‘Megalopolis’ Works Best as an Aubrey Plaza Comedy
One of the most anticipated releases of the fall movie season (that in no way involves renovating a dilapidated Mexican restaurant) is Francis Ford Coppola’s self-financed $120 million epic Megalopolis.
The reviews so far have been largely mixed, and in some cases, downright cruel, which is what seemingly prompted the film’s marketing team to craft an ad campaign hinging on the premise that critics are frequently wrong about Coppola’s work — a strategy that promptly backfired once it was revealed that the catty quotes about films like The Godfather and Apocalypse Now were A.I.-generated fakes.
The film just made its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and, having seen it, I can honestly say, it’s a lot.
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Basically, Megalopolis tells the story of a future where everyone in New York acts like it’s Ancient Rome, but also the 1940s. An architect named Cesar Catalina (Adam Driver) wants to build a utopian city using some kind of snazzy new material called “Megalon” (presumably because “Unobtanium” was already taken). Also he has the ability to literally stop time for some unexplained reason.
Megalopolis is definitely a tough movie to pin down, probably because it feels like 11 different movies crammed into one. It varies between grave seriousness and over-the-top goofiness. At some points it looks like the most beautiful work of cinema you’ve ever seen. At others, it looks as if Hallmark made a Christmas rom-com based on the works of Ayn Rand.
But it’s a tough film to not admire overall, mainly because it’s so unusual and unabashedly earnest. Of all the competing narrative threads, though, I have to say that the only parts that truly, 100 percent worked for me came whenever Aubrey Plaza was on screen.
Despite its penchant for self-seriousness and didacticism, Megalopolis can also be very funny at times. A not insignificant portion of the movie is unabashedly camp, usually in scenes featuring Plaza’s character, the aptly named “Wow Platinum.” Wow, an over-the-top TV host and Cesar’s mistress, feels like a combination of Chris Tucker’s Ruby Rhod from The Fifth Element, and April Ludgate’s occasional alter-ego Janet Snakehole from Parks and Recreation.
Plaza’s one of the best actresses working today, so perhaps it’s not surprising that she was able to lock into the vibe of this movie in a way that not everyone else in the cast quite could. She truly feels like a part of this bizarro neo-Roman future world, and gets to play its extremes for laughs. Which tends to work better than the more dramatic moments. And she even gets to perform magic at one point? I think?
It’s going to be tough to sell Megalopolis to the masses — it’s long, challenging and undeniably wonky. But that’s too bad, because there’s a killer Aubrey Plaza comedy hiding inside of it.
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