CANNES 2024: There Has Never Been Anything Like ‘Megalopolis’

The Cannes Film Festival has had its fair share of divisive selections in its 77-year history. From Gaspar Noé’s Irreversible (2002) to Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994) and even Cronenberg’s Crash (1996), it seems it’s an unspoken tradition to premiere a film each year that positively splits the audience in two. For Cannes’ 77th edition of the festival, the divisive pick of the event this year seems to be none other than Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis. Responses spanned the whole gambit from utter disdain and audible groaning to boisterous praise and applause. But love it or hate it, Megalopolis is a behemoth of a picture that is frankly unforgettable and undoubtedly an impressive

According to the science fiction-drama’s official synopsis, it’s a “Roman Epic fable set in an imagined Modern America” which is an extremely broad yet probably the most accurate summarization of such a film. It takes place in a sort of alternative New York City coined “New Rome,” and from there, the lore and exposition are convoluted and dense. We follow Adam Driver as Cesar Catilina, an architect with a special power to freeze time, as well as the discoverer of “Megalon,” a new mysterious substance with unearthly properties, but heavily controversial.

Cesar aims to use his abilities to create a bigger and better metropolis—a utopia, a city of the future reminiscent of Ancient Rome but unlike any city in existence. The mayor of New Rome is Franklyn Cicero, portrayed by Giancarlo Esposito and is Cesar’s greatest opposition as a corrupt power in his own way, toying with support of the lower class that will be drastically and negatively affected by this new city plan.

The sheer amount of characters, their relationships, and the cast that portrays them, require lengthy explanation in and of itself. There’s Shia LaBeouf as Clodio Pulcher, Cesar’s conniving cousin who is a caricature, which, when put up against an actor playing their part in a more traditional sense, breeds some of the clashing and confusion in tones. Aubrey Plaza is a humorous knockout as the satirical Platinum Wow, a journalist with dark intentions and a knack for getting her hands dirty.

Nathalie Emmanuel is Cesar’s daughter Julia, just one of the many underdeveloped female characters, chirping “Daddy” and seemingly void of any true ambition or development. The rest of the cast is vast and impressive, including names such as Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Fishburne, Jason Schwartzman, and Grace VanderWaal, but the over-saturation of these star-studded names and faces and what little they each have to work with washes away any real value or purpose other than an impressive lineup.

Megalopolis has been nearly 50 years in the making as Coppola originally birthed the idea back in 1977, though, unsurprisingly, no studios were attracted to the idea or the estimated cost to bring such a concept to life. It’s expensive, it’s gaudy, it’s overwhelming in both a visual and narrative sense, and with cloudy themes and overlapping ideas, it remains quite the head-scratcher, at least only after a single viewing.

The film’s maximalist approach is impressive, to say the least, though it ultimately doesn’t do the film any favors other than adding to the cacophony of confusion, chaos, and convolution. It’s quite apparent that more than just a good chunk of Coppola’s massive $120 million budget went directly to the copious amount of CGI throughout, but that too, falls flat. The CGI in Megalopolis ultimately and unfortunately looks cheap and uninspired. It’s often hard to be immersed in the scenes when it’s quite evident that the characters are really just standing in a blue-screened studio room. The costumes as well are, unfortunately, often tacky-looking and cheap.

Instead of gorgeous, Rome-inspired gowns and hairpieces made to shine, sparkle and impress, the wardrobe adorning the cast is more reminiscent of Halloween garbs — a mimicry of beauty and authenticity, but again, not quite hitting the mark. Most of Megalopolis’ attempts at grandiose just feels lifeless, which is perhaps an unintentionally profound takeaway all on its own.

Megalopolis is a film that has so much to say and struggles so profoundly in its attempt to say it all, it ultimately crumbles under the weight of its own ambition. But this isn’t to say there is nothing to be taken away from this gutsy tale. There are mirrored warnings of fallen ancient empires and the potential current collapse of society. The wobbly future of the film industry which he reveres so much, and our own human consequences will undoubtedly play into our eventual demise as a society or species as a whole.

There are themes of change, birth, death, and the handing of things (e.g., art, film, society, dynasties, ideas) over to a new generation. The attempt is quite honestly deserving of respect, but with a weak script, eyebrow-raising dialogue coming from characters we don’t care too much about, and a wildly unbelievable backdrop, it just never clicks.

Now, Coppola is and will be forever a legend and infamous voice in cinema, and it’s wildly clear he had enough ideas and inspiration to span three or four films. It could be interpreted that Coppola is well aware he’s nearing the end of his career, and Megalopolis is his last-ditch passion project to fit every last idea and inspiration into this messy Goliath of a film. The flick isn’t perfect by any means, in fact it’s hopelessly messy, desperately lacking cohesiveness and riddled with tonal whiplash.

Despite this, it feels as though one of the most legendary filmmakers of our time is saying, “This is it; this is my brainchild I’ve been incubating for decades. I wrote, directed, and produced it myself, and what matters is that I love it. Here it is.”

Whether or not it is considered a masterpiece or a wild miss, it’s apparent that there has never been anything quite like Megalopolis, ever. And regardless of any individual’s thoughts or critiques of the film, the icon that is Coppola, in his wild, madman of a swing has somehow just earned more respect as you can’t help but hand it to him.

Megalopolis screened as a part of the Cannes 2024 programming.