Movie Review: A Film 40 Years in the Making!

  Francis Ford Coppola may sound familiar to some as the director behind some of the most critically acclaimed films of all time, such as The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now. 

     Despite immense successes, Coppola has not had a theatrical release in over a decade until now with the release of his newest film, Megalopolis. 

     A brief background of the film reveals that it has been stuck in production limbo for the better part of 40 years.

     Coppola financed large parts of it out of his own pocket. With how long it has taken for this film to release, was it worth the wait? 

     I wish it were a cut-and-dry answer, as Megalopolis has a lot of ideas it is trying to push that could either be viewed as a horrible mess or a stunning bit of creativity. 

     My feelings fell into the middle where I enjoyed seeing a lot of the weird decisions at play while also acknowledging that it has a lot of problems.

     Most of these issues stem from its extremely long production and the fact that it is Coppola’s passion project. 

     One can assume a lot of decisions made were the result of Coppola attempting to try and tell to many stories at once, trying to do the most he can with this film.

     The film follows Caesar Catalina (Adam Driver) as he attempts to rebuild the city of New Rome into a utopian paradise, but the Mayor (Giancarlo Esposito) and criminal forces stand in the way of his vision. 

     Along the way, Caesar is joined by Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanual) who helps ground him and see that his vision comes to fruition. 

     The film makes it apparent that Megalopolis is a modern retelling of the rise of the Roman Empire with many of the characters embodying real historical figures. 

     The set design of the film is a clash between Roman and New York aesthetics with a tinge of sci-fi thrown in for good measure.

     These aesthetics result in a film that looks like nothing else in recent memory and these themes are used effectively for several visually bold moments.

     Examples include a bender scene that uses fading colors or a scene in which someone is grieving and the scene is shrouded in bright light. Scenes like this are worth the price of admission.  

     The problems it does have mainly stem from its pacing and the performances. The story at times becomes nonsensical and hard to follow even if you know your Roman history, as plot points are added and removed in the blink of an eye.

     Even with the film’s stacked cast, many performances felt funny when they were supposed to be serious, and certain character motivations were not as fleshed out as they should have been. 

     I can’t confidently say this movie is good or bad, but I can say that I was happy that I had seen it. It is not often we get a director’s passion project on this scale, and as such, it’s a movie that feels dated but also something completely brand new.

     I would recommend those who do watch this movie, to have an open mind towards all the weird decisions it makes as it will lead to a more enjoyable viewing experience.