Megalopolis

NOW IN THEATERS! Megalopolis is Francis Ford Coppola’s wildly ambitious yet uncategorizable passion project, and it is a crazy circus ride. New Rome (New York/Gotham City) is suffering from a crisis of faith among the citizens. Like old Rome before it, New Rome is a republic in peril of collapse. There are competing philosophies for how to manage the city going forward. On the one hand, there are corrupt old-guard politics of fear and hatred, embodied by Mayor Frank Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito). The progressive approach to planning for a more thoughtful and inclusive world comes from the Design Authority of Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver).  Catilina is a wealthy, narcissistic eccentric bent on making the world a better place his way.

The film tracks Catilina, Cicero, and an enormous cast of characters as it leaps and lurches toward resolution. Jon Voight plays the obscenely rich Crassus, who is seduced by a manipulative, vindictive social media star, Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza). Shia Lebeouf is Clodio, son of Crassus, who is obsessed with power, and with Cicero’s daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel). The plots, subplots, red herrings, and side quests orbit around Catilina in this bouillabaisse of conceptual free-range chaos, which is just barely held together by the thinnest thread of the main narrative.

Giancarlo Esposito as Mayor Cicero in Megalopolis. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate

“Like old Rome before it, New Rome is a republic in peril of collapse. There are competing philosophies for how to manage the city going forward.“

Coppola has given Catilina a compelling MacGuffin: He’s discovered an apparently magical substance called “megalon” that can morph into a myriad of amazing qualities. On top of that, Catilina has a seemingly innate ability to stop time while he continues to perceive it passing.  These gifts are interesting but underutilized in the storytelling.

There has been buzz around this film for decades. Coppola had the idea as he was wrapping up Apocalypse Now to make a film about the Roman coup attempt by Lucius Sergius Catilina in 63 BC. He wanted to set that tale in an analog of modern New York. He seems to have a thing for updating stories to new times and places, given that Apocalypse Now is based on Heart of Darkness, a story set in Colonial Africa, not Vietnam. Coppola sold off part of his winery holdings to secure financing for Megalopolis so he would have full creative freedom.

Since the project has been under consideration for so long, the potential cast has changed over time like a who’s who of Hollywood stars. Landing on Driver was a stroke of luck and genius. He is perfect as Catalina. He devours the scenery and gives us Catilina, large and small, raging and whimpering his way to his ideal utopia. If you had Adam Driver performing Hamlet’s soliloquy on a suspended catwalk on your “crazy 2024” bingo card, well, this is your lucky day.