A very fable genius: Coppola’s crazy, baffling film still a pure cinematic delight
“Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis: A Fable” — 3 stars
I have a theory on why Francis Ford Coppola’s anxiously awaited first movie in 13 years turns out to be such a bombastically epic jumble of pure cinematic delight and baffling, narrative disappointments.
Coppola conceived “Megalopolis” back in 1977 as a “fable” drawing parallels between Rome’s fall and the United States’ future. He created New Rome, merging ancient Rome with modern (and sometimes retro) New York City.
Years of setbacks followed, with Coppola slowly rebounding from his critical and commercial failure “One From the Heart,” then dealing with the aftermath of 9/11, the mortgage crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.
He reportedly kept his pet project on financial life support by pumping $120 million of his own money into the budget.
When the cameras finally rolled, Coppola poured four decades of frustration, compromise, stress and hope into every frame, and the passionate determination of a master American filmmaker detonates on the silver screen in a joyous, artistic mess that might thrill cinephiles but likely will confound everyone else.
“Megalopolis” — written by Coppola — references the historical figures involved in the 63 B.C. Catilinarian conspiracy, Lucius Sergius Catilina and Marcus Tullius Cicero.
We quickly discover that Coppola’s protagonist, a controversial architect and chairman of the Design Authority named Cesar Catilina (a confidently game Adam Driver) can freeze time by simply saying, “Time, stop!”
Against expectations, he rarely uses this superpower and it never becomes a plot device. It’s primarily a proclamation of the movie’s scarily prescient, optimistic theme: We have the power to stop and rethink — redo — poor choices.
Catilina believes that New Rome’s future will be improved by the construction of an archetypal city called Megalopolis, which he will build with a super substance called Megalon.
He gets opposition from corrupt Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), whose socialite daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel) falls in love with the architect, who’s incidentally suspected of killing his wife.
“Megalopolis,” like some of the Roman epic films it suggests (especially with Osvaldo Golijav’s triumphant Spartan score) boasts a star-saturated cast, including Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, James Remar, Laurence Fishburne and Talia Shire.
The movie also reunites “Midnight Cowboy” stars Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman, respectively playing aging banker Hamilton Crassus III and the mayor’s fixer, Nush Berman. (Unlike Voight, Hoffman gets barely any screen time.)
So what happens?
I’m not really sure.
The bloated running time accommodates large chunks of inconsistencies, insipid dialogue and disorienting scene changes.
And yet …
The energy and commitment — the sheer and unabashed craziness of Coppola’s vision — create a proverbial narrative train wreck I could not stop watching. It’s as if Coppola willed into existence a film constructed from every cinematic device he ever liked: fading iris shots, three-way split screens, neo-noir costumes, Art Deco architecture, cameras, phones and cars from conflicting time periods.
The visual styles look like a pastiche of works by filmmakers Federico Fellini, David Lynch and Robert Altman, plus artists M.C. Escher and Salvador Dalí and writers William Shakespeare and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Imagine Tinto Brass’ “Caligula” (minus the X-rated content) restaged as a classic film noir and rendered by artists all pumped on acid.
“I want to be free,” Coppola told the press years ago. “I don't want producers around me telling me what to do.”
Indeed, producers would not tell him to do this movie.
It’s nuts and eccentric, but something strangely moving, maybe even pure, from a filmmaker with four certified masterpieces to his credit: “The Godfather,” “The Conversation,” “Apocalypse Now” and “The Godfather Part II.”
In a world known for artifice and make-believe, this feels weirdly sincere.
• • •
Starring: Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire, Dustin Hoffman
Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
Other: A Lionsgate theatrical release. Rated R for drug use, language, nudity, sexual situations, violence. 138 minutes