Legendary director Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis has premiered in Cannes, allowing critics and guests the first officially reportable look at his $120,000,000 comeback movie – and it’s not like anything you could possibly expect.
An idea that he began developing back in the 1980s, the filmmaker who brought us The Godfather and Apocalypse Now has had some wild swings in his career like One From the Heart.
However, the ambition and plain weirdness of Megalopolis put it in a league of its own.
Anyone for alarming erections, incest and a live-performance element?
Coppola has unsurprisingly attracted a star-studded cast with the likes of Adam Driver, Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Laurence Fishburne and Breaking Bad’s Giancarlo Esposito as the father of Game of Thrones star Nathalie Emmanuel.
Megalopolis is told as a heavily Roman-inspired epic set in an imagined modern America where a genius artist called Cesar Catalina (Driver) seeks to leap into a utopian, idealistic future with his building plans while butting horns with arch-conservative mayor, Franklyn Cicero (Esposito).
Oh yes, and Cesar has the power to stop time, which seems like a whole separate film’s plotline on its own.
Read on for a taste of the wildness in store for viewers of Megalopolis, with small spoilers ahead…
Jon Voight’s 85-year-old erection
Okay, we’ll get the headline stuff out of the way first, without giving too much away. Voight, 85, plays banker Hamilton Crassus III, the richest man in New Rome (Megalopolis’ version of New York).
His wealth and advancing age put him at risk of being manipulated, and his storyline seems to follow more of the expected norms – that is until he’s shown lying ill in bed, with a large protrusion from his groin.
He references his ‘boner’ himself, straining under the sheet, seemingly preening at his ability to still ‘get it up’ with just ‘one glance’ at his wife.
However startling these few seconds of screentime may have been, what comes next is even more of a dangerous surprise.
Shia LaBeouf’s crossdressing, incestuous villain
LaBeouf is a controversial casting choice, but he has burst back on screen here in a way that’s hard to ignore as the high energy, cunning and narcissistic Clodio Pulcher, jealous cousin to Cesar.
His performance is unpredictable, but what is perhaps even more so is Coppola’s decision to have him cross-dress in the role, sporting long hair and oddly arched eyebrows, with no explanation as to why he might want to.
Indeed, the only thing that’s deemed worthy of repeating is his sexual interest in his sister, played by Saturday Night Live’s Chloe Fineman.
And in one rather explicit sex scene, audience members are treated to a view of his public hair in profile.
Adam Driver’s one particularly odd line reading
Being the actor everything is pinned upon is quite an undertaking in a Coppola film, and certainly in Megalopolis.
The Oscar nominee has a lot of extremely dramatic moments to contend with that involve screaming, crying and thrashing around on the floor – and that’s outside of the fact of the film’s sometimes weirdly incongruous sax-heavy soundtrack.
However, one moment that drew laughter from the audience was Driver’s way in which he scathingly references socialite Julia Cicero’s (Emmanuel) habit of partying.
He literally says ‘in da cluuub’ exactly how you think he would have, just by reading my typing.
Apparently 50 Cent’s 2003 chart-topper is quite the inspiration for Driver and Coppola.
The virginity auction
Megalopolis leans in particularly hard to its Roman inspiration when it comes to the women in the movie.
They largely wear draping dresses reminiscent of stolas, as well as corresponding gladiator-style sandals and heels and elaborate curled hairstyles.
And in a film that also includes a chariot race and wrestling among its party events at a celebration, there’s also… a virginity auction.
Former America’s Got Talent and Disney star Grace VanderWaal plays Vesta Sweetwater, a popular youngster who follows the pattern of Rome’s Vestal virgins – priestesses to the goddess of Rome’s scared flame – and is saving herself for marriage.
As she performs a song, the influential crowd is encouraged to pledge money towards her vow of virginity.
Weirdly, it’s not even a fundraiser for anything other than her remaining to not have sex? So kind of creepy.
The convention-breaking live performance
It will be interesting to see how this one is rolled out in cinemas globally once Coppola’s sorted his distribution deals.
During the first Cannes press screening, a man came out onstage to act out a part in the film with Driver.
Yes, there was an intense example of breaking the fourth wall (which got a round of applause for its efforts).
Megalopolis can certainly be screened without this, but Coppola has to be admired for surprising his audience once more with such a convention-breaking move in a film that will already leave many scratching their heads.
Megalopolis premiered at Cannes Film Festival on May 16. A UK release date is yet to be announced.
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