Bonus Review: Megalopolis

If You Can't See A Better Future, Build One.

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INTRODUCTION

This is a quick review of the newly released film Megalopolis. Keep in mind this is but one of the many movies I watch every year, and that whatever initial grade I come up for this film could change for better or worse with time. To better keep up to date with both my thoughts on other movies and if my feelings on this film changed, follow me on Letterboxd.

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THE PLOT

Via Letterboxd: Genius artist Cesar Catilina seeks to leap the City of New Rome into a utopian, idealistic future, while his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero, remains committed to a regressive status quo, perpetuating greed, special interests, and partisan warfare. Torn between them is socialite Julia Cicero, the mayor’s daughter, whose love for Cesar has divided her loyalties, forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves.

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QUICK REVIEW

One of the most exciting developments in the film industry over the last couple years has been the fact that Francis Ford Coppola, THE Francis Ford Coppola who gave us some of the most important movies in the medium’s history, was producing a brand new film. And not just any new film, but a movie that he has sought to make for decades now to the point it’s almost become an urban legend; a grand scale film of epic proportions with grand ideas and a big cast that would be a new magnum opus in his catalog of films. And to make things more interesting, it’d be a project almost universally financed by him - a show of ballsy genius in spending your own money to create a piece of art that you believe in.

This very well could end up being Coppola’s final directed film. Its dedicated to his recently departed wife, and I have the utmost respect for the swing he took to make this a reality against many odds. Like Kevin Costner’s current ongoing four-film project with Horizon: An American Saga, Coppola is giving me some inspiration to never give up on that piece of art you want to get out to the world. And there is something refreshing in seeing an auteur making something without some big studio head messing with their vision. It gives me seventies-era cinema vibes.

But as much respect as I have for the ballsiness displayed by the iconic director to make this vision of his a reality, the harsh reality is that this will ultimately end up one of his most divisive and unpopular films ever. When it comes to how low this movie will rank in his catalog, this will rival Jack, a family nineties film of his that has been derided as perhaps his worst ever. Because for all the great concepts in this, for as impressive a cast as it holds, for all the artistic gamble, the final product is a mess of a movie that feels like the epitome of how a great film on paper can become a complete disaster.