4.5/5
Review by John P. Harvey.
Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis distills the everyday extremes of the modern western world down to the life of a city–state named New Rome, existing in a reality alternative to our own. New Roman citizens’ dress, cuisine, entertainment, and social life contain strong echoes of those of our own ancient Rome — and so do the city–state’s internal political relationships.
New Rome’s politics and commercial development have fallen increasingly under the influence of Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver), an entrepreneur with a megafortune. Cesar’s wealth derives from two related inventions apparently enabled by his passion over the loss of his wife, Sunny (Haley Sims): the first, a substance he named megalon, a light construction material of unparallelled strength; and, the second, and an ability to halt time.
Cesar’s natural enemy and New Rome’s acknowledged political leader is Mayor Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito). With able help from his daughter, Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel), Cicero appears to have done a good job for the present. But Cesar has been publicly clashing with him over the city–state’s future direction. Whilst Cicero’s focus has been on the problem of providing adequate housing for the present, Cesar has prioritised redevelopment to take into account the expanding population. Cesar’s advice “Don’t let the now destroy the forever” sums up his priorities.
And other parties — including Cesar’s present lover, journalist Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza); Cesar’s uncle, Hamilton Crassus III; and a dangerously envious cousin, Clodio (Shia LeBeouf) — have their own stakes in this dispute. But at least the lines of demarcation are clear, though — until Cesar and Julia meet, challenging both to reconsider what is most important to them.
Coppola’s directorial vision for this screenplay, which he also wrote, is vast. This is one movie whose visuals cannot be fully appreciated on less than a cinema screen, and it boasts a soundtrack to match, using both hiphop, soul, house, & indie rock tracks by such as Tony K, Reem, Sabrina Carpenter, and Hozier alongside large classical works — a mix that serves only to focus the film’s already incredible energy. Though occasional plot points end up leading nowhere, Coppola’s audacious representation through character, politics, culture, and sociology of both highly creative and substantially bizarre aspects of high-profile modern western life — epitomising it in what is obviously a parallel U.S.A. — is breathtaking in scope and a wonder to behold.