Megalopolis: Mark Kermode’s science fiction film review (video).
Our man of many movies, Mark Kermode, snaps open the popcorn to bring you his take on the scifi movie Megalopolis. Watch his take. above, or press on below for the Nest’s thoughts on this new science fiction flick.
Welcome to the world of Megalopolis, the latest offering from Francis Ford Coppola, who apparently decided that Apocalypse Now wasn’t chaotic enough and decided to outdo himself. A film in the making since 1977 (because why not take your time?), Megalopolis is finally here, gracing us with a confused mix of Roman politics, modern architecture, time manipulation, and… Shia LaBeouf, for some reason.
Set in a dystopian future where New York is now New Rome (because subtlety is for cowards), Adam Driver stars as Cesar Catilina, an architect who not only designs buildings but also dabbles in controlling time. Because when you’re tired of urban planning, bending the space-time continuum is the obvious next step.
His nemesis is Mayor Franklyn Cicero, played by Giancarlo Esposito, a man so committed to keeping the city in shambles that it feels like he’s auditioning for a role in the next Batman reboot. Esposito, bless him, chews through the political jargon with the grace of a man who knows he’s above this nonsense but is happy to stick around for the paycheque.
Torn between these two titans of male ego is Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel), the mayor’s daughter, who exists mainly to search for life’s meaning. Spoiler alert: she doesn’t find it here. But she does get to witness Adam Driver make puppy eyes at her while pondering the future of New Rome like a tortured philosopher-architect-demigod. Ah, romance.
Let’s just start by acknowledging that the Megalopolis cast list reads like Coppola invited everyone to a party and they just never left. Aubrey Plaza plays Wow Platinum (yes, that’s the name), a money-obsessed financial news presenter who seems as confused as the audience as to why she’s even here. Shia LaBeouf pops in as Cesar’s jealous cousin, likely fuelled by whatever method acting spiral he’s currently in. Jon Voight is present as the wealthy Hamilton Crassus III, a role that involves lots of scowling and pointing fingers at futuristic blueprints like they’re life-or-death documents.
And then there’s Laurence Fishburne, narrating the whole mess as Cesar’s assistant, Fundi Romaine. His role as the movie’s designated explainer makes you wish someone had whispered in his ear, “Laurence, you don’t need to explain this. No one will understand it.”
The real star of the movie, of course, is Coppola himself. His legendary, ahem, improvisational approach to filmmaking shines here. Rumour has it he spent days on set deciding how the movie should look, sometimes abandoning the script entirely to whip up something new after a few hours in his trailer. (Was he smoking? We’ll never know. But let’s just say the creativity was high.)
To call the production “chaotic” would be an understatement. It’s like Apocalypse Now meets The Room, only with more CGI buildings that look like they were designed by your cousin who just got into 3D modelling. Coppola fired most of the visual effects team halfway through, presumably after they asked, “But how are we supposed to make time manipulation look real?” Spoiler alert: they didn’t.
Megalopolis arrived at the Cannes Film Festival to mixed reviews, which is a polite way of saying half the critics ran screaming for the exits, while the other half scratched their heads, trying to figure out what they’d just witnessed. Some called it visionary, others described it as “an overstuffed opus,” which is the critic’s equivalent of your mum saying, “Well, at least you tried.”
Rotten Tomatoes has it at a cool 51%, because apparently, even in the realm of baffling sci-fi, there are still people who will say, “Hey, I liked it.” It’s been compared to Metropolis and Caligula, which is frankly an insult to both. One critic described it as “like listening to someone tell you about the crazy dream they had last night,” which is… accurate. Except, in this case, the dream drags on for over two hours and involves time-travelling architects, random philosophical debates, and awkward pauses where you wonder if Coppola is just trolling us all.
Should you watch Megalopolis? Absolutely. But not because it’s good. Watch it because it’s a cultural event. It’s one of those films that you’ll want to say you’ve seen just so you can engage in the inevitable debates at your local sci-fi convention about whether or not Francis Ford Coppola has officially lost his marbles. It’s confusing, overblown, and weirdly captivating in the same way that watching someone juggle flaming torches while balancing on a unicycle is: you know something’s going to crash, but you can’t look away.
