Megalopolis - Film Review

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There's a lot going on in Francis Ford Coppola's long-awaited epic Megalopolis. A real lot. Just - so much. The movie is set in a retro-futuristic New York (although this city is called New Rome) and the plot revolves around a rivalry between a city planner named Cesar (Adam Driver) and a mayor called Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito). That's a thumbnail sketch though, and doesn't relay the aspects of sci-fi, melodrama, film noir and magic which the film offers up in slathers during its hefty running time. It's safe to say that not a lot of these elements work and large chunks make very little sense. Megalopolis is indeed mega. Mega crazy.



Yet the film's opening scene is gripping. Adam Driver unfurls his lanky frame out onto a ledge atop the Chrysler building. But there's an almighty twist. Just as you think he's on a date with the footpath below, he stops time. And when he unfreezes he returns to the safety of the roof. This is all done in the film's trademark style, the glistening steel against a cloudy (yet curiously not windy) city sky. Yep, Cesar can stop time. Not only a planner, he's also an inventor responsible for all kinds of breakthroughs, including an indestructible substance called Megalon. This material will be used in Megalopolis, his pet project, a utopian community to be built in the middle of New Rome (pictures of it give off vibes of Saudi Arabia's bizarre Neom project).

Cesar has already demolished a swathe of the city to make way for Megalopolis, drawing the ire of Mayor Cicero, who is opposed to the concept, citing debt relief and welfare as more pressing priorities. For some reason, the mayor's daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel) decides to begin a relationship with Cesar at this time. Previously an air-headed party girl, Julia now becomes assistant, advocate and lover to the mad genius, royally upsetting her father in the process and soon learning all about Cesar's troubles with drink, drugs and women.

Cesar's mistress is a money-hungry television reporter named Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza). But Platinum soon abandons Cesar to marry his uncle (played by Jon Voigt) to pursue her gold-digging dreams. Another plotline sees Cesar's cousin (Shia LaBeouf) skirt around the edge of Platinum's world, trying his hand at politics but ultimately abandoning it when he's coerced by Platinum into defrauding his grandfather. Dustin Hoffman is also in the film.

Megalopolis is like a notebook, the type you carry around and jot down observations in, things you've overheard and ideas that come to you in the middle of the night. It may be a notebook with lots of amazing stuff in it, but it's also not going to contain a coherent and entertaining narrative from start to finish. Neither does Megalopolis. It (perhaps?) wants to comment on democracy, politics and civilisation. What it serves up instead is tedious melodrama.

There are striking and lush compositions - New Rome mostly looks like a city from the 1930s with its steel and art deco furnishings. The time period seems fluid from one scene to the next. People get their news from printed newspapers. Madison Square Garden is the venue for chariot racing. Cesar has invented a futuristic travelator. Everything is spectacularly all over the place at all times. And the plot is often bafflingly unintelligible. It's hard to see Megalopolis being labelled an interesting experiment or an interesting failure in the future. Even then it will just be odd and boring.

Megalopolis is in cinemas September 26.

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