Lisa Johnson Mandell’s Megalopolis review says Francis Ford Coppola’s legacy epic is everything you’ve heard and more…but not in a good way.

I’d heard from film festival goers that Francis Ford Coppola’s lavish epic was, in a word, a “mess,” but when I watched the trailer I thought it looked intriguing, and I was eager to give it a shot. I knew I could find something I liked about it.

And I did—the costumes and the set design are fabulous!

But unfortunately, the rest of the film, in a word, is “punishing.” It’s manic, it’s disjointed, it’s disorganized, it’s dreadful.

How could the same cinematic genius who brought us The Godfather movies, Apocalypse Now, The Cotton Club and so many other great films be responsible for a film like this? I’ll explain later.

The plot is overly, wildly, madly, ambitious. It centers on New Rome, a Roman Empire city set in an imagined modern America, and the conflict between a leading architect who dares to dream, and a cynical mayor who wants to continue the corrupt status quo.

It’s an epic mashup of Shakespeare, Greek tragedy, Ayn Rand, Orson Welles, Damien Chazelle and a thousand more styles and ideologies that never quite mesh. Just when you start to think, “This film has everything but Elvis,” up pops the King himself, singing America the Beautiful.

Megalopolis review — What went wrong?

The cast is impressive—but also impressively wasted, especially Adam Driver as the optimistic architect. I have a few guesses about why he’s not showing up for the traditional publicity push. Could it be that Coppola used all his worst takes, some of them shot when he was just goofing around? I hope he’s able to live this one down.

The game cast also includes Giancarlo Esposito, Shia LaBeouf, Nathalie Emmanuel, John Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Aubrey Plaza, Dustin Hoffman, Chloe Fineman, and of course various Coppola relatives like Talia Shier and Jason Schwartzman. As usual, Nicolas Cage opted to sit this one out. Good call.

So much controversy and drama has been surrounding this film for decades. It’s reported that Coppola has been dreaming about it for 37 years. In order to finally bring it to fruition, he had to finance it himself—none of the major studios would touch it, neither for creation or distribution.

So Coppola used his own resources to realize his $120 million vision.

He did this by merging his California empire with a larger one, Delicato Family Wines, then borrowing against the $650 million stake he had in the combined company. Shrewd move.

Unfortunately, Coppola could have used more than just money from a major studio. He needed guidance, he needed direction. He needed to be reined ins. Left to his own devices, he went completely off the rails, proving that this is why he can’t have nice things.

It leaves me feeling sad for the mercurial, 85-year-old filmmaker. Hopefully, Megalopolis will not define his rich cinematic legacy. But he seems to be happy with it. In all interviews, he radiates extreme pride in this latest effort. In the long run, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. He is the master of his own legacy, after all.

Rated R

2 Hours 18 Minutes

If this Megalopolis review makes you curious, get times and tickets at Fandango.com.

Lisa Johnson Mandell’s Megalopolis review says Francis Ford Coppola’s legacy epic is everything you’ve heard and more…but not in a good way.