On Art and Legacy

It's Meta, and sometimes it's Mega

Articles about Megalopolis have been flooding my feed lately, but I'd intentionally avoided the drama surrounding the film.

I knew the basics:

• Coppola passion project

• $120 million of his own money invested

• Critics calling it a "confusing mess"

• Box office returns expected to be poor

Just the sort of thing I figured I’d like. And when someone like Coppola puts his whole artistic integrity and financial fortune on the line for a project, the least I could do is give him a few bucks and a few hours of my time.

Megalopolis was playing at my local IMAX for just one week, so I bought a ticket and saw it last Thursday.

I liked it.

I liked it a lot, in fact, although I'm still processing why.

Yes, it's messy and sometimes incoherent. But for this type of film, I give creators wide latitude as long as they're not beating me over the head with gimmicks (looking at you, Everything Everywhere All At Once and The Substance). I'm willing to dive into the fever dream and absorb what they're showing me.

I admit there was probably some bias going in. I expected to have to relax and let the movie lead me, based on the little I had heard about it. Maybe this deference allowed me to be more open to the "mess." Perhaps I should extend such grace to more films and directors.

Megalopolis told a traditional story with a message I could follow. Despite its length, it never dragged. I was entranced throughout, and aside from a couple of odd edits, the chaotic visuals and Coppola's storytelling style didn't pull me out of the experience.

I'm eager to see it again, but it's leaving theaters this week and my schedule's packed. Looks like I'll be waiting for the 4K Blu-ray. UPDATE: I actually decided to postpone seeing My Old Ass tomorrow, and am seeing Megalopolis again.

The weekend box office looks bleak. I'd hoped for better based on word-of-mouth, but I guess I'm in a bubble when it comes to this film. Maybe no one cares about it as much as I thought they would.

ScreenRant reported it took in under $5 million in three days.

Yikes.

In a nod to how irritating the analytical component of the conversation about this movie and Coppola has been, the Screenrant article concluded with a ridiculous section suggesting the 85-year-old legendary director's “career may suffer from [this] risky movie.”

That’s right, folks. Eighty-freaking-five year old legendary directory, Francis Ford Coppola - CAREER IN JEOPARDY!!

Really? I guess that’s a take.

I think he was probably more worried back when his studio folded than with the box office returns on this film.

Coppola will be fine and will find funding for his next project, if he decides to make one. I just feel bad he likely won't live to see the eventual reappraisal of Megalopolis. As with most misunderstood works of art, I'm confident it will happen.

I’m not saying I have some grand intellectual capacity to understand everything in the film, but I do remember feeling the same when I emerged from David Lynch's "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me" in the early ‘90s. Everyone I saw it with hated it, and the critics absolutely blasted it.

I loved it. I felt it. It hit me hard. And, it took decades for that film to find the respect it deserves.

Megalopolis didn’t hit me on that level, but I do think it’s being unfairly piled upon and that it will eventually find its audience and advocates.

It’s probably just going to take a while. I should set a timer for 2044 and see if the 20th anniversary produces a flood of positive articles and a re-analysis of where the film places in Coppola’s body of work.

I am still reflecting on why I enjoyed Megalopolis so much, yet often take issue with other grandiose, "swing for the fences" artistic works. I'm clearly not a trusted voice on art - I only know what I like and respect. I was wrong about Everything Everywhere All At Once, after all, given the number of Oscars it was awarded, and I’m probably also wrong about The Substance, as I’m sure it will pick up an Oscar or two as well.

Anyway, I'm rambling.

Bottom line, if you think you might be at all interested in seeing this confused, wonderful mess of a passion project from a long-respected director, and you can get to a theater this week, go see Megalopolis.

If you want more of an actual review of the film itself, I think this video covers it really well. His Megalopolis thoughts start at 39:05.