Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Religious Music and Entertainment
Megalopolis, or the Old Man’s Fever Dream

Megalopolis, or the Old Man’s Fever Dream

Last updated on: October 7, 2024 at 2:32 pm by Chase Padusniak

0 Comments

Megalopolis, or the Old Man’s Fever Dream 2024-10-07T14:32:05-04:00 Chase Padusniak

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Cicero Denouncing Catiline (1912) by Hans Werner Schmidt.
Public Domain.

There is no getting around it: Megalopolis (2024) is an elderly man’s fever dream. Its psychedelic transitions, flat dialogue, bizarre acting, and milquetoast politics polymerize into a whole both mysteriously personal and entirely legible. It is a fable set in faux-contemporary New York with “Make New Rome Great Again” signs and superficial invocations of the Catilinarian Conspiracy. Characters have names like “Cicero” and “Crassus.” Signs for the New York Stock Exchange are still visible. Yet, none of these allusions go anywhere. They mean something to Coppola, something about utopia and the hope for a better future, the need to never give up. But what precisely? He has bothered to stage Cicero and references to Vestal virginity. But the plot, insomuch as it exists, is little more than a debased, futuristic Romeo and Juliet. It never quite comes together; almost everyone but my wife and I walked out of our screening.

Take, for instance, the early scene in which Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel), daughter of the mayor of New Rome, quotes Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha while Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver) momentarily holds the book up in front of the camera. It’s never mentioned again. Or consider that Cesar, as we learn from the first frame of the movie, can freeze time. Is this ability ever used to advance the plot? Does it have any role in the tension generated by the characters and their relationships? No. As best I can recall, Cesar uses the power once: to demonstrate that Julia’s love has healed him, has, in effect, raised his self-esteem.

The film’s self-presentation is saturated with theatricality. Characters give stylized readings of lines like “my Emersonian mind.” The mayor and Cesar argue as they give a press conference atop tall walkways, set high above some warehouse floor, filled with paparazzi. Each scene feels quite consciously staged, as, when, for example, Cesar’s rabble-rousing cousin (and a Trump analogue) rapidly whips into a frenzy a crowd of discontented, impoverished New Romans. It all happens so fast. They seem almost to be waiting for him; they are a potential mob, just waiting to be made whole.

Megalopolis never does anything with its Roman evocations. Cicero’s daughter marries a kind of tech-enamored idealist version of Caesar and Catiline, mixed into one. Psychedelic translations hold the whole thing together, which, when we consider how disjointed it feels otherwise, might be the one moment in which form and content come together during its two-hour-plus runtime.

Some of this bizarreness may be traceable to Coppola’s behavior on set, which actors report was erratic and at times even creepy. He would alter locations at the last minute, seemingly throwing the schedule out the window. Of course, Coppola has wanted to make this film since the 1970s. One could read at least some of his oddity as perfectionism—emphasis on “some.”

In any case, the term that keeps coming up among critics and viewers alike is “mess.” Even when people wish to speak of it positively (and here I am guilty too), they resort to the kinds of hedging language that always betray failure: Megalopolis is a “glorious mess.” That sort of thing. We all, whether we like it or not, understand that it is not, strictly or straightforwardly speaking, “good.”

Although I must confess I did enjoy the film. I really, honest to God, did. That may sound completely irrational given what I’ve said above. But what makes it worthwhile is much more ephemeral than what is so obviously wrong. Some moments, like when Crassus (Jon Voight) pretends the bow hidden beneath a blanket, is his “boner” only to turn it on his enemies, are genuinely funny. Others made me laugh, whether Coppola meant them to or not (“My name is Frank. Not like Franco. Like Francis”). The bizarre transitions do, at times, create a sense of foreboding and horror, often in juxtaposition with moments of hilarity. Megalopolis’s tonal variety is an asset; it makes for fun viewing, never knowing where you’ll go next. The fissures produce a ridiculousness that is a reward all its own.

And I do think there is more to it: the theatricality, the idea of Roman Republican aristocrats as a mixture of civic caretakers and unbelievable hedonists reflects the reality of class compositions far more than typical representations (in which they are glorious and selfless as opposed to the debased and materialistic elites of the empire). There’s always a glimpse of an idea, some notion of some greater idea, just out of view, even in the more absurd scenes. I think it only fair to ponder these ideas more. Coppola has made something wonderful here, a film both personal and superficial, deep and depraved in its shallowness.

Perhaps a re-watch is in order…

Catholic

Religious Art

Previous Post

September 24, 2024

Empire Records: At the Heart of Gen X

Next Post

October 7, 2024 The Exorcist: If Evil's Real, Then What?

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"Do The Right Thing was a terrible movie, with a terrible message, a man owns ..."

Frank Holzhauser

Do the Right Thing: What Can ..."

"NOT the experience of those who actually lived through those years. Let's not forget that.Too ..."

captcrisis

54: Let the Good Times Roll

"Your accurate assessment of where the Blockbuster and the studios have ended up reminded me ..."

Dave G.

Jaws: Ad Fontes

"Another Dementia experience: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkbxNibXiLx_ak8IuhZiutd2Fxe7_KAon&si=VhOYNUIBV3CTlyDf"

Ame

Dementia: Silent Nightmare

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Academia Culture Politics Reviews Theology Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 July 2021 December 2020 November 2020 July 2020 May 2020 April 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 August 2019 July 2019 April 2019 March 2019 December 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: Deborah was a prophetess and judge who led Israel to victory over the Canaanites.

Select your answer to see how you score.

FALSE TRUE