Megalopolis Parent Guide

In a timeline where the Roman Empire endured to form the basis of a modern American government, the mayor of New Rome (New York City, of course), Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito) has a problem. The head of his civic Design Authority is Cesar Catalina (Adam Driver), the son of a powerful banking clan and a brilliant inventor who seeks to revolutionize the very concept of a city. To that end, he’s created Megalon, a bio-adaptive construction material, with which he plans to construct this new city – Megalopolis. But New Rome has far more intrigue afoot than a squabble between the mayor and an architect. The American Republic is sick with many diseases, and corruption, populism, murder, and a million other schemes all bubble beneath the gleaming windows of New Rome.

It’s a big story, and Coppola takes a good long time to tell it. The script has far too many subplots, too many little throughlines that you’ve got to track through some very abstract storytelling. Between acts, you’ve also got these lovely title cards with weighty quotes about the slow death of civilization, and then characters having whole conversations in quotations from Marcus Aurelius. It kind of feels like you took some expired cold medication and tried to read Shakespeare’s Julius Cesar while watching Chinatown. It’s a weird ride.

Megalopolis isn’t all bad, but the cons outnumber the pros at a dangerous rate. Coppola undoubtedly captured an aesthetic, and the visuals are, if not clear, at least very interesting. Actors were apparently given a lot of room to experiment with their parts, and the result is both compelling and confusing. But after two hours of this, I was more than ready for the credits to roll. The film just can’t support the weight of everything Coppola wanted to put in it.

Parents aren’t going to be wild about the film for other reasons, mostly to do with the repeated graphic sex scenes, some of which are incestuous. When in Rome, I suppose, but you’ve gotta draw the line somewhere. There are also a few dozen f-bombs, constant drug use, and some bloody violence as a gruesome little cherry on top. A much more serious real world issue is the ongoing sexual harassment lawsuit against Coppola and his production company for behaviour during the production of this film. Whether you watch the film or not (and I sure wouldn’t advise it for your own sake), I think we can all agree that this has got to be one of the most insane ways to spend (and probably lose) $120 million.