Review of Megalopolis by Misshapen_Steed

I cannot hate Megalopolis. I have a lot of respect for Coppola's earnestness here. There were a number of sequences and scenes that I adored.

But by the end of it I was ultimately unsatisfied. There are so many ideas here, some of them very interesting, that don't feel thoroughly explored at all.

I am compelled by the artist's mental conflict between a passionate creativity, the state of the world, and the unbearable weight of time. That would have been a fascinating movie to watch. But that ended up being only a snippet of what I saw, instead being cast aside for a number of other things that don't really seem to go anywhere.

The viewer can sense that this movie had an extremely lengthy gestation period. When someone spends a certain amount of time in something they're creating, it is easy to get completely lost in the ideas, assuming that what they want to communicate is self-evident. These images and words have been in Coppola's head for decades.

It is also even more obvious that it is a movie that was birthed in the era of Reagan. Coppola's vision of America's future was relevant in the 80s, and would have maybe even been a revelation for some, but now, after 40 years of a rising reactionary American conservatism, it comes off as obvious, naive and shallow. I can appreciate Coppola's boomerish hippie generation liberal optimism for the future as a sort of relic, but when I walk out of the theater into the reality of Gainesville Florida U.S.A. in the year 2024, I am not compelled. If this movie's optimism had any sort of resonance with me it was one of sadness, anger, and cynicism.

These issues I have with the movie are also reasons that I find it fascinating. Is there anything else quite like Megalopolis? Does any film move like this? I don't even know if move is the right term — I think some people are correct in describing this as a sort of deathbed fever dream, haunted memories of ideas and images corrupted, killed and given life by senility and unmitigated ego.

I will always like to see something original and bold like Megalopolis, even if the movie didn't work for me. And in this case, the movie not working for me almost seems like the movie succeeding in a way.

It's all so strange.
Also the sound design was great. Lol.