Friday, September 27, 2024

Film Friday: Will the Discourse Around "Megalopolis," Overshadow the Zany Film Itself?

Francis Ford Coppola has created some of the most revered films of all time. I'm talking, "Godfather," "Apocalypse Now," and the like. He's 85 now and still making movies, with, "Megalopolis," getting lots of attention, but not for reasons relating to the movie itself--which is a weird alternate-history sci-fi epic kind of thing, from what I understand of the plot.

All the talk about, "Megalopolis," has focused on the massive budget Coppola sold some of his own winery to secure funds for, how the movie couldn't even find a distributor for a bit because it seemed so strange, and allegations about Coppola being inappropriate plus a trailer that made-up mean quotes about his previous movies to show critics don't, "Get it," when it comes to his work. In regards to that, reviews have ranged from loving the flick to thinking it is an utter disaster. Some folks think it is a bit of both. I mean, the movie is supposed to somehow have a live-action element where a person in the audience asks the character played by Adam Driver a question that he responds to within the movie. How that can work for viewers at home when this hits streaming is something I cannot fathom. 

All the discourse around, "Megalopolis" has overshadowed the question of whether it is worth seeing. It sounds like it isn't going to make much money at all but it could become a cult classic once all the hype dissipates and people look at it as a movie and not a weird media spectacle because it does sound intriguingly strange. I'd watch it if no other reason than there are some solid members of the cast including the aforementioned Adam Driver as well as Aubrey Plaza, Giancarlo Esposito, Grace VanderWaal, Laurence Fishburne, and more. I don't think it'll take too long for, "Megalopolis," to move from theatres to streaming if it bombs as hard as some have predicted. Time will tell what the overall critical and popular consensus ends up being once the metaphorical dust has settled.

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