‘Megalopolis’: Cannes Review

Dir/scr: Francis Ford Coppola. US 2024. 139mins

An anguished cry for the autumn of American democracy, the operatic Megalopolis equally collapses underneath its personal weight. Author/director Francis Ford Coppola’s first movie in 13 years is a swaggering portrait of a New York-like metropolis through which two competing visions for the town’s future rock the very foundations of society— and likewise function the backdrop to a star-crossed romance. Adam Driver brings a brooding power to the position of a tortured genius architect in search of to craft a contemporary utopia in a metropolis threatened by senseless spectacle and rampant greed, however Megalopolis is stymied by arbitrary plotting and numbing extra. One can really feel Coppola’s anger and sorrow over the decline of his beloved America, however narrative coherence is much much less obvious.

Numbing extra

The 2-time Palme d’Or-winning director returns to Cannes in a contest spot, with this decades-in-the-work opus. A lot is driving on Megalopolis — and never simply the reported $120 million Coppola invested on this self-funded opus. At a time when Hollywood studios appear allergic to risk-taking cinema, this inventive huge swing seems like a welcome throwback to an earlier period when mavericks resembling Coppola delivered audacious works. But business prospects don’t look promising. 

Set within the near-future metropolis of New Rome, the image stars Driver as Cesar, who proposes rebuilding this metropolis right into a extra utopian society. Cynical Mayor Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito) prefers to erect lavish casinos and different decadent landmarks. The longtime fued between the 2 males escalates after Cicero’s inquisitive daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel) takes a liking to Cesar, intrigued by his idealism but additionally interested in what occurred to his late spouse. (When her father was New Rome’s district legal professional, he unsuccessfully prosecuted Cesar for homicide.) In the meantime, Cesar’s scheming cousin Clodio (Shia LaBeouf) plots to steer a revolt of the decrease class to take over New Rome.

Coppola has been creating this materials because the late Nineteen Seventies, drawing inspiration from the failed overthrow of the Roman Republic in 63 BC. Laurence Fishburne’s booming voice-over leaves little doubt that Coppola views the US as a contemporary Roman Empire ready to be levelled due to its hedonism and religious soullessness. Cinematographer Mihai Malaimare Jr and manufacturing designers Bradley Rubin and Beth Mickle have conceived a gaudy, fading New York that mixes Roman accents with a barely sci-fi futurism. 

Sadly, in making an attempt to dramatise this amoral society, Coppola wildly miscalculates his tone, leading to a collection of cartoonish performances. Driver principally acquits himself as a dreamer with darkish secrets and techniques who finds himself infatuated with Julia, regardless of how a lot he loathes her father. However too a lot of his co-stars have been inspired to amplify their one-note characters, which solely makes the performances louder, no more arresting.

Aubrey Plaza exudes a slinky crafty as monetary journalist Wow Platinum, however she will be able to solely achieve this a lot to raise this cliched evil seductress. Clodio, who embodies the aptitude of real-life right-wing politicians for whipping up crude populist attitudes, is performed by LaBeouf so broadly that the portrayal rapidly devolves into campy shtick. Certainly, Coppola populates New Rome with symbols, not folks, which forces the actors to embody simplistic notions of liberty, materialism, anarchy, idealism and artwork.

Followers of this formidable director will see in Megalopolis echoes of his previous marvels. New Rome’s hallucinatory destroyed paradise will conjure reminiscences of Apocalypse Now, whereas the lament for a bankrupt tradition that demeans true innovation recollects Coppola’s underrated Tucker: The Man And His Dream. And the movie’s advocacy for real love as civilisation’s one beacon of hope is particularly poignant within the wake of the April passing of Coppola’s spouse and collaborator Eleanor, to whom Megalopolis is devoted. (Tellingly, Cesar and Julia’s romance, although underdeveloped, is the image’s sharpest component.) 

However the quantity of stray concepts and themes which might be launched, then deserted — resembling the truth that Cesar has the flexibility to cease time — depart Megalopolis feeling like an unwieldy mess. Cesar and Cicero’s showdown over New Rome is dealt with in terribly disjointed methods, and the makes an attempt by supporting characters to understand energy add to the image’s cluttered building. In recent times, few auteurs have dreamed as boldly as Coppola has with this movie, however some visions, as Megalopolis’ characters uncover, are doomed to failure.