Film Forum

U.S., 2024
Written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Starring Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza
Approx. 138 min.

“MEGALOPOLIS is equal parts STAR WARS prequel and MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA (1929). It’s Dario Argento’s DRACULA 3D (2012) and it’s Fellini’s SATYRICON (1969). More than anything else, it’s SOUTHLAND TALES, Richard Kelly’s 2006 head-scratcher of a follow-up to DONNIE DARKO (2001), but with less of Philip K. Dick’s DNA and more of Ayn Rand’s. It exists in conversation with APOCALYPSE NOW (1979), and it ends with a revised version of the pledge of allegiance being recited by a chorus of children. It’s a challenge to discuss it without bringing up a laundry list of cinematic reference points because, in the cubist tradition, it seems to break apart and rearrange over 100 years of film history into something completely baffling and new.” – Chicago Reader

Reviews

“After a thirteen-year absence, a great American director returns with an ambitious vision of a city—and a world—in need of renewal.”
– Justin Chang, The New Yorker

“In the end, what matters is the movie, a brash, often beautiful, sometimes clotted, nakedly personal testament. It’s a little nuts, but our movies could use more craziness, more passion, feeling and nerve.”
– Manohla Dargis, The New York Times