Review: ‘Megalopolis’ is a mess

With so little to show for its staggering ambitions, Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” hits theaters with a thorny challenge for viewers: Skip it and instead spend two and a half hours numbing your brain on TikTok. Or show some respect and see why Coppola, 85, spent $120 million of his own vineyard fortune on a passion project he’s been spoiling to make since 1977.
Coppola is always best when he’s flirting with disaster. Think of “The Godfather” trilogy, “Apocalypse Now,” “The Conversation” and “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” You can feel the air go out the bubble when he’s coasting with, say, “The Cotton Club” or “The Rainmaker.”
“Megalopolis” may be high on its own bloated supply, but there’s not a lazy moment in it. Adam Driver gives his all and then some as Cesar Catilina, a visionary architect right out of Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead” who aims to build New Rome, a synthesis of futuristic New York and the Roman Empire. If that sounds grandiose, you ain’t heard nothing yet.
New Rome is definitely riding for a fall as Cesar clashes with right-wing Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito) about how to rebuild a city from its ruins with a revolutionary new material called Megalon. Don’t get too excited. You can’t order Megalon online, at least not yet.
As Cesar stands atop the vertigo-inducing Chrysler building (a stunning visual), the film introduces its themes and characters. Take Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel), who’s caught in the middle as Franklyn’s daughter and Cesar’s lady love.
Coppola purposely crowds his film, so much so that audiences may need a scorecard. Among the veterans, you’ll find Laurence Fishburne, who made his acting bones in “Apocalypse Now.” There’s also a “Midnight Cowboy” reunion for Dustin Hoffman as Nush Berman, Franklyn’s fixer, and Jon Voight as Hamilton Crassus III, Cesar’s wealthy banker uncle.
Coppola is not above saluting family loyalty, casting his Oscar-nominated sister Talia Shire as Cesar’s mother and Shire’s son, the excellent Jason Schwartzman, as a member of Franklyn’s team. Both avoid any nepo baby snark by acquitting themselves admirably.
It’s a real accomplishment for an actor in “Megalopolis” not to get lost in the crowd, whether citizens are dressed in the latest trend or swanning around in togas. Shia LaBeouf definitely makes a spectacle of himself as Cesar’s mulleted cousin with the hots for Julia.
Still, the standout in a cast of thousands is Aubrey Plaza as Wow Platinum (love the name), a TV gossip who specializes in financial crimes and misdemeanors and gets much needed laughs with little help from the script, which sadly specializes in heavy going.
It’s up to Driver to hold our interest, despite the handicap of playing a symbol of virtue while the snake played by the towering Esposito gets all the best lines. Still, Cesar can stop time with his mind, an enviable skillset for audiences who may need a time out to make sense of an epic film that often resists logic and clarity.
In a recent interview after a screening of “Megalopolis,” Coppola suggested that the upcoming presidential election may mirror the downfall of Rome “for the same reasons that Rome lost its republic and ended up with an emperor.”
Maybe so, but Coppola is too fine a filmmaker to obsess on partisan politics. At its best, “Megalopolis” makes a universal point about the multiple ways in which power corrupts. Al Pacino’s godfather lost his soul to it and Marlon Brando’s apocalyptic colonel lost his sanity.
Driver’s architect finds himself on a precipice, which is just where Coppola wants us, considering a future that dies without our participation. There’s no denying that “Megalopolis” is a mess, but the lion who made it is still roaring, even in winter.