Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis is an enigma. You’re either baffled by it or calling it Coppola’s late-career masterpiece. The film demands something from you – it wants you to engage with it differently from other films. Coppola, at the Cannes press conference, said, "To make art that does not illuminate contemporary art is like making a hamburger with no nutrition in it." He’s striving to create something contemporary that sticks with you, but although Megalopolis may deliver something, it ironically only leaves you wondering about your stance.
The fact that there is so much discussion, division and debate around this film automatically means something. As of September 2024, it has a 50% on Rotten Tomatoes, 5.2/10 on IMDb, 2.5/5 on Letterboxd, and a score of 55 on Metacritic. This kind of divisiveness in art, especially within cinema, is exciting but nothing new. Despite its positive feedback, initial negative reactions to large-scale films from legendary directors have often proven meaningless over time. I counted thirteen people who left my screening, but history shows us that films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, initially disliked by many, go on to become enthusiastically praised by all. New York Times critic Renata Adler once described 2001 as “so completely absorbed in its use of colour and space, its fanatical devotion to science-fiction detail, that it’s somewhere between hypnotic and immensely boring” – sound familiar?
A moment in Megalopolis I would like to praise individually is the editing of the triptych sequence. The IMAX screen expands to full size at a certain pivotal moment in the plot, and the screen is split into thirds. We watch a single scene, or two scenes, or three scenes, or a shot blended with another, or a shot on top of another for what felt like five minutes but could well have been ten. At one point, I just said to myself, “This is so cool.” It is quite extraordinary, and you can tell the editing team wanted to do Coppola proud.
That said, the film has its flaws. The cast’s performances are inconsistent. Adam Driver is dedicated, Nathalie Emmanuel is grounded and authentic, Giancarlo Esposito is theatrical, Aubrey Plaza offers comedic relief, and Shia LaBeouf is just there, too, I guess. At first, I thought these differing styles could tie in somehow, but after hearing about Driver’s involvement in the editing process and Plaza’s recounting of the chaotic audition process, I had doubts about the authenticity. Is this lack of cohesiveness intentional, or is it balls-to-the-walls, “I have a shit ton of money and no studio to answer to, so I’m gonna do what I want”? It seems to me that these actors were solely helping Coppola complete a tick off his bucket list.
This life-long dream of his feels exactly like the product of 40 years of pent-up ideas rather than anything cohesive. The sheer amount of material is overwhelming, especially when spread onto an IMAX-sized screen. Scenes are overstuffed with simultaneous ideas, and the script feels like a collection of wordy and overcomplicated quotes and phrases glued together to form a plot. How can a film like this be well-received on a first watch? Megalopolis is certainly not a film to be watched passively. It relentlessly bombards you with its $120 million of retro-futuristic architecture, urban planning, science, magic, politics, love, power, money, and whatever else I didn’t have time to grasp in its 138-minute runtime. It feels as though every scene since the film’s conception in 1977 was fighting to fit into its runtime, and all grounded qualities of the film were discarded in favour of the big, shiny ones. But if you aim to get anything out of it at all, you must meet it halfway and let it challenge you, even if its overwhelming visual barrage of ideas leaves you confused.
Voight defended Coppola’s vision at Cannes, “We have to appreciate the people who step out and attempt to show us the way”. But maybe the final product of Megalopolis has simply convinced its cast this is what their director has done. Regardless of where the film lies between good and bad, it feels as though Megalopolis is too challenging for its place in current cinema culture, and audiences are just not ready for it yet.
Whether you love or hate Megalopolis, it undeniably marks a significant moment in Coppola’s career. At 85, he’s finally made the film he’s wanted to make since he was 38. And whether you agree with his methods or not, his ambition is admirable. I’m still unclear on my stance on the film, hence my inability to answer my original question in this organised chaos of a review (surprisingly, on-brand for Megalopolis). On the one hand, it’s tempting to view the film as a future cult classic that will be studied years from now, a misunderstood magnum opus that paved the way for a new kind of cinema. On the other, it might just be remembered as a chaotic, overly ambitious shit show. But in either case, it’s undeniably a bold, risky endeavour that pushes the boundaries – something we may never see again on this scale.
Reference list
Condran, E. (2023, March 31). “I’m sorry, Stanley.” Critics missed on ’2001: A Space Odyssey’. Spokesman.com; The Spokesman-Review. https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/mar/31/im-sorry-stanley-critics-missed-on-2001-a-space-od/#:~:text=Sometimes%20when%20art%20is%20ahead
Coppola, F. F. (Director). (2024, May 16). Megalopolis [Film]. American Zoetrope.
Late Night With Seth Meyers. (2024, September 27). Aubrey Plaza on Her Casual Megalopolis Audition with Francis Ford Coppola. YouTube.
Variety Magazine. (2024, May 17). “Megalopolis” Press Conference - Cannes Film Festival. YouTube.