“Megalopolis” is the Kamala Harris of prestige arthouse cinema. The monstrously ambitious big-budget science fiction/fantasy drama, written and directed by one of cinema’s greatest voices, is intended as an immensely earnest, optimistic, and joyful art. Still, when it comes to matters of substance, it’s awkward and bizarre, feeling obtuse, headache-inducing, and dependent on vibes to keep it moving forward — while also being defended by a vociferous terminally online fanbase.
It’s appropriate that such a movie would be released just 39 days before a contentious election. However, this is certainly not new territory for director Francis Ford Coppola, the progressive maverick behind cinematic masterpieces like “The Godfather,” “The Conversation,” and “Apocalypse Now.” His films are well known for excoriating the concept of the American Dream and blasting American foreign policy in Vietnam. As film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum points out, his populist anti-corporate passion project “Tucker: The Man And His Dream” was released to coincide with Michael Dukakis’ campaign in the 1988 election against George H.W. Bush.
“Megalopolis” cannot be accused of being shy about its politics. It is explicitly a film about building a better future and the flawed process great men must use to build a better society against the forces of managerial centrism and fascist backsliding. It is a monstrously ambitious work if only because it is throwing a thousand ideas per minute at its audience and asking them to mull over every one of them. It’s something you either love or hate, which is reflected in its
