Dog’s Movie House: “Megalopolis” Ambitous, Hopeful, Frustrating, Yet Endlessly Watchable!

“Megalopolis” is set in an unknown time in a city called “New Rome.” It’s clearly New York, but Coppola dives full bore into the Roman aesthetic to illustrate the parallels between the fall of the Roman Empire and slow decline of American society. Our main character is an influential architect named Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver), a driven man obsessed with using a newly formed substance called Megalon (sounds like a Transformer, doesn’t it?) to create a living city called Megalopolis. He also has the ability to stop and start time with a simple command (although it’s never explained how he aquired these powers) He’s the head of an organization called the Design Authority, and he is constantly butting heads with New Rome’s beseiged Mayor Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito). To make matters even more tense, Cesar has fallen in love with Cicero’s daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel) and is surrounded with enemies trying to bring him down, such as cousin Clodio Putcher (Shia LeBeouf) and former lover turned scorned power broker Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza), who marries the old yet powerful Hamilton Crassus III (Jon Voight) just to screw with her former lover. All of this is narrarated by Cesar’s assistant, Fundi Romaine (Laurence Fishburne) who recites like he’s planning a tell-all book one day.

Based on that description alone, “Megalopolis” sounds like it should be a straightforward story about a fractious family trying to outdo one another by any means possible. (Sort of a “Godfather” set in the future, right?) But Coppola has a lot more on his mind than simply family confllict. His film is filled with big ideas, so many in fact that they seem to jostle against each other like over eager patrons in a crowded elevator. Coppola also fills “Megalopolis” with so much crazy imagery that the lines between allegory and straightforward narrative are blurred to the point of cinematic anarchy at times.

I understand what Coppola is trying to do, I really do, but the long gestating passion project seems to serve as a surplus of potential riches for him and the film is a mess because of it. There is a poignant message about the everlasting hope for the human condition despite the many terrible aspects about humanity, yet the film indulges in these terrible events for so much of “Megalopolis'” run time that the effect of said message feels diluted or prefunctory somehow. For example, there is an inordinate amount of time spent at a lavish party held at Madison Square Garden celebrating the marriage of Crassus III and Wow Platinum. I know it’s meant to further the parallel between the Roman Empire and American Society but it goes on waaay to long and has too many moments that seem self-indulgent. A drunk Cesar repeating a couple of his mantras for ten-plus minutes while hallucinating is way too much for this moviegoer.

Coppola’s incredible cast hams up some his rather goofy dialogue, with Driver doing his best to bring some warmth to the cold, calculating Cesar. Esposito is his usual charismatic self as Cicero, but his best scenes involve the interactions between him and his daughter Juila. It helps that Emmanuel serves as the beating heart of the film and the one character you can actually root for. Plaza and LeBeouf are a hoot as the villains, but are one-note enough that it’s difficult to care about either of them. Talia Shire, Dustin Hoffman, Voight and Fishburne all do decent enough work but again, thin characterizations hamper the effectiveness of their performances.

Even in his eighties, Coppola remains a talented director, and as a result, “Megalopolis” is never boring. But it is frustrating as hell, especially when it seems to be working toward some narrative cohesion only to turn left and indulge itself in another series of odd, if beautiful, hallucinatory and surreal images. “Megalopolis” may not be a big hit, but it’s a film cinephiles will probably be debating for years. Casual moviegoers are more likely to exclaim “What the hell did I just watch?” 3 Out Of 5 On Kendog’s Barkometer! So Sayeth The Kendog!

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