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By Robert Scucci
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Cinematic passion projects often share a number of expected through-lines in the form of up-and-coming actors with no star power, a tighter-than-a-violin-string budget that’s ready to snap the moment it’s put under too much pressure. , and the unfortunate lack of studio support that most established filmmakers are able to get hold of after proving themselves over time. Francis Ford Coppola’s latest outing, the $136 million Megalopolischanged the game by proving how a full cast of A-list actors and seemingly endless financial resources generated by Coppola’s own personal wealth cannot save a film that was clearly doomed from the start.
After sitting down and watching the 138 minute dystopian sci-fi epic myself, a new through line has been added to my personal canon for passion projects: unchecked ego.
I mean, it’s not a huge leap to compare megalopolis’ themes and execution to ego-driven projects led by Tommy Wiseau or Neil Breen, two self-published authors who personally fund their own projects and have very little pushback against their unwavering creative visions, – break
Money Talks
In order to self-finance Megalopolis, Francis Ford Coppola sold his Sonoma County wineries to Delicato Family Wines for a staggering $650 million dollar equity deal, earmarking $200 million of the deal to pursue the artistic vision he had been trying to fully realize for 40 years. With the fortune he amassed, Coppola was finally prepared to produce his passion project without any studio interference.
Star Power Only Works If The Script Makes Sense
With a high quality budget comes high quality talent, and there is no shortage of A-listers appearing Megalopolis. While it’s easy to blame B movies (or Megalopolisi call it a high budget B-movie) for having inexperienced actors tasked with telling a story, it became clear to me after watching Megalopolis even that Adam Driver He couldn’t stop himself from reciting Shakespeare while rapping as if he were a marionette controlled by a puppeteer with a photic sneeze reflex who immediately snapped at the studio lights before Coppola yelled “action.”
A-List Actors And Plot Straight-To-DVD
Set in New Rome, an alternate version of New York City, The Driver’s Caesar Catilina is a brilliant but troubled Nobel Prize-winning architect and chairman of the Design Authority in New Rome who possesses an ideal blueprint for a utopia called Megalopolis. He also has the power to stop and start time at will, which allows him to think about how he will execute his grand plans under the radar. Caesar’s intellectual and metaphysical talents are hindered by his severe alcoholism, which began spiraling years earlier when his wife mysteriously disappeared and he was unsuccessfully tried for her murder.
Accompanying Caesar’s idealistic opportunism is New Rome’s conservative mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), his clueless but opportunistic cousin Clodio Pulcher (Shia LaBeouf), his super rich uncle Hamilton Crassus III (John Voight), and his now ex-girlfriend, a TV personality named Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza).
When Caesar suddenly and inexplicably loses his ability to manipulate time, he forms a romantic bond with Franklyn’s daughter Julia Cicero, realizing that her muse-like presence restores his artistic and time-manipulating abilities, much to his displeasure to her father.
Bones Without No Meat
The general plot i Megalopolis makes for a compelling futuristic melodrama, but it all starts to fall apart when all the sliding puzzle pieces fail to connect. While there is no shortage of extravagant stylistic choices on Coppola’s part to make post-modern America resemble the fall of the Roman Empire, which was at its peak of excess and chaos before hitting the breaking point and collapsing completely, style cannot just tell a story. no matter how pretty it looks.
Instead, Megalopolis renders these cinematic bones down into a slurry that the viewer can try to digest while being assaulted by vibrant colors, allegedly deceptive Vestal Virgins, sprawling cityscapes, a proletariat population in a perpetual state of civil and economic unrest, and John Voight’s assumption of the crossbow buried under his sheets is actually a rise for the very purpose of a revenge plot against his nephew, Clodio, who conspires with Wow Platinum to take over his bank.
Cinematic Show
megalopolis’ a godly, time-manipulating, idealistic but psychologically unraveling protagonist reflects the same character archetypes you’d see in Neil Breen films Double Down, I Am Here… Now, Pass Thrua Critical Findingsto name but a few. And I assure you that the irony is not lost on me that Neil Breen was able to finance his own projects personally through fundraising and his own personal fortune which he accumulated through a successful career in architecture.
In my mind, Coppola’s fearless creation Megalopolis deserves a lot of respect because he has a vision, stuck to his guns, and he did the thing the way he wanted to do it. The jury may be out on whether this is worth your time, but if you have a penchant for B, C, D, and Z level movies, you have to see for yourself how the even the most decorated filmmakers can swing. and lose without someone challenging their vision along the way.
As of this writing, you can watch Megalopolis on demand through Amazon Prime Video, Google Playa Fandango at Home.
