September 24, 2024
FILM: MEGALOPOLIS
DIRECTED BY: FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA
STARRING: ADAM DRIVER, GIANCARLO ESPOSITO, NATHALIE EMMANUEL
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
This week screenings were held at movie theaters throughout the country for the new film Megalopolis in conjunction with the New York Film Festival. Prior to the screening, audience members watched a live conversation between the film’s director, Francis Ford Coppola, along with Robert De Niro, Spike Lee, and the festival’s artistic director, Dennis Lim. It’s clear that the purpose was to highlight the illustrious early film career of Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, The Conversation) as a lead up to a discussion about the huge undertaking that is Megalopolis. Why De Niro and Lee were present is a bit of a mystery except to provide support for Coppola even if they didn’t have anything to do with the new film. This whole “pre-show” lasted approximately thirty minutes and was then followed by the 2 hour and 18-minute Megalopolis.
In the new film, which takes place in the 21st Century, Coppola uses the Roman Empire as a metaphor for the state of the U.S. today: Have we begun to fall like that empire two thousand years ago? Will an “emperor” be elected in November? In the pre-show interview, Coppola discussed how people in both eras are being told by the powers that be that they are less than they actually are. As a result, they are unhappy and easily manipulated by power hungry leaders. Even so, he says he’s optimistic about our future and making this film is essentially offering hope to the coming generations.
Whether this all comes through in the finished product of the film is debatable. This is, as you’ve perhaps already heard, a big audacious production that got a significantly mixed reaction when it played at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. Is it the worst film ever made? No. Is it the best? No. Is it ambitious? Absolutely. Does it always work? Sometimes yes, but at other times a resounding no. It’s a pretty incredible visual feast with beautifully rendered sets and digital effects and some good-to-over-the-top performances from a giant cast.
Adam Driver plays Cesar Catilina, an artist who envisions a utopian future for New York City. He’s created a big lavish replica of the city filled with designs that rival the almost one hundred- year-old sets of Fritz Lang’s classic, Metropolis. His rival is Mayor Cicero, played by Breaking Bad’s Giancarlo Esposito (Gus.) They are both trying to win over the people as is a rich banker, played by Jon Voight and some swarmy younger people, including Shia LaBeouf as Clodio Pulcher. Aubrey Plaza plays Wow Platinum, a reporter who has the hots for Catilina. Nathalie Emmanuel plays Cicero’s daughter Julia who has her own agenda with Catlinia. Other actors in smaller roles include Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire (Coppola’s sister), Jason Schwarzman (Shire’s son), Chloe Fineman (from SNL) and Dustin Hoffman.
This huge ensemble gives the film part of its epic sensibility, for better or worse. Some actors, like Aubrey Plaza and Jon Voight, are actually very good (except for a laughable scene near the end that takes away any of the seriousness Coppola may have intended.) Driver gets to be one part low-key and another part Shakespearian in his big, over-the-top, delivery of classical-sounding, emperor-like, dialogue.
The film is made to look like and emulate epics of the past. Madison Square Garden is transformed into a modern Colosseum, filled with Ben-Hur style racing and Gladiator like physical rumbles. The sequence featuring this setting is overly-long and features Driver doing some unusual physical contortions that are a bit baffling to see. There’s even an overt reference to Citizen Kane during a scene that appears to be inside a snow globe. Such a comparison isn’t unwarranted as this is a film about ruthless power hungry leaders.
All of this said, the production design is truly magnificent. Rooms and outdoor settings are lavish but originally, and mostly digitally, created. There are even sets that seem inspired by the German Expressionism movement of a hundred years ago (of which Lang was a part) with oddly shaped windows and walls and a shot in which Cicero’s desk is partially buried in a sloping downward angle. These sets are artful yet appropriate because they emphasize the psychological extremes associated with the various leaders in addition to the heightened emotions of the citizens under them.
Does Coppola succeed though at expressing his metaphor comparing the Roman Empire to the current state of the U.S.? Well, it’s hidden somewhere underneath all of the bombastic scenes present in the film. There’s a lot of visual experimentation though which is truly wondrous to observe but it also feels like so much excess that the message and its relation to the present era gets lost for considerable chunks of time.
But there’s no denying that this is a BIG film which is clearly ambitious, creative, and epic in every way. Much of it is over-the-top but then so are the leaders being portrayed as are those seeking power around the world today.
Megalopolis opens in theaters this week.
FILM: MEGALOPOLIS
DIRECTED BY: FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA
STARRING: ADAM DRIVER, GIANCARLO ESPOSITO, NATHALIE EMMANUEL
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
This week screenings were held at movie theaters throughout the country for the new film Megalopolis in conjunction with the New York Film Festival. Prior to the screening, audience members watched a live conversation between the film’s director, Francis Ford Coppola, along with Robert De Niro, Spike Lee, and the festival’s artistic director, Dennis Lim. It’s clear that the purpose was to highlight the illustrious early film career of Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, The Conversation) as a lead up to a discussion about the huge undertaking that is Megalopolis. Why De Niro and Lee were present is a bit of a mystery except to provide support for Coppola even if they didn’t have anything to do with the new film. This whole “pre-show” lasted approximately thirty minutes and was then followed by the 2 hour and 18-minute Megalopolis.
In the new film, which takes place in the 21st Century, Coppola uses the Roman Empire as a metaphor for the state of the U.S. today: Have we begun to fall like that empire two thousand years ago? Will an “emperor” be elected in November? In the pre-show interview, Coppola discussed how people in both eras are being told by the powers that be that they are less than they actually are. As a result, they are unhappy and easily manipulated by power hungry leaders. Even so, he says he’s optimistic about our future and making this film is essentially offering hope to the coming generations.
Whether this all comes through in the finished product of the film is debatable. This is, as you’ve perhaps already heard, a big audacious production that got a significantly mixed reaction when it played at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. Is it the worst film ever made? No. Is it the best? No. Is it ambitious? Absolutely. Does it always work? Sometimes yes, but at other times a resounding no. It’s a pretty incredible visual feast with beautifully rendered sets and digital effects and some good-to-over-the-top performances from a giant cast.
Adam Driver plays Cesar Catilina, an artist who envisions a utopian future for New York City. He’s created a big lavish replica of the city filled with designs that rival the almost one hundred- year-old sets of Fritz Lang’s classic, Metropolis. His rival is Mayor Cicero, played by Breaking Bad’s Giancarlo Esposito (Gus.) They are both trying to win over the people as is a rich banker, played by Jon Voight and some swarmy younger people, including Shia LaBeouf as Clodio Pulcher. Aubrey Plaza plays Wow Platinum, a reporter who has the hots for Catilina. Nathalie Emmanuel plays Cicero’s daughter Julia who has her own agenda with Catlinia. Other actors in smaller roles include Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire (Coppola’s sister), Jason Schwarzman (Shire’s son), Chloe Fineman (from SNL) and Dustin Hoffman.
This huge ensemble gives the film part of its epic sensibility, for better or worse. Some actors, like Aubrey Plaza and Jon Voight, are actually very good (except for a laughable scene near the end that takes away any of the seriousness Coppola may have intended.) Driver gets to be one part low-key and another part Shakespearian in his big, over-the-top, delivery of classical-sounding, emperor-like, dialogue.
The film is made to look like and emulate epics of the past. Madison Square Garden is transformed into a modern Colosseum, filled with Ben-Hur style racing and Gladiator like physical rumbles. The sequence featuring this setting is overly-long and features Driver doing some unusual physical contortions that are a bit baffling to see. There’s even an overt reference to Citizen Kane during a scene that appears to be inside a snow globe. Such a comparison isn’t unwarranted as this is a film about ruthless power hungry leaders.
All of this said, the production design is truly magnificent. Rooms and outdoor settings are lavish but originally, and mostly digitally, created. There are even sets that seem inspired by the German Expressionism movement of a hundred years ago (of which Lang was a part) with oddly shaped windows and walls and a shot in which Cicero’s desk is partially buried in a sloping downward angle. These sets are artful yet appropriate because they emphasize the psychological extremes associated with the various leaders in addition to the heightened emotions of the citizens under them.
Does Coppola succeed though at expressing his metaphor comparing the Roman Empire to the current state of the U.S.? Well, it’s hidden somewhere underneath all of the bombastic scenes present in the film. There’s a lot of visual experimentation though which is truly wondrous to observe but it also feels like so much excess that the message and its relation to the present era gets lost for considerable chunks of time.
But there’s no denying that this is a BIG film which is clearly ambitious, creative, and epic in every way. Much of it is over-the-top but then so are the leaders being portrayed as are those seeking power around the world today.
Megalopolis opens in theaters this week.