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.