“MEGALOPOLIS” A Masterwork

A scene from MEGALOPOLIS courtesy of Lionsgate Movies

Megalopolis is veteran film director Frances Ford Coppola’s grand finale! Like so many of the Hollywood great films, this two hour and 18 minute feature seems to recall masterworks like Sunset Boulevard or La Dolce Vita, as Coppola, too, seems to be adding to his Apocalypse Now and Godfather successes. He is one of a breed of film makers we are going to lose soon. In this 13-year in the making oeuvre the master has gathered his utopian vision, so it is much more than another story told well!

We are presented an amazing overload of images, characters and ideas that make up a plot that recalls the last days of ancient societies and the possible beginning of a new utopian culture of peaceful cooperation. Coppola needs to tell us, but this is not a film for those seeking mere diversion. The film draws from so many sources, plays with language (Latin or Elizabethan verse) and iconic characters from Hamlet to Cesar, and the clothing has overtones from the Antique to the Baroque to the Minimalist Modern (by Veteran costume designer Milena Canonero).

Adam Driver as Cesar in MEGALOPOLIS courtesy of Lionsgate Movies
Adam Driver as Cesar in MEGALOPOLIS courtesy of Lionsgate Movies

All actors move through beautiful spaces in this perfect modern-day megalopolis. We see New York City with its main focus on the gleaming facade of the Chrysler Building (Mihai Mălaimare Jr.’s cinematography), perfect visual symbol of a shining past and a bright future. Here idealist architect Cesar (a Roman style coiffed and clad Adam Driver – nephew of John Voigt’s Hamilton Crassus,) has the power to stop time which he shows us in the film’s first dramatic scene. This ability he derives from a shiny substance called Megalon that could alter the fate of the new city he wants to create. From his offices above the metropolis he invents and directs his team, to create his “New Rome. “At his side are those sharing his dream.

But the city’s mayor, Franklyn Cicero (played by Veteran actor Giancarlo Esposito), surrounds himself with those who want all to remain the same – and who shows his vision to be yet another money making venture to entertain the masses.

Nathalie Emmanuel as Julia in MEGALOPOLIS from Lionsgate Films

Cesar does fall for the mayor’s daughter, Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel) which will, so Coppola’s vision, link the old to the new. This relationship brings a calming theme that along with some beautifully lit, ethereal scenes, balances the world of leaders with that of the populous protesting change in the streets. There are wild gatherings and races around a three-ring circus, games of all sorts, and characters like aspiring TV Journalist Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza) and a scheming Shia LaBeouf as Clodio Pulcher, the rich younger son of Banker Hamilton Crassus, who also wants Julia and is jealous of Cesar. He sets himself up as an alternate candidate to the two rivaling visionaries determined to shape the city’s future.

There is much that the director wants to say, including a bit of innovation to movie-making technique. So, in addition to looking back to the 1930s films, in Megalopolis he also embraces experimental elements and adds a short “Live” actor in a part of this film.
As his hero Cesar, who has been perhaps modeled after Coppola himself, attempts at the movie’s onset, the film seems to convey as one of its ultimate truths that only ”When we leap into the unknown we are free.”

Giancarlo Esposito as Franklyn Cicero in MEGALOPOLIS courtesy of Lionsgate Movies

“Megalopolis,” a Lionsgate release in theaters Friday, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for “sexual content, nudity, drug use, language and some violence.” Running time: 138 minutes.

Additional Film Information:
Cast: Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Shia LaBeouf, Nathalie Emmanuel,
Directed by written by: Frances Ford Coppola
Genre: Epic, Drama, Sci-Fi
Running Time: 2 hrs. 18 min.
Opening Date: September 27, 2024
Distributed by: Lionsgate Movies
Released in: Theaters