile, the very first thing we see is Adam Driver jumping off one of his buildings, but uses his time-stopping power to... not. Megalopolis is strange. It looks magnificent but TO ME, nothing made sense and I struggled to care about anything I was seeing in this film.
People come, people go. People die.
They die but I don't know why.
Megalopolis was made with passion
Megalopolis was not made with understanding
Megalopolis does not care what the populace thinks about it.
ANDREW LOVES MEGALOPOLIS
Here’s what Andrew said about this film.
"I’d say it’s less about the power rivalries (even though they do take center stage) and more about exploring the cavities that form in empires over time, and how when left untreated, the foundation of the empire can no longer support the needs of the many. And so it crumbles. Its also about holding up a mirror to ourselves and plotting a course for the future."
He also said he was glad someone made a film that was "actual art" again. Movies and television have become too stuffed with nostalgia projects and reboots. Andrew said it was nice to see something "new for a change" rather than more superhero films.
He liked how Megalopolis connected to Ancient Rome. He liked how some red hats were aligned with MAGA. He didn't agree with me that the romance came from out of nowhere. He also enjoyed how the character names were pastiches of the figures that built or destroyed Ancient Rome. Personally, I never think about the Roman Empire unless wrestler Roman Reigns comes out on TV.
We did agree that the cinematography was on point. Andrew thinks this is a film everyone needs to go see. I think Megalopolis is a project that should be skipped. We agree that there is as much knowledge in the background as in the foreground. We disagree that Megaloplis is the highest form of artistic cinema.
You guys fight too much
I feel like this movie has to be seen to be believed. No matter the high budget and the laundry list of stars, I know Megalopolis was not made to be "good." Megalopolis was made to be studied. It was also made to showcase the world as it is and what it could be like if we all got smart and finally decided to work together. Megalopolis is also about how much cooler everyone should dress and which drugs they should do in the club.
My friend Andrew thinks Megalopolis is everything a true film lover should appreciate. I think you have to pay close attention and watch it five or six times so you can come close to understanding it. Whether or not that thinking will be fun or interesting is up to who you are as a person.
I'm not sure if that's too much, or not enough movie for me.
