Megalopolis: The Single Worst Thing Everyone Should Go See

 by Juan Lopez

After decades of being stuck in development hell, Francis Ford Coppola’s passion project, Megalopolis (2024), has finally been released to the public. The Godfather (1972) and Apocalypse Now (1979) director originally conceived this film over 40 years ago, and has spent $140 million of his own money—including selling off his winery—to bring this idea to reality.

Following Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver) as a futuristic architect/inventor of ‘New Rome,’ (a fictionalized version of New York City), Cesar attempts to create his own utopia, Megalopolis, with the aid of his Nobel Prize winning building material, the Megalon. In addition, he’s capable of freezing time. New Rome’s mayor, Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), vehemently opposes Cesar’s attempts due to his own personal past with him. Back when Cicero was the district attorney, he went against Cesar after the mysterious disappearance of his wife, resulting in Cesar’s acquittal. After a televised event meant to showcase the future of New Rome, Cesar’s Megalopolis idea beats out Cicero’s plan for a casino. Cicero’s daughter, Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel), meets Cesar at this event, and the two form a professional relationship that transforms into romance. In the meantime, Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza), a TV reporter and Cesar’s ex-lover, is determined to bring him down by marrying his wealthy uncle, Hamilton Crassus III (Jon Voight). She is aided by Cesar's jealous cousin, Clodio Pulcher (Shia LaBeouf), who hopes to inherit Crassus' fortune, all while a radioactive satellite hurtles toward New Rome. Grace VanderWaal joins the cast as Vesta Sweetwater, the virgin sweetheart of New Rome.

Arguably more intense than the plot of the movie is the lore of the production itself. Inspired by the science-fiction that Coppola used to watch as a kid, such as Metropolis and Things to Come, the original idea for Megalopolis came into Coppola’s head in 1977, with development beginning in 1983. Decades followed of Coppola going back and forth with the project until finally a small team shooting second-unit footage in 2001 ahead of principal production. Due to the September 11 attacks happening in New York, Coppola felt it was right to rewrite the script once again—although they did keep and use some of the 9/11 footage that the second-unit team captured in the final film. 

The production on this final version of the film was haunted by Coppola’s “experimental style,” with members of the production team claiming that the director would come in with a new idea, and the next thing they knew they were spending their day filming an idea they had no plan for. With the entire visual effects team being fired, and allegations of misconduct against Coppola being reported, it’s a shocker that the movie was able to be finished. By January 2023, the budget was already $120 million dollars, proving that Coppola’s style was more than a bit costly.

Coppola is not known to do anything half-assed, and Megalopolis is no exception. While avoiding cliches that most would’ve fallen victim to (think a wall of rushed equations and diagrams), Coppola’s alternatives aren’t much better. Depicting Cesar’s genius through a jazz-like improvisation, with tools like time-freezing as a depiction of the artistic process and the occasional Shakespeare monologue, Coppola mortifies the audience and elicits nervous laughter and second-hand embarrassment. LaBeouf and Esposito are at the top of their acting game, bringing complexities to their characters’ otherwise textbook tropes. Someone like Driver, on the other hand, suffers from seemingly becoming bored throughout the film, repeating lines with the same intonation and lacking any real chemistry with his castmates. 

Despite the severe, mountain-high number of problems throughout the film, it’s still something that one might consider watching. Unlike other box-office bombs this year like Madame Web, Megalopolis still has some sense of soul in it. It’s less of a box-office bomb made by a collection of bad choices from studio heads for a quick buck and more of an artistic flop with much love put into it but unfortunately misunderstood. Coppola loves this movie as is, and while it’s easy to focus on the fact it’s only made $8 million against a $120 million budget, that’s money straight from his pocket alone. Looking at it through that lens, maybe such a convoluted movie isn’t a failure at all, but a really, really expensive piece of art meant for one person. In all honesty, it could have stayed that way.