“Megalopolis” is one of the most anticipated films of the year and a major favorite at the current Cannes Film Festival. Studying the reviews of numerous critics, we are beginning to doubt that the other directors have any chance at all at the current film festival.
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Recall that “Megalopolis” is Francis Ford Coppola’s dream project. The idea for the movie came to him after filming “Apocalypse Now” in 1979 – and from that moment the director nurtured the idea and protected it as his own child. Probably because of the fact that “Megalopolis” was “in the project” for a long time, it left traces of Francis’ entire creative path. Critics have considered and techniques from “The Godfather”, and tricks from the picture “Tucker: A Man and His Dream”. That said, “Megalopolis” is clearly older than the current era. From the outside it may seem that the viewer is looking at the tape, which together filmed a wise grandfather and his fidgety grandson, lost in all the possibilities of the world before him.
Film critic Vulture notes: “There’s nothing about ‘Megalopolis’ that feels like a conventional movie. It has its own logic, rhythm and colloquial language. Characters speak in archaisms, weaving shards of Shakespeare and Ovid and sometimes actual Latin into their speech. Some characters use rhyme, others use sublime prose. At one point, Adam Driver’s character performs an entire monologue from Hamlet. And no one understands why. But it sounds good.
At the same time, the movie reveals much more topics than it may seem at first glance. Coppola talks about greed, corruption, loyalism, power. The confrontation between a conservative and greedy politician and a forward-thinking urban designer is captivating from the very first frames.
However, not all viewers are delighted. For example, critic Variety says that Coppola made a mistake, deciding to make a movie on this topic. In his opinion, much better in this case would have looked much better cartoon. “Animation, rather than visual effects-laden live-action, might have been the best way to tell such a story, helping to balance the slightly Shakespearean tone and the jokes of LaBeouf’s browless shiat. Animation would also have given Coppola more control over the setting – he could have synthesized modern New York, ancient Rome and the forests of Pandora,” the critic explains.
However, we don’t quite agree with this conclusion. The fact is that Francis Ford Coppola has never taken the easiest path – and this time the 85-year-old director again tried to jump above his own head. Whether he succeeded will be shown by history. We doubt that in cases like this, and “Megalopolis” is a big, complex, complicated and controversial movie, anyone but time will be able to judge the critics.
