Francis Ford Coppola, director of GodfatherofApocalypse Now and of Draculafails to regain his former breath, indulging in unwelcome excesses.
Coppola has said it again and again, his Megalopolis draws a parallel between the fall of Rome and the current fall of the United States. As he has been working on this 138-minute feature film for 40 years, he says he has had time to look around the issue and provide thoughts on the current political situation in his country.
The narrative framework of Megalopolis is therefore simple(tte). Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver) is an idealistic inventor who dreams of transforming the city of New Rome into a dream city, in the style of those images of Tomorrowland exhibited at Disneyland in the 1980s. Cesar comes up against the greed of Franklyn Cicero ( Giancarlo Esposito), the mayor of the megalopolis, as well as Hamilton Crassus III (Jon Voight), the latter falling into the net of Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza), a television journalist. In addition, Clodio Pulcher (Shia LaBeouf, whose scenes are successful), Cesar’s cousin, gets involved in politics while Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel), the mayor’s daughter, falls in love with Cesar.
Heaviness…
We will immediately recognize the references to Roman history, we will hear quotes from Shakespeare (Hamlet’s long monologue), Sappho, Marcus Aurelius and many others, we will be treated to a tedious lesson in politics and sociology which unfortunately has neither the merit of innovating nor that of offering more modern theories. Very quickly, Coppola goes around in circles, repeats ideas heard many times and delights in an orgy of visual winks which weigh down this already particularly heavy thought (and no, the length is not the issue, his friend Martin Scorsese delivered to us last year its remarkable The American note of which not a minute of the 3h26 is superfluous).
In addition to the verbal excess (which requires a voiceover), the visual, which is intended to be grandiose, is nothing but ridiculous kitsch. Except for sporadic scenes in which Adam Driver excels when he is above New Rome, the rest is reminiscent of the 1980s and is full of gold, Roman costumes, jewels and stones, the revolt led by Clodio Pulcher resembling then a pale imitation of the underbelly of Gotham seen by Christopher Nolan (speaking of Nolan, know that Megalopolis is also presented in IMAX) or Tim Burton.
Under the direction (which requires a voiceover) by Coppola, the actors deliver their dialogues in a theatrical manner that quickly becomes preposterous; Coppola’s text does not deserve to be declaimed in the manner of great works, especially in visibly improvised moments – Coppola made much of improvisation and last-minute changes. Megalopolis is strewn with “canceled” actors – here again, the filmmaker has made much of it – who only serve to distract attention rather than bringing grist to a mill which aims to be anti-establishment.
The two central female characters are reduced to their simplest caricature expression. Between the nice little girl-future mother (the role of Nathalie Emmanuel) and the whore (that of Aubrey Plaza), we find the unpleasantly outdated echoes of a Hollywood of yesteryear where women only existed as the shadow of themselves and as a foil for men.
By wanting to depict chaos, Coppola creates chaos without ever finding the strength toApocalypse Now. Because he no longer possesses the genius of a Gaspar Noé (let’s imagine for a single moment the power of a Megalopolis in the expert hands of the Italian-Argentinian established in France!) nor of a Leos Carax (of whom we find resonances). And we regret for a long time this missed meeting which, to make an easy play on words, is a megalomaniac.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Megalopolis hits theaters September 27.
