Megalopolis (2024)
September 28, 2024 5:55 PM - Subscribe
An architect wants to rebuild New York City as a utopia following a devastating disaster.
Um, who wants to start?
Um, who wants to start?
Just did not have the energy to get to the Imax showing. When does streaming start?
posted by sammyo at 6:54 PM on September 28
posted by sammyo at 6:54 PM on September 28
I think you should watch this on the big screen, really. There are some nice cinematic moments in this thing, I swear.
posted by queensissy at 8:12 PM on September 28 [2 favorites]
posted by queensissy at 8:12 PM on September 28 [2 favorites]
I thought it was a mess - a pile of ham salad - and I'm glad he made it.
I've seen wildly conflicting reviews, so when my roommate said he saw it last night, I asked his opinion; it was very similar. It was a big mess, but it was an entertaining one, he said, one that leaned into the visuals even more than Coppola's take on Dracula. Some of the symbolism was hit-you-over-the-head, but there was just so much of it he had tremendous fun.
He strongly recommended going to see it on IMAX if you saw it to appreciate the visuals (the strongest bit); he also had the additional optional suggestion that one have an edible beforehand.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:29 AM on September 29 [2 favorites]
I've seen wildly conflicting reviews, so when my roommate said he saw it last night, I asked his opinion; it was very similar. It was a big mess, but it was an entertaining one, he said, one that leaned into the visuals even more than Coppola's take on Dracula. Some of the symbolism was hit-you-over-the-head, but there was just so much of it he had tremendous fun.
He strongly recommended going to see it on IMAX if you saw it to appreciate the visuals (the strongest bit); he also had the additional optional suggestion that one have an edible beforehand.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:29 AM on September 29 [2 favorites]
I will probably see this at some point, given what a gonzo mess it sounds, but I don't know that it can top the experience of reading Nick Mamatas' flensing of the film (spoiler-ful, natch). His is not the only burn-this-to-the-ground-type review or post I've seen about it. I share it because I haven't cackled so much in a long time while reading a movie review.
posted by cupcakeninja at 5:31 AM on September 29 [6 favorites]
posted by cupcakeninja at 5:31 AM on September 29 [6 favorites]
well I have not seen this movie, but I guess I'm glad it exists so I could read Nick Mamatas' flensing, which was very funny. I don't know that I will ever bother to watch this (and I'm not sure that an encounter with spoilers could possibly make a difference in my experience of it, were I to do so...)
Cicero was nearly caught up in the Cataline rebellion. apparently Cataline was a slippery dude. I don't think this movie has anything to do with Roman history though.
posted by supermedusa at 9:51 AM on September 29 [1 favorite]
Cicero was nearly caught up in the Cataline rebellion. apparently Cataline was a slippery dude. I don't think this movie has anything to do with Roman history though.
posted by supermedusa at 9:51 AM on September 29 [1 favorite]
I was on the fence about seeing this one, and then Mark Kermode convinced me not to bother.
posted by Omon Ra at 12:51 PM on September 29 [2 favorites]
posted by Omon Ra at 12:51 PM on September 29 [2 favorites]
...I don't know that it can top the experience of reading Nick Mamatas' flensing of the film (spoiler-ful, natch). His is not the only burn-this-to-the-ground-type review or post I've seen about it.
Similarly, it made Nathan Rabin actively angry, and this coming from a man who enjoys watching and writing about cinematic disasters.
Certainly nothing I've seen about it made me want to spend money and/or time to see it.
posted by Pedantzilla at 2:19 PM on September 29 [4 favorites]
Similarly, it made Nathan Rabin actively angry, and this coming from a man who enjoys watching and writing about cinematic disasters.
Certainly nothing I've seen about it made me want to spend money and/or time to see it.
posted by Pedantzilla at 2:19 PM on September 29 [4 favorites]
This was a complete and total fiasco, but I will say that it kept me entertained by the comically enormous amount of ineptitude on display. It's like the world's most expensive student film. By far the worst movie I've seen in some time, and I watch a lot of low-budget horror. It did have some striking images here and there, and I'll watch Lawrence Fishburne in anything, but it is a deeply, profoundly misguided project. I am looking forward to the reviews, though.
posted by whir at 3:43 PM on September 29 [1 favorite]
posted by whir at 3:43 PM on September 29 [1 favorite]
I just watched it. It's good.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 4:47 PM on September 29 [3 favorites]
posted by paper chromatographologist at 4:47 PM on September 29 [3 favorites]
I watched it on IMAX last night. I am not sure if it was worth the experience of IMAX though a big screen would still be preferable. Cinematically, you had better visuals from Gareth Edwards' The Creator at a much lower cost.
I texted some MeFi folks on Signal that the film was 120 million bonkers, and I stand by that.
My companion felt the film worked better as a comic book. This idea was based on visuals and cinematic techniques that would have enhanced better the dialogue if done in a comic/graphic novel format.
The plot line was very choppy, and the in-film universe was inconsistent. There did not seem to be a coherent narrative thread, with incidents like the radioactive space debris raining down on New Rome/New York being blithely handled. Christopher Nolan handled the madness of the mob and decay of a city better, and even the trailer for Joker 2: Follie a Deux, that previewed before Megaoplis, did better with that theme. The ending seemed a bit rushed and simplistic, but then again, some of the symbolism was way heavy-handed (carved swastika for the podium that Clodio stands on to address the mob). The thing is that the actors, I thought, were good. The directive was to leave no piece of scenery unchewed, and that mandate was fulfilled.
This idea may be strange, but the film seemed like something a very young, inexperienced filmmaker would do with a large budget. This film is not done by the Coppolla of workman-like capability, e.g., Finian's Rainbow, or the man who explored all levels of corruption (personal, civil and religious) in the Godfather Trilogy, nor the Job-like auteur of Apocalypse Now. The failed romanticism of Megaoplis and the unbelievable emotions displayed do not hint at his previous capability from even his minor films, and yes, I include Jack in that assessment. I was expecting much more from a person whose body of work has manifested greatness, if not a certain level of competence.
If this film had been produced in the late 60's or early 70's, it would have been considered visionary and hallucinogenic. It's bound to become a cult classic and a significant topic in film studies. Ultimately, it's a story about the ambition and hubris of a drug-addled architect, a more dramatic and louche version of Robert Moses with a Nobel Prize and time magic.
posted by jadepearl at 6:40 PM on September 29 [3 favorites]
I texted some MeFi folks on Signal that the film was 120 million bonkers, and I stand by that.
My companion felt the film worked better as a comic book. This idea was based on visuals and cinematic techniques that would have enhanced better the dialogue if done in a comic/graphic novel format.
The plot line was very choppy, and the in-film universe was inconsistent. There did not seem to be a coherent narrative thread, with incidents like the radioactive space debris raining down on New Rome/New York being blithely handled. Christopher Nolan handled the madness of the mob and decay of a city better, and even the trailer for Joker 2: Follie a Deux, that previewed before Megaoplis, did better with that theme. The ending seemed a bit rushed and simplistic, but then again, some of the symbolism was way heavy-handed (carved swastika for the podium that Clodio stands on to address the mob). The thing is that the actors, I thought, were good. The directive was to leave no piece of scenery unchewed, and that mandate was fulfilled.
This idea may be strange, but the film seemed like something a very young, inexperienced filmmaker would do with a large budget. This film is not done by the Coppolla of workman-like capability, e.g., Finian's Rainbow, or the man who explored all levels of corruption (personal, civil and religious) in the Godfather Trilogy, nor the Job-like auteur of Apocalypse Now. The failed romanticism of Megaoplis and the unbelievable emotions displayed do not hint at his previous capability from even his minor films, and yes, I include Jack in that assessment. I was expecting much more from a person whose body of work has manifested greatness, if not a certain level of competence.
If this film had been produced in the late 60's or early 70's, it would have been considered visionary and hallucinogenic. It's bound to become a cult classic and a significant topic in film studies. Ultimately, it's a story about the ambition and hubris of a drug-addled architect, a more dramatic and louche version of Robert Moses with a Nobel Prize and time magic.
posted by jadepearl at 6:40 PM on September 29 [3 favorites]
Ultimately, it's a story about the ambition and hubris of a drug-addled architect
Do you mean Coppola?
This has a lot of "One from the Heart" energy from where I'm sitting.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 10:20 AM on September 30 [4 favorites]
Do you mean Coppola?
This has a lot of "One from the Heart" energy from where I'm sitting.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 10:20 AM on September 30 [4 favorites]
Oof. Atlas Mugged.
posted by ishmael at 5:27 PM on October 1 [1 favorite]
posted by ishmael at 5:27 PM on October 1 [1 favorite]
(Psst. You can tell it's the future bcz everyone has bad hair!)
posted by ishmael at 5:31 PM on October 1 [1 favorite]
posted by ishmael at 5:31 PM on October 1 [1 favorite]
Honestly, this movie works for me, as long as I pre-game w psychedelics or turn it into a drinking game.
The waves upon waves of tripped out visuals and non-sequiturs eventually wore me down to the point where I felt like I was meditating, like a fractal mandelbrot Ayn Rand koan.
posted by ishmael at 9:34 PM on October 1 [1 favorite]
The waves upon waves of tripped out visuals and non-sequiturs eventually wore me down to the point where I felt like I was meditating, like a fractal mandelbrot Ayn Rand koan.
posted by ishmael at 9:34 PM on October 1 [1 favorite]
The movie has a lot in common with Southland Tales. I wonder if fluid karma is an ingredient in megalon.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 6:15 AM on October 2 [2 favorites]
posted by paper chromatographologist at 6:15 AM on October 2 [2 favorites]
Eagerly anticipating Trixie and Katya's watchalong to this movie.
Entitled, Me?
...
Entitled, Me?
...
Entitled, Me?
Yes.
Entitled, Me?
Yeeesss.
see also: "whyn't chu go back to da cluuub."
posted by ishmael at 11:01 PM on October 2 [1 favorite]
Entitled, Me?
...
Entitled, Me?
...
Entitled, Me?
Yes.
Entitled, Me?
Yeeesss.
see also: "whyn't chu go back to da cluuub."
posted by ishmael at 11:01 PM on October 2 [1 favorite]
Why is it so orange?
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:45 AM on October 3 [1 favorite]
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:45 AM on October 3 [1 favorite]
It's like the world's most expensive student film.
I've seen that description used before for Natural Born Killers, which I hated. I think I'll wait until this hits streaming, if it does, mostly for Aubrey Plaza, who seems to have been one of the few redeeming qualities of this film.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:12 AM on October 3
I've seen that description used before for Natural Born Killers, which I hated. I think I'll wait until this hits streaming, if it does, mostly for Aubrey Plaza, who seems to have been one of the few redeeming qualities of this film.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:12 AM on October 3
If you walk in with the attitude that you are going to watch The Room on salvia, you'll have a lot of fun.
posted by ishmael at 7:36 AM on October 3 [1 favorite]
posted by ishmael at 7:36 AM on October 3 [1 favorite]
*The movie itself is doing salvia. Please don't watch this movie on salvia. Some light edibles or small dose o mushrooms perhaps.
posted by ishmael at 7:37 AM on October 3
posted by ishmael at 7:37 AM on October 3
The movie has a lot in common with Southland Tales. I wonder if fluid karma is an ingredient in megalon.
in 2024, Southland Tales actually reads as fairly straight documentary footage because reality got a lot weirder since its release.
posted by Sebmojo at 12:10 PM on October 4
in 2024, Southland Tales actually reads as fairly straight documentary footage because reality got a lot weirder since its release.
posted by Sebmojo at 12:10 PM on October 4
Just saw it today and my head's reeling. The theater was almost totally empty. One person walked out 1/2way through. My son bailed and read his phone.
Me, without spoilers (and only having seen a few of the director's post-1980 movies):
It had very strange pacing and narrative construction. It built up tension within scenes but not between them. A surprising amount of telling rather than showing.
The Roman layer doesn't work too well, since the movie is clearly about New York (as a stand in for America) visually, thematically, and in terms of attitude. The virgin subplot doesn't fit NY, and would have done better elsewhere.
The film has heaps of Shakespeare. Ultimately, the movie wants to be a S. romance, ending on a high note with marriages.
There's a passionate argument about being future-focused, which I support. The action of the story is about synthesizing the best of two views of the future: a practical, present-oriented, caring one with vision and invention.
Did the Soviet satellite matter at all?
It's weirdly democratic without being democratic. The hero keeps calling for conversations, but we only see them among the elite. We see speeches from heroes and (mostly) passive audiences; being in the audience is where the last scene leaves us. I'm reminded of the US political tic of saying "we must have a conservation about X or Y" meaning "I don't want to spend money or have an actual policy on X or Y."
Related to that: the movie establishes severe class conflict, then accepts it, and maybe thinks a big donation saves the day.
It is strangely low tech. There are nearly no computers, no cell phones. No mention of AI; there's a retro call out to a video being doctored. Some 1940s tech, like an ancient subway. Lots of writing with pens on paper.
It had very conservative gender politics. Men are leaders, doers, heroes. Women are sex objects, virgins (seriously), mothers, schemers behind the scenes (and punished for it), and muses.
There were several impressive set pieces.
The sound design was odd. Like the script, it reaches into the past for quotes (Beethoven's 7th, for example). And like Christopher Nolan the music and f/x overpower dialog at times.
The script is bonkers. Some good lines and jokes, esp. around sex, but larded with portentous quotes (sometimes cited) and a bizarre sense of political speeches.
Actors work their brains out, even when they have oddball material.
There's one murder I can't figure out, but don't want to spoil it.
Still thinking about it.
posted by doctornemo at 12:46 PM on October 5 [1 favorite]
Me, without spoilers (and only having seen a few of the director's post-1980 movies):
It had very strange pacing and narrative construction. It built up tension within scenes but not between them. A surprising amount of telling rather than showing.
The Roman layer doesn't work too well, since the movie is clearly about New York (as a stand in for America) visually, thematically, and in terms of attitude. The virgin subplot doesn't fit NY, and would have done better elsewhere.
The film has heaps of Shakespeare. Ultimately, the movie wants to be a S. romance, ending on a high note with marriages.
There's a passionate argument about being future-focused, which I support. The action of the story is about synthesizing the best of two views of the future: a practical, present-oriented, caring one with vision and invention.
Did the Soviet satellite matter at all?
It's weirdly democratic without being democratic. The hero keeps calling for conversations, but we only see them among the elite. We see speeches from heroes and (mostly) passive audiences; being in the audience is where the last scene leaves us. I'm reminded of the US political tic of saying "we must have a conservation about X or Y" meaning "I don't want to spend money or have an actual policy on X or Y."
Related to that: the movie establishes severe class conflict, then accepts it, and maybe thinks a big donation saves the day.
It is strangely low tech. There are nearly no computers, no cell phones. No mention of AI; there's a retro call out to a video being doctored. Some 1940s tech, like an ancient subway. Lots of writing with pens on paper.
It had very conservative gender politics. Men are leaders, doers, heroes. Women are sex objects, virgins (seriously), mothers, schemers behind the scenes (and punished for it), and muses.
There were several impressive set pieces.
The sound design was odd. Like the script, it reaches into the past for quotes (Beethoven's 7th, for example). And like Christopher Nolan the music and f/x overpower dialog at times.
The script is bonkers. Some good lines and jokes, esp. around sex, but larded with portentous quotes (sometimes cited) and a bizarre sense of political speeches.
Actors work their brains out, even when they have oddball material.
There's one murder I can't figure out, but don't want to spoil it.
Still thinking about it.
posted by doctornemo at 12:46 PM on October 5 [1 favorite]
More:
The incest theme was significant. There were rumors about some elites - Clodio Pulcher? - and then the "auntie Wow" sex scene.
Lots of Trump gestures, like groups of ppl with red hats. Some have mentioned "make Rome great again" slogans, but I didn't see those.
Thinking about movies this engages with... Metropolis to a big degree. Also Fountainhead.
posted by doctornemo at 2:49 PM on October 5 [1 favorite]
The incest theme was significant. There were rumors about some elites - Clodio Pulcher? - and then the "auntie Wow" sex scene.
Lots of Trump gestures, like groups of ppl with red hats. Some have mentioned "make Rome great again" slogans, but I didn't see those.
Thinking about movies this engages with... Metropolis to a big degree. Also Fountainhead.
posted by doctornemo at 2:49 PM on October 5 [1 favorite]
The three movies this reminded me of most were Southland Tales (apocalyptic sci-fi-ish setting; epic scale/vision, constrained by budgetary and time limitations; an in-universe character doing the narration; bizarre, high-profile casting; pretentiousness mixed with absolutely goofy humor in the dialogue), Julie Taymor's Titus (mostly just for the visual design of Imperial Rome-cum-PostWW2 America and the atmosphere of political chaos), and, oddly enough, The People's Joker, (was similarly a giant messy mishmash of questionable storytelling and wack visual effects, and the passion project of a completely singular imagination).
One thing my partner and I both noticed was the huge amount of dialogue that was clearly ADR'd, and not particularly well. There were several times when the dialogue and the actors' lips were clearly out of sync, or the tonality of their voice shifted because they were piecing together two different recordings. Julia Cicero/Nathalie Emmanuel's voice seemed to change A LOT from scene to scene; at one point I was pretty sure they overdubbed her with a completely different actress.
Some of the characters were paper thin -- Julia Cicero being among them. Giancarlo Esposito too seemed to be doing a mishmash of his past roles -- or maybe just being Giancarlo Esposito (I kept imagining him in that one commercial he does with Spike Lee). Cesar, Clodio, and Wow Platinum were the strongest three performances, I think.
To go back to the Southland Tales comparison, this felt like a 12 hour mini-series stuffed into a half-baked 130 minute mishmash of crazy nonsense. I kinda loved it for that, but for all out auteur-pretentiousness, I think Southland Tales -- which I unironically do love -- does it better, and more entertainingly -- and it also has a much more unified visual style.
posted by Saxon Kane at 4:48 PM on October 6 [1 favorite]
One thing my partner and I both noticed was the huge amount of dialogue that was clearly ADR'd, and not particularly well. There were several times when the dialogue and the actors' lips were clearly out of sync, or the tonality of their voice shifted because they were piecing together two different recordings. Julia Cicero/Nathalie Emmanuel's voice seemed to change A LOT from scene to scene; at one point I was pretty sure they overdubbed her with a completely different actress.
Some of the characters were paper thin -- Julia Cicero being among them. Giancarlo Esposito too seemed to be doing a mishmash of his past roles -- or maybe just being Giancarlo Esposito (I kept imagining him in that one commercial he does with Spike Lee). Cesar, Clodio, and Wow Platinum were the strongest three performances, I think.
To go back to the Southland Tales comparison, this felt like a 12 hour mini-series stuffed into a half-baked 130 minute mishmash of crazy nonsense. I kinda loved it for that, but for all out auteur-pretentiousness, I think Southland Tales -- which I unironically do love -- does it better, and more entertainingly -- and it also has a much more unified visual style.
posted by Saxon Kane at 4:48 PM on October 6 [1 favorite]
Caught an early showing yesterday, and for the first time in my life, had a theater entirely to myself. I am a Coppola fan, and was hopeful despite the mixed reviews, but very little of this worked for me. It felt audacious as hell, but also super heavy-handed, and kind of a drag to watch.
I agree with the Southland Tales comparison. Leaving the theater, I texted a friend: "In terms of WTFs per minute, I can only think of Southland Tales to compare it to."
Another paper thin character: Dustin Hoffman's Nush Berman. I think we got told that he was Very Important, but I didn't grok why, and if he was so important, why was his exit from the story handled with one line in the voiceover?
posted by /\/\/\/ at 5:00 PM on October 6 [1 favorite]
I agree with the Southland Tales comparison. Leaving the theater, I texted a friend: "In terms of WTFs per minute, I can only think of Southland Tales to compare it to."
Another paper thin character: Dustin Hoffman's Nush Berman. I think we got told that he was Very Important, but I didn't grok why, and if he was so important, why was his exit from the story handled with one line in the voiceover?
posted by /\/\/\/ at 5:00 PM on October 6 [1 favorite]
Yeah, I found it hilarious that suddenly a building just collapses on Hoffman's character and nobody ever speaks about him again.
I need to watch Southland Tales again, but the movie that kept coming to mind for me was Ari Aster's recent Beau is Afraid, which is similarly heightened, stylized, allegorical, not remotely interested in telling a realistic story, and clearly the singular, obsessive vision of its director. But Beau is Afraid really worked for me, and Megalopolis totally failed me on every level.
One of those levels which I haven't seen get much attention is its backwards attitude towards women, like in the scene where the Cesar and Cicero argue about which one of them should be allowed to keep the love interest, in a movie released in 2024. Julia gets exactly one scene to be a smart, independent character, and that is when she is catching Cesar's eye, then it's straight to the devoted, supportive spouse with no ideas of her own.
Another one is like, WTF is with the urban planning in this movie? Cesar wipes out a whole neighborhood Robert Moses style, builds his fancy new city there and then says "let's have a conversation about the future?" Motherfucker, how about we talk about what you just did instead? Also, yeah, urban planning would be a lot easier if we all had anti-gravity bubbles to movie people around in instead of cars, but why does the new neighborhood look like a shitty future city from the cover of a 1997 computer game?
The idea that people who protest a neighborhood's destruction are secretly funded and manipulated by elite bankers is also one whose implications trouble me, though Coppola tries to set them up as enemies by throwing some red hats and swastikas in there. The whole thing is profoundly anti-democratic, while wrapping itself in the trappings of caring about democracy (as doctornemo noted above).
posted by whir at 9:58 AM on October 7 [1 favorite]
I need to watch Southland Tales again, but the movie that kept coming to mind for me was Ari Aster's recent Beau is Afraid, which is similarly heightened, stylized, allegorical, not remotely interested in telling a realistic story, and clearly the singular, obsessive vision of its director. But Beau is Afraid really worked for me, and Megalopolis totally failed me on every level.
One of those levels which I haven't seen get much attention is its backwards attitude towards women, like in the scene where the Cesar and Cicero argue about which one of them should be allowed to keep the love interest, in a movie released in 2024. Julia gets exactly one scene to be a smart, independent character, and that is when she is catching Cesar's eye, then it's straight to the devoted, supportive spouse with no ideas of her own.
Another one is like, WTF is with the urban planning in this movie? Cesar wipes out a whole neighborhood Robert Moses style, builds his fancy new city there and then says "let's have a conversation about the future?" Motherfucker, how about we talk about what you just did instead? Also, yeah, urban planning would be a lot easier if we all had anti-gravity bubbles to movie people around in instead of cars, but why does the new neighborhood look like a shitty future city from the cover of a 1997 computer game?
The idea that people who protest a neighborhood's destruction are secretly funded and manipulated by elite bankers is also one whose implications trouble me, though Coppola tries to set them up as enemies by throwing some red hats and swastikas in there. The whole thing is profoundly anti-democratic, while wrapping itself in the trappings of caring about democracy (as doctornemo noted above).
posted by whir at 9:58 AM on October 7 [1 favorite]
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posted by queensissy at 6:26 PM on September 28 [4 favorites]