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According to Robert Scucci
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Film passion projects often share a number of expected through-lines of up-and-coming actors with no star power, a budget tighter than a violin string that’s ready to snap the second it’s put under too much pressure, and an unfortunate lack of studio backing to access most established filmmakers after proving themselves over time. Francis Ford Coppola’s Last Outing, $136 million Megalopolischanged the game by proving how a roster full of A-list actors and seemingly endless financial resources generated by Coppola’s own personal wealth could not save a film that was clearly doomed from the start.
After sitting down to watch the 138-minute dystopian sci-fi epic by myself, a new breakthrough was added to my personal master canon for passion projects: an uncontrolled ego.
That said, it’s not much of a comparison Megalopolis’ themes and execution to ego-driven projects led by Tommy Wiseau or Neil Breen, two self-proclaimed auteurs who personally fund their own projects and have very little resistance to their unflinching, fresh, creative visions.
Money talks
To be self-financing Megalopolis, Francis Ford Coppola sold his Sonoma County wineries to Delicato Family Wines for an eye-watering $650 million stock deal, earmarking $200 million of the deal to realize an artistic vision he’d been trying to fully realize for 40 years. With the wealth he had amassed, Coppola was finally ready to produce his passion project without any studio interference.
Star Power only works if the scenario makes sense
With a high-caliber budget comes high-level talent, and there’s no shortage of A-listers featured in the Megalopolis. While it’s easy to blame B-movies (or Megalopoliswhich I call a high-budget B-movie) for being tasked with telling the story of an inexperienced actor was clear to me after watching it. Megalopolis that even Adam the driver he couldn’t help himself from reciting Shakespeare while looking like he was a puppet controlled by a puppeteer with a fake sneeze reflex who looked directly into the studio lights before Coppola yelled “action.”
A-List Cast And Straight-To-DVD Plot
Set in New Rome, an alternate version of New York, Driver’s Cesar Catilina is a brilliant but troubled Nobel Prize-winning architect and chairman of the New Rome Design Authority who has an idealistic plan for a utopia known as Megalopolis. He also has the ability to stop and start time on a whim, allowing him to think about how to carry out his grandiose plans under the radar. Cesaro’s intellectual and metaphysical talents are hampered by his severe alcoholism, which began spiraling years ago when his wife mysteriously disappeared and he was unsuccessfully tried for her murder.
Cesare’s idealistic opportunism is accompanied and antagonized by New Rome’s conservative mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), his aimless but opportunistic cousin Clodio Pulcher (Shia LaBeouf), his ultra-wealthy uncle Hamilton Crassus III (John Voight) and his now ex-lover, a TV personality named Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza).
When Cesar suddenly and inexplicably loses his gift of time manipulation, he forms a romantic bond with Julia Cicero, Franklin’s daughter, after realizing that her presence as a muse restores his artistic and time-manipulating abilities, much to her father’s displeasure.
Bones Without Meat
General plot line k Megalopolis it creates an impressive futuristic melodrama, but everything starts to fall apart when every piece of the puzzle fails to fit together. While there are extravagant stylistic choices on Coppola’s part to make postmodern America resemble the collapse of the Roman Empire, which was at the height of excess and disorder before hitting a tipping point and falling apart completely, style alone cannot tell the story. no matter how beautiful it may be to look at.
Instead, Megalopolis turns these cinematic bones into mush that the viewer can try to digest while being assaulted by bright colors, supposedly delusional Vestal Virgins, sprawling cityscapes, a proletariat in a constant state of civil and economic unrest, and John Voight pretending the crossbow buried under his sheets is actually erection to carry out a revenge plot against his nephew Clodio, who conspired with Wow Platinum to take over his bank.
Movie spectacle
Megalopolis’ the god-like, time-manipulating, idealistic yet psychologically tangled protagonist reflects the same character archetypes you’d see in Neil Breen films such as Double Down, I Am Here… Now, Pass Thruand Fatal findingsto name a few. And I assure you, the irony is not lost on me that Neil Breen was able to personally fund his own projects through fundraising and his own personal fortune amassed through a successful career in architecture.
Coppola’s intrepid creation in my mind Megalopolis he deserves a fair amount of respect because he had vision, stuck to his guns and he did thing the way he wanted to do it. The jury may be out on whether the thing in question is worth your time, but if you’re into B, C, D, and Z movies, you owe it to yourself to see how even the most decorated filmmakers can rock. and pass without anyone challenging their vision along the way.
At the time of writing, you can watch Megalopolis on demand over Amazon Prime Video, Google Playand Fandango at home.
