Megalopolis was in Development Hell for what seemed like forever. To fund his $120 million dream project, writer/director Francis Ford Coppola used the proceeds from decades of selling his Coppola brand of wine. You may need to consume every bottle he sold just to sit all the way through it.
I guess this is his latest vintage: Pretentious Swill.
Coppola may have poured millions into this thing, but it looks and feels cheap. Sometimes it plays like his attempt to make a star-studded variation of The Room. At least The Room was entertaining. This is just nothing but empty ego-stroking madness.
It makes Jack look like The Godfather Part II.
It’s sad seeing so many great actors so thoroughly wasted. You feel bad for most of them. They’re forced to stand in front of a greenscreen while spouting ridiculous dialogue and doing inexplicable things. I mean Adam Driver’s first big scene has him delivering Hamlet’s “To Be or Not to Be” soliloquy. No, seriously. Sometimes the actors seem lost mid-scene or even unsure about whatever the hell it is they’re saying.
People love to talk about directors taking “big swings”. Most of the time, the analogy means they’re swinging for the fences in hopes of a home run. Coppola seems to be swinging at a piñata full of shit.
The plot follows an architect named Cesar (Driver) who has the power to stop time. He’s at odds with the mayor of New Rome (Giancarlo Esposito) who may have also had a hand in Cesar’s wife’s death. When the mayor’s daughter (Nathalie Emmanuel) defies her father and begins a relationship with Cesar, it sets the stage for… something.
Despite sinking untold millions of his own money into the movie, you’d think Coppola would’ve had more to show for his efforts. Even with a huge price tag, the film features some of the worst looking greenscreen effects and CGI I’ve seen in a major production. Maybe it was done on purpose to give the film a bizarre quality. I’d like to think that. If only out of respect for the man who made some of the best films of all time.
The amalgam of modern-day New York and Ancient Rome is hokey at best and flat-out stupid at worst. (Chariot races are held at Madison Square Garden.) I know Coppola is trying to draw comparisons to the fall of Rome and today’s political climate in America. I also know he is proud of his Italian American heritage, so maybe that’s why he’s combined the two. However, it’s just fucking goofy.
Even while I feel sorry for most of the performers in this, I have to say the acting is horrendous pretty much across the board. Driver is particularly bad as he resembles a petulant child throughout. The scene where he shouts, “No, no, no” has some real Ryan O’Neal in Tough Guys Don’t Dance energy, but it’s not nearly as amusing. You know you’re in trouble when Shia LaBeouf of all people gives the best performance.
Many people have told me I need to see Mike Figgis’ documentary of the film. MegaDoc to fully appreciate the movie. I might get around to it at some point. Till then, this is Megalopol-ASS.
AKA: Megalopolis.
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