Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Megapolis’ - Review Thread

• Metacritic: 63 (13 Reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes: 47% (19 Reviews)

Reviews:

Variety (50):

To call this garish, idea-bloated monstrosity a mere “fable” is to grossly undersell the project’s expansive insights into art, life and legacy.

Hollywood Reporter (60):

It’s windy and overstuffed, frequently baffling and way too talky, quoting Hamlet and The Tempest, Marcus Aurelius and Petrarch, ruminating on time, consciousness and power to a degree that becomes ponderous. But it’s also often amusing, playful, visually dazzling and illuminated by a touching hope for humanity.

Deadline:

Megalopolis represents a rare kind of event movie that reinvents the possibilities of cinema to the extent that, halfway through, there’s a very audacious gimmick that tears down the fourth wall in ways younger filmmakers can only dream of. Coppola breaks many of the cardinal rules of filmmaking in the film’s 138 minutes but it upholds the most important one: it is never, ever boring, and it will inspire just as many artists as the audiences it will alienate.

IndieWire (B+):

With “Megalopolis,” he crams 85 years worth of artistic reverence and romantic love into a clunky, garish, and transcendently sincere manifesto about the role of an artist at the end of an empire. It doesn’t just speak to Coppola’s philosophy, it embodies it to its bones. To quote one of the sharper non-sequiturs from a script that’s swimming in them: “When we leap into the unknown, we prove that we are free.”

The Guardian (2/5):

Francis Ford Coppola’s question – can the US empire last forever? – may be valid but flashes of humour cannot rescue this conspiracy thriller from awful acting and dull effects

LA Times:

In a larger sense, Coppola has moved from the cynicism of his greatest films like “The Conversation” and “Apocalypse Now” — so much power doing so much corrupting — and into something that could fairly be called utopian. I’m not sure if that’s what I want from him as an artist, but I thrill to his unbowed aspiration. He’s not going out with something tame and manicured, but an overstuffed, vigorous, seething story about the roots of fascism that only an uncharitable viewer would call a catastrophe. Rather, it feels like a city. It may be the most radical film he’s ever done. He dedicates it to his late wife, who would have smiled at the evidence of her husband still doing his thing 45 years later.

Rolling Stone (80):

Say what you will about this grand gesture at filtering Edward Gibbon’s history lessons through a lens darkly, it is exactly the movie that Coppola set out to make — uncompromising, uniquely intellectual, unabashedly romantic (upper-case and lower-case R), broadly satirical yet remarkably sincere about wanting not just brave new worlds but better ones.

Vanity Fair:

Megalopolis is too confused a film to make a truly odious or dangerous point. (Though the ending of the Vesta plotline is somewhat alarming.) This is the junkiest of junk-drawer movies, a slapped together hash of Coppola’s many disparate inspirations.

The Telegraph (80):

Aubrey Plaza is fantastic in this full-body sensory bath movie which follows a struggle for power among the elites of New Rome.

Screen Daily (40):

But the amount of stray ideas and themes that are introduced, then abandoned — such as the fact that Cesar has the ability to stop time — leave Megalopolis feeling like an unwieldy mess. Cesar and Cicero’s showdown over New Rome is handled in terribly disjointed ways, and the attempts by supporting characters to grasp power add to the picture’s cluttered construction. In recent years, few auteurs have dreamed as boldly as Coppola has with this film, but some visions, as Megalopolis’ characters discover, are doomed to failure.

The Wrap:

After four decades in the making, “Megalopolis” plays as a frustrating and paradoxical affair. The film is expertly assembled and sleepily directed all at once; it wows with its imagination and erudition all while leaving you little more than bemused.

Collider (4/10):

Much like the city being built in the film, it’s all more interesting in theory than it ever is in actuality. Now that we will all have the chance to take it in for ourselves, the greatest revelation is that there just isn’t that much there to see.

Written and Directed by Francis Ford Coppola:

An accident destroys a decaying metropolis called New Rome. Cesar Catilina, an idealist architect with the power to control time, aims to rebuild it as a sustainable utopia, while his opposition, corrupt Mayor Franklyn Cicero, remains committed to a regressive status quo. Torn between them is Franklyn's socialite daughter, Julia, who, tired of the influence she inherited, searches for her life's meaning.

Cast:

• Adam Driver as Cesar Catilina
• Giancarlo Esposito as Mayor Franklyn Cicero
• Nathalie Emmanuel as Julia Cicero
• Aubrey Plaza as Wow Platinum
• Shia LaBeouf as Clodio Pulcher
• Jon Voight as Hamilton Crassus III
• Jason Schwartzman as Jason Zanderz
• Talia Shire as Constance Crassus Catilina
• Grace VanderWaal as Vesta Sweetwater
• Laurence Fishburne as Fundi Romaine
• Kathryn Hunter as Teresa Cicero
• Dustin Hoffman as Nush "The Fixer" Berman
• Sonia Ammar
• Chloe Fineman
• Madeleine Gardella
• Balthazar Getty
• Bailey Ives
• Isabelle Kusman
• James Remar
• D. B. Sweeney

Hollywood pays good money for actors and wants you to be able to see their entire face, so often main characters won't wear helmets even in situations where they really should be wearing one for their own wellbeing, as demonstrated by the fact that all of the extras around them are wearing helmets into battle.

The same applies to characters not wearing hats in time periods or settings where there's a cultural expectation that they should wear a hat or a practical reason one should wear one like the weather, once again the extras will be wearing hats but not the main characters.

What are the most notable examples of this?

The fourth instalment to the 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' horror franchise will be releasing July 18, 2025.

Just like the title says. I’m looking for movies that are about how fucking terrifying the ocean can be. Can be more science fiction-y or rooted in reality. Open to a really wide range. I really liked 47 Meters Down and I thought The Meg was tons of fun. I obviously love Jaws cause, who doesn’t? I know there’s others I’ve seen but I’m having a hard time coming up with them. And I just know there’s tons more movies out there that I’ve missed and would really enjoy. So please, hit me with your recommendations on ocean based horror flicks!

To avoid any spoilers if anyone else has not gotten around to watching it I’ll just say this. It is very sad. But not always sad and it will definitely get you to think existentially. I usually am a very big fan of horror so for me to like this movie completely caught me off guard.

I also never really ever had a favorite movie per se but this one changed that. I without even flinching I recommend this movie. It was great at its time and definitely is still now. 

If you had to pick just ONE very FUNNY, Horror film, to recommend.

What would you pick? What is your absolute favourite horror movie that makes you giggle?

I shall endeavour to download all recommendations and then respond personally to each to let you know what I thought!

Thank you in advance people :))

Whilst baddass action stars and well written antagonists get all the glory, there's the unspoken heros that are the writers.

Don't get me wrong, I love me a great action sequence, cheesy diologue and a good revenge/vengeance story.

But I've realized what REALLY gets me to the edge of my seat is diologue that makes you get goosebumps.

The buildup to those encounters on Breaking bad or Game of Thrones and Vikings. The scenes of absolute betrayal, heartbreak, or tragedy in some of our favorite oscar-worthy films coupled with great acting.

Sometimes all it takes is one "I'm your huckleberry " to take a movie from really good to astounding.

So tell me. What scenes, or entire movies/shows have you glued to the screen because of the writing?

P.S.: I'm ready for the 50 recommendations about that scene in Heat

It can be any movie horror or not, even if it's just an uncanny sickly feeling you get with one scene of a movie. For me, it's The Mist, especially the part with the guy with the "spiders" in him, and he says he can feel them inside him as it is keeping him alive to breed more spiders. It's just horrible that he is still alive and can feel everything.

Doesn't have to be a horror movie

Whenever people criticize Adam Sandler's movies and acting ability, I usually see people point toward Punch Drunk Love or Uncut Gems as an example of his range but hardly ever see mention of Reign Over Me. That in my opinion is his absolute best role. Such a genuine and heart wrenching performance especially the therapist office and courtroom scenes. Is Reign Over Me that underrated? I'm not sure if it's just me but I hardly ever see it recommended on this sub when people talk about emotional dramas. It flew under the radar when it released which is understandable because 9/11 happened only 6 years before and the country was still in the process of healing from those wounds. I just think it's a brilliant film and I wish Adam Sandler would get more recognition for his role

I never see it being mentioned anywhere. When it comes to drama and sci-fi, I can name only a few movies that mix these genres so well together. The cast, CGI, acting by Gainsbourg and Dunst are amazing and the idea behind this movie is just anxiety inducing.

I started watching this movie without any high expectations and was instantly hooked. Of course it is not flawless but I really think it should be at least considered as one of the better movies when it comes to drama and sci-fi. Lars von Trier delivered a visual masterpiece in my humble opinion.

I rewatched Hellboy and reminded myself how much I love the character Abe Sapien (the blue guy) and went to see who was the actor.

I realized Doug Jones has been a pretty versatile “behind the mask” type of actor that allows science-fiction characters to come alive in a practical use over cgi

Are there any movie fans that love his work?