150 Word Review: 'Megalopolis' (2024)
Go back to the club
It is easy to mock Megalopolis.
Francis Ford Coppola's self-financed epic is sloppy and sluggish, a conceptual smoothie blending surrealism, sci-fi, ancient Rome, and Art Deco New York. The CGI is half-raw, the dialogue flat but flowery.
But there's much to admire in Coppola's instant cult classic, a $120 million experimental blockbuster that is actually one long, sincere message of hope, fueled by the most potent edibles money can buy.
Coppola—85 years young—has an ideal partner in Adam Driver, a fearless actor who always commits to the bit. Driver plays Cesar Catalina, a brilliant powerbroker stymied by bureaucrats and mediocrities. Unlike Ayn Rand's self-absorbed heroes, Cesar's heart is full of love. And so is Coppola’s.
Megalopolis is everything Hollywood is not right now: daring, silly, passionate, eager to please, and utterly uninterested in what you think. I found the movie inexplicably moving, an old hippie dreaming of a better tomorrow.
Random Rankings
Top 5 Francis Ford Coppola Movies
5. 'Apocalypse Now' (1979)
4. 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' (1992)
3. 'The Godfather' (1972)
2. 'The Conversation' (1974)
1. 'The Godfather Part II' (1974)
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_The Conversation_ rank in your random rankings ... THANK YOU. That film never, ever gets the praise it deserves. Fantastic direction; and an incredible performance by Hackman.
Myself, I think I would rank OUTSIDERS before DRACULA, which had parts I enjoyed, but felt overcooked. I think OUTSIDERS doesn't get enough love, IMO.