Review: Megalopolis

Image courtesy of Lionsgate.

According to legend, Francis Ford Coppola – a legend if there ever was one – has been working to get his mad vision, “Megalopolis,” onto the screen for at least 40 years. This would have followed shortly after the release of his 1979 masterpiece “Apocalypse Now,” a film with a fabled, gonzo film shoot that left some baffled upon viewing it. Whether “Megalopolis” will one day be as esteemed as that classic remains to be seen, but if nothing else can be said for it, the film is certainly a picture that could only have been made by Coppola and is clearly a work of a highly personal nature to the filmmaker.

Exactly what the film is about is open to debate. Narrated by Laurence Fishburne – who also has a small part in the picture – the film references everyone from Marcus Aurelius to Shakespeare (in fact, Adam Driver’s first bit of dialogue in the film is from “Hamlet”) and features characters named Mayor Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), Clodio (Shia LaBeouf), and Cesar (Driver). It is set in New Rome – which is, much like Gotham City, basically New York – amid talk of its decline.

The mayor is at odds with Cesar, an architect of some sort who wants to build a utopia known as Megalopolis within New Rome, which prompts Cicero to remind him that “utopias eventually become dystopias.” In a plot point that is well utilized but never quite explained, Cesar is able to momentarily stop time. At moments, he sits atop towers that he may have built and views the city below, much as an artist or filmmaker might look upon his creation and determine where fixes need to be made.

A TV reporter named Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza) – yes, that’s really her name – is seeing Cesar on the sly while also carrying on an affair with his aged uncle, Hamilton Crassus III (Jon Voight), a business mogul. LaBeouf’s character is a cousin who often acts as a henchman for Crassus. Other figures within this orbit are played by Fishburne (Cesar’s driver), Dustin Hoffman, Jason Schwartzman, and Talia Shire.

Cesar has a hint of mystery about him. His wife died under mysterious circumstances, and Mayor Cicero – then a district attorney – prosecuted him for it but didn’t get a conviction, and it is hinted that the mayor’s case against him might have been a corrupt attempt to take out a possible political rival.

The film’s drama lies in Cesar’s latest love interest, Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel), the mayor’s daughter, who takes an interest in Cesar’s worldview and work. Their romance is a little undercooked, but becomes a major plot point when Julia becomes pregnant. Meanwhile, LaBeouf’s Clodio is a rabble rouser from a rich family trying to act as a man of the people in order to radicalize them and turn them against the establishment – sound familiar?

There’s a lot going on in “Megalopolis” and not all of it completely makes sense or is fleshed out – there are several mentions of a satellite heading toward Earth, but it eventually is forgotten, and there’s a threat of a large-scale riot near the film’s end that never quite materializes. Amid all this is the sense of a civilization on the decline and whether it’s possible or worthwhile to save it – which also, unfortunately, sounds familiar.

But even if the film’s story – and what it all means – remains somewhat obscure, there are plenty of incredible visuals upon which to feast and a number of interesting ideas bouncing around. One particularly memorable scene involves Cesar being chauffeured around New Rome at night, driving through the mist and neon lights. During this voyage, a large concrete statue representing the scales of justice bends over in dismay and lies wounded in the street as police attack a homeless encampment nearby.

At several points in the film, “Megalopolis” features a three-way split screen with gorgeous visuals filling all three. At another, we are mesmerized by a gorgeous shot of the cosmos. At a birthday celebration, a Roman-style chariot race takes center stage and, at another moment, an actor in the actual audience of the movie theater in which I saw the film interviews Driver onscreen during a press conference sequence.

Where it might occasionally be lacking in cohesion or structure, “Megalopolis” makes up for with chutzpah and vision. This is a film that will likely garner love-it-or-hate-it responses, something which Coppola himself admitted during a New York Film Festival interview with Spike Lee, Robert De Niro, and Dennis Lim that ran before the screening I attended.

While I can’t quite say I loved “Megalopolis” – and it’s certainly not on par with his greatest works, namely “The Godfather” films, “Apocalypse Now,” or “The Conversation” – I admired it, and it’s well worth the price of admission for filmgoers seeking a unique experience and excited about wandering through the imagination of one of the all-time greats, both in terms of influence and body of work.

Review: The Substance

Image courtesy of MUBI.

Coralie Fargeat's gore-splattered, provocative, and completely outrageous "The Substance" should come with a warning about the dangers of lock-jaw, considering how many times that appendage is likely to drop during its 140-minute running time. Fargeat's Cannes sensation is stylistically bold, incredibly acted - especially Demi Moore in her finest performance in years - and sure to shock the feint of heart.

A parody on society's impossible beauty standards and the fixation on staying young forever, the picture follows the story of an actress-turned-fitness-guru named Elisabeth Sparkle (Moore). There's a phenomenal sequence early in the picture in which we watch - through a sequence of overhead shots - as Elisabeth gets her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and then how it cracks over time, begins to fade, and even falls victim to a messy eater.

When we meet her at the film's beginning, Elisabeth is just past her prime - that is, at least in the eyes of the misogynist executives who control her career, especially one played as the biggest sleazeball on earth by Dennis Quaid - and gets the boot from her daytime fitness show. 

Shortly thereafter, she stumbles upon a proclaimed miracle drug known as The Substance that supposedly reverses aging. Well, that's one way of explaining it. After injecting herself, Elisabeth's back cracks open and a younger version of herself (Margaret Qualley) pops out. The way it works is that only one of the two can be conscious at any given time and must, therefore, tend to the needs of the other while the other is in slumber. It also means that choices made by the one can affect the other.

Qually's Sue auditions and lands the gig for the sexed-up fitness program. I'm not sure if Fargeat being a French director is the reason why the fitness show sequences are so over-the-top and it's difficult to discern whether she is lampooning such things to a delirious degree or if that's how the French actually view American television programs. Regardless, these scenes are colorful.

As Sue becomes more famous, she has more of an incentive to stay in the land of the living longer, thereby leaving Elisabeth slumbering and gradually fading away. When Elisabeth is awake, she begins to notice alarming decay due to Sue's carelessness. A rivalry between the two eventually gets, shall we say, pretty out of hand.

"The Substance" is a picture that starts out as a slickly filmed, highly exaggerated satire but eventually becomes more of a body horror nightmare. It is often imaginatively grotesque but almost to the degree that it stops being gross through desensitization. There's a final scene during which a third figure who makes their way into the world due to The Substance gets up on stage before an audience, and the result gives off a vibe of the finale of Peter Jackson's ultra-gory "Dead Alive." The film also features what has to be the funniest scene ever involving an egg beater.

Fargeat's previous best known work in the United States is the bloody thriller "Revenge," which is also memorable and occasionally shocking. But "The Substance" is a gigantic leap forward. This is a film that takes a subject ripe for satire - the fixation on beauty and youth - and does something unique with it.

It's also among a small handful of films that have done an incredible job of making Los Angeles seem like such a foreboding place. The eerie, low-angle shots of palm trees swaying in the wind - not to mention the world's most impossibly long corridor - and the creepy scenes on film shoot sets give the picture a vibe that often reminded me of David Lynch's neo-noir classic "Mulholland Drive" and, more recently, Bertrand Bonello's unsettling "The Beast." 

For those who can stomach it, "The Substance" is likely to be among the more memorable moviegoing experiences of 2024. Moore gives an incredible performance that ranges from horrifying to deeply sympathetic and Qualley is also impressive as her nemesis. This is a movie that is so outrageous and shocking for much of its running time that one might wonder how the filmmakers could possibly outdo themselves for the finale. Suffice it to say, they do. This is one warped movie - and I mean that as a compliment.

Review: Close Your Eyes

Image courtesy of Film Movement.

The Spanish filmmaker Victor Erice has made four films in about 50 years, so it’s good that with his latest, “Close Your Eyes,” his first in 31 years, he makes it count.

The first 20 minutes or so of the picture – which clocks in at just under three hours – casts a spell as we watch an old man, at some point after World War II and the Spanish Civil War, has called another man to his estate for a mission. The visitor (Jose Coronado) is asked to find a young woman, who is half-Spanish, half-Chinese, who has gone missing.

The spell is broken when we learn that this interlude was a prolonged scene from an unfinished movie titled “The Farewell Gaze” that was shot in 1990 and never completed when Julio Arenas (Coronado, who portrayed the visiting man to the estate in the opening scenes) walked off the set and was never seen again.

This disappearance has haunted the film’s director, Miguel Garay (Manolo Solo), ever since – not only because it derailed his career, but also because Arenas was his close friend; they’d served in the military together and even shared a girlfriend at one point.

Miguel is interviewed by a TV show that focuses on solving mysteries about Arenas’ disappearance and while he seems reluctant to take part in it, the fact that he has never been able to move past it makes him curious enough to get involved.

He meets up with the now-adult daughter of Arenas (played by Ana Torrent, the start of Erice’s 1973 classic and greatest film to date, “The Spirit of the Beehive”), who clearly has affection for Miguel but is not interested in being interviewed for the show.

Then, a break in the Arenas case sets into motion a new series of events in its final third. I won’t give away what happens, but suffice it to say that the last section of the movie involves Miguel and some of his friends trying to – for lack of a better phrase – save a life through cinema.

Much of the film’s action moves at a pace that some might find glacial and it takes patience to get where it’s ultimately going. But those who are accustomed to so-called slow cinema will be rewarded. Erice’s debut, “Beehive,” is one of film’s greatest and is among the undisputed classics of 1970s European cinema. His next two films – “El Sur” and “The Quince Tree Sun” (unseen by me) – were well liked but not as rapturously received.

Therefore, “Close Your Eyes” is Erice’s finest work since his debut. It’s a moving testament to plundering the past to heal wounds – which, in this case, is carried out through the medium in which Erice has plied his trade. This is a mysterious, haunting, and powerful film.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

Overstuffed is one word I'd use to describe Tim Burton's "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice," but amusing is another. It's one of many sequels in recent years that I'm not sure necessarily needed to exist - but now that it does, there's enough to recommend it.

Not quite picking up where the original film left off - hell, it's been 36 years - the film finds Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) with her own TV show called "Ghost House" in which she investigates haunted places and a daughter, Astrid (Jenny Ortega), who thinks little of her. Lydia's stepmother, Delia (Catherine O'Hara), has become a gallery owner and artist and, at the film's beginning, Delia's husband has died in a plane crash (well, sort of). 

Meanwhile, Lydia's smarmy boyfriend and producer, Rory (Justin Theroux), is laying it on thick for Lydia in hopes that she'll agree to marry him. When Lydia - with Rory and Astrid in tow- come home for the funeral of her father, all hell - and this includes Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) - breaks loose.

There's also a subplot in which Astrid meets a seemingly shy boy who invites her over for a Halloween party but has a secret, and Lydia must come to her rescue. This leads most of the film's cast to the world of the dead, where Beetlejuice strikes a deal with Lydia that if she'll agree to marry him, he'll help with her daughter. At the same time, Beetlejuice is trying to escape a past flame (Monica Bellucci), who sucks the souls of the dead. 

So, yeah, a little overstuffed. But there are a lot of sight gags and often surprisingly icky special effects to keep viewers' eyeballs popping. There's an amusing thread involving a Beetlejuice flunky named Bob, who is left in charge while Beetlejuice goes off with Lydia for their mission. There's also a police inspector - who's actually a movie star (yeah, it's a little confusing) - played by Willem Defoe who is chasing down the various undead cases involved in the film's plot.

Not surprisingly, "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" is often a feast for the eyes. This is Tim Burton's best film to look at in some time. The special effects in this one seem less CGI than some of his other endeavors of recent years and look more homespun as they were in the 1988 original.

Not everything here works. There are several moments, mostly having to do with music, that I could have done without - namely, a series of soul train sequences that seem to exist solely to have extended dance scenes in the picture, a children's a cappella choir rendition of "Banana Boat (Day-O)" that might have you shaking your head rather than nodding it, and a sing-a-long to almost the entire damn running length of Richard Harris' "Macarthur Park" (seriously, don't ask).

Otherwise, "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" is an amusing enough sequel with a spirited reprisal by Keaton of his star-making role as well as some solid supporting work by Ryder, Ortega, and O'Hara. Also, it's nice to once again see Burton working with props and handmade effects than the digital ones that have populated his more recent work. This is one of his more successful recent ventures.

Review: Between The Temples

Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

Cantor Ben Gottlieb (Jason Schwartzman) lost his wife to an accident about a year before "Between the Temples" starts, but when we meet him he has also lost his voice - it is his duty to lead the congregation in prayer via song - and seemingly his will to go on.

Ben is living with his well-meaning mother (Caroline Aaron) and her somewhat overbearing wife (Dolly De Leon), who continually try to hook their grieving son up with other women in their small, upstate New York community. The most awkward moment is an introduction involving a plastic surgeon who wants Ben to feel how firm her face is.

While Ben finds a momentary note of inspiration in a car with his rabbi boss's daughter (Madeline Weinstein), his biggest boost comes from befriending Carla Kessler (Carol Kane), his childhood music teacher whom he bumps into at a bar after getting punched during a dispute with another man. 

Carla tends to Ben and upon learning that he helps youngsters at his synagogue undergo the year-long preparation for their bar or bat mitzvahs, she decides she wants to have her own, even though her son points out that she's technically Protestant and far too old to have one. Regardless, Ben is inspired by the vigor with which Carla pursues this interest and a friendship forms, much to the chagrin of her son.

Both Carla and Ben have lost their spouses and over the course of the film's often nutty 110 minutes, they bond over non-kosher hamburgers, seemingly hallucinogenic tea, and Hebrew lessons. She's a little too young to be Maude and he's far too old to be Harold, but there's a similar vibe - minus the obsession with death - to this pair's relationship.

This is a film that draws some hilarity from awkward scenarios, from a strangely erotic sequence in a Jewish cemetery to a dinner involving most of the film's prime characters that becomes increasingly uncomfortable when Ben decides to be a little less formal than the occasion probably necessitates.

"Between the Temples" takes a little while to get going, but once it does it's effective - often funny and occasionally soulful, due to the work of Kane and Schwartzman, who also nailed the role of a grieving spouse in last year's "Asteroid City." This is a solid little comedy that grew on me.