Megalopolis, Short Takes on some other cinematic topics
Roamin’ Around in New Rome
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative. However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, but better options are on the horizon. (Note: Anything in bold blue below [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)
My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)
HAPPY THANKSGIVING! (I hope)
As this cartoon indicates, the supposed intentions of American Thanksgiving at times can barely hide the horrible schisms haunting our culture ever since those first undocumented immigrants arrived on our shores, but maybe for at least part of one day this week we can put our conflicts aside in a pursuit of higher callings the protagonist of this week’s film hopes to find within our better angels.
11/28/2024: A few hours ago when I first attempted to post these comments for my regular intrusion into your life, I couldn't get into Google Blogspot at all, nor could I find any help in solving this problem so I posted a possible Two Guys in the Dark farewell on Facebook and LinkedIn. Later, I stumbled onto a link that allowed me into my blog so I'm posting this week's review after all. Hopefully, the problem's solved and I'll be back on a regular basis, but if not, I'll say adios and aloha!
Here’s the trailer:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size;
activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
Across the roughly 110 years of Hollywood-based feature-cinema there have been many directors who had long, illustrious careers (some of them still working today), remembered for many accomplishments as years rolled on—people like Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Capra, John Ford, William Wyler, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee—but there have also been famous filmmakers with indelible marks on the medium even though their most-celebrated-work came somewhat early on with later releases not garnering the kind of critical acclaim drawn by their initial triumphs. Despite his ongoing fame in both the filmic and wine industries, Coppola fits this description because his 1970s triumphs (co-screenwriter of Patton [Franklin J. Schaffner, 1970], director of The Godfather [1972], The Godfather Part II [1974], The Conversation [1974], Apocalypse Now [1979]), which won him 5 Oscars (see this site for full credits of his career up to now) led to little such praise for his later work, although he was Oscar-nominated for the critically-disputed The Godfather Part III (1990) as a Best Picture producer and Best Director.* What really mattered to him for decades after that early fame, though, was to activate the story set as a warning about America’s future, which has finally emerged as Megalopolis, even though he had to sell a big chunk of his wine holdings to finance this production, then had to further absorb some marketing costs when he finally found a distributor, Lionsgate, after a mixed reception while competing for the top prize Palme d’Or at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, even as the OCCU has been unsupportive (Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews at 45%, plus Metacritic's unusually higher (not by much) 55% average score.
*Just like Coppola, famed filmmaker Orson Welles found few successes as his career tailed off considerably after his astonishing debut feature of Citizen Kane (1941), which reigned for 50 years (starting in 1962) as #1 on the All-Time Top 100 as determined by an international survey of film critics conducted by Sight & Sound magazine. However, Welles’ last great release, Touch of Evil (1958), found the sort of recognition and personal satisfaction Coppola’s seeking too with Megalopolis, even partially with the ’58 studio-edited original version, then fully with an after-the-fact “director’s cut” (1998; Welles died 1985), based on Welles’ 58-page memo detailing all his intentions.
In keeping with my COVID concerns about sharing auditoriums with large crowds, I’ve continued to stay away from theaters since this film’s domestic (U.S.-Canada) opening on September 27, 2024 (looks like my concern is ill-founded as it’s made only $7.6 million since then [$13.7 million worldwide]),** but it’s now come to streaming so I rented it from Apple TV+ for $19.99 (also available from Amazon Prime Video, same price, but Jeff Bezos gets enough of our business as is for other purchases [plus I’m still pissed at him for blocking The Washington Post’s endorsement of Kamala Harris for President for whatever Trump-fears he may have had]), watched it last weekend. So, with all of this background (footnotes too) on the film in focus this week, why, you ask, haven’t I started reviewing it yet; there are 2 reasons for that: (1) It’s a convoluted plot with a lot of characters and activities, difficult to address, and (2) when I saw it I’d had less than ideal sleep the 2 previous nights (car and refrigerator repairs), along with a nice dinner and a couple of tasty beverages, so I wasn’t as lucid as I might have been. Yet, as I try to write these streaming-based-reviews as if I’ve seen the film in a theater only once (with some Internet help, no matter what) I’ve had to carry on here with foggy memory and notes, so just bear with me as I try to navigate this most complex story.
**After debuting in 1,854 venues it dropped off the Box Office Mojo chart a month later, although it’s still playing in 1 place in the boondocks of my San Francisco Bay Area. I learned about it being found in streaming by watching a recent interview with Coppola on CBS TV’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as the host quickly mentioned the streaming option. Thanks, Stephen; very helpful!
Coppola has somewhat based Megalopolis on the ancient 63 BCE Catillinian conspiracy,*** which ultimately led to the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. If you need more plot details and explanations than I’m providing, you can consult this informative site and/or this probing video (11:59) to help you out. In Coppola’s film I get the impression old Rome collapsed but was replaced (if I understood this correctly) with New Rome in what we call North America, with its capital—somewhat modeled on New York City—also called New Rome (in the 21st century). As with the old Empire, the elite are corrupt, there’s lots of hedonism within the city, most of the citizens are poor, and power struggles are constant (there are also chariot races in Madison Square Garden). Idealist architect Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver) has grand plans for building an Eden-like city called Megalopolis, using a fabulous building material he invented, Megalon (won him a Nobel Prize)—he also has the mysterious power to stop time, which he does occasionally, freezing everyone else. Years earlier his wife disappeared, he was prosecuted for her murder by District Attorney Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), was acquitted. Cicero’s now mayor of New Rome still acting as Catilina’s antagonist, who mourns for his wife, driving away his jealous lover, TV personality Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza). Instead of Megalopolis, Cicero wants a massive casino to fill the city’s coffers. Cicero’s daughter, Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel), finds herself attracted to Catilina, even can move when he stops time, then when he loses his power he regains it when she joins with him; soon they’re joined as lovers. Wow marries Cesar’s elderly uncle Hamilton Crassus III (Jon Voight), the world’s richest man, but his other nephew, Clodio Pulcher (Shia LaBeouf), wants to push Cesar out of the way so he releases a video of his cousin having sex with supposed-teenager Vesta Sweetwater (Grace VanderWaal) until Julia has proof Vesta is in her 20s.
***Here are a few highlights about this ancient event to help note parallels with Coppola’s film. In 63 BCE the Roman Empire circled the Mediterranean Sea from what we call Spain through parts of the Middle East into North Africa’s deserts, but it suffered from debt, inner corruption, unemployment with no solutions from the Roman Senate. A year earlier, Lucius Sirgis Catiline, a near-bankrupt aristocrat, competed with Marcus Tullius Cicero—orator, statesman, philosopher, poet—for 1 of the 2 ruling positions of Consul, which Cicero won (irrelevant Gaius Antonius Hybrida got the other post); Catiline was charged with extortion but acquitted, still there were rumors he’d killed his wife and son. Due to a situation of rebellion, Catiline was to be executed, tried to escape, died. Julius Caesar became dictator in 49 BCE, with Cicero making an enemy of Mark Antony who had him beheaded in 43 BCE after Caesar’s assassination (44 BCE), leading to several centuries of Caesar Emperors until the Western Roman Empire collapsed (Eastern Roman Empire continued for many centuries).
⇒The old Soviet Union’s still operational in this story as one of its satellites crashes into New Rome destroying much of the city, so Catilina begins building Megalopolis, with Clodio becoming a fascist demagogue, stirring up the massive poor against this project, resulting in an attempt to kill Catilina but surgeons repair his skull with Megalon. Crassus retaliates, killing Wow, injuring Clodio. Then Catilina makes peace with Cicero, the former winning over the rioting crowd who turn instead on Clodio. Megalopolis is completed, Catilina and Julia have a baby, Sunny Hope, who’s unaffected when Mom stops time on New Year’s Eve.⇐ There’s truly a lot to attempt to keep up with here, especially if (like me) you don’t come into it with an awareness of the Catillian conspiracy, although even if you were so forewarned I’d wager you’d still have some trouble keeping track of all the characters, their various ambitions and deceits, and whether the ending is a viable alternative to what’s come before, as much as I’d like to think a dedicated-optimist such as Cesar, purely through oratory (including quoting some of Shakespeare’s epic Hamlet [c.1599-1601]), could lead both his enemies and the general population into sharing his utopian vision of a better future for New Rome (and the U.S.A. for that matter). Those concerns aside, the screen presences of many of the cast, especially Driver, Esposito, and Emmanuel, are powerful while the majestic imagery-collection of cinematography and art direction is stunning. Not enough for the larger critical community, but there are some passionate defenders, including my local cinematic guru, the San Francisco Chronicle’s Mick LaSalle, who counters his colleagues’ rejections with: “In terms of both artistry and audacity, ‘Megalopolis’ qualifies as the biggest thing that happened in cinema this year. […] ‘Megalopolis’ is not a conventional movie that makes you wonder what’s going to happen next. It’s a spectacle and a provocation that makes you marvel at what is going on in the moment. […] Coppola has done something new. If he did something new at 45, he’d deserve praise. At 85, he deserves praise and awe. [¶] If ‘Megalopolis’ is his last movie, I’ve never seen a better exit." A minority opinion, but wow!
Maybe if I see it again (I probably will at some point, coughing up another 20 bucks) I could be that enthusiastic—despite my admiration for Coppola’s larger body of work—but for now let’s just say I was fascinated by it, couldn’t always follow the whos and whats of the various scenes, wish more had been incorporated about that time-stoppage situation, yet I do agree this is cinematic ambition at its finest (even if the result is negotiable, even as aspects of it call to mind our current U.S. political situation) so if you’re intrigued enough by all of this to gamble on a viewing of Megalopolis I think at the very least you’ll rarely see something like it again. OK, enough babble, let’s call a halt to this epistle with my usual finale of a Musical Metaphor, which this time will be Bob Dylan’s “When I Paint My Masterpiece” (you’ll find slightly different versions of it on different albums; I first heard it on 1971’s Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Vol. II [although I don’t think it was ever a hit]) at https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=qWfaSle5sIs—this version’s from 2013’s The Bootleg Series Vol. 10: Another Self Portrait (1968-1971)—but his frequent collaborators, The Band, also put it on their 1971 Cahoots album so, just for comparison, here’s Dylan with them from a 1972 concert. It was difficult for me to find any one song that could address all that Coppola has woven into Megalopolis (Interested to see what he thinks about his own long-gestated-creation? If so, here’s an interview with him), but this one makes specific references to the old Rome that fuels New Rome, implying the fallen grandeur of the old, looking forward to the triumph of the new: “Oh, the streets of Rome are filled with rubble / Ancient footprints are everywhere / You can almost think that you’re seein’ double / On a cold, dark night by the Spanish Stairs / […] Someday, everything is gonna sound like a rhapsody / When I paint my masterpiece.” Is this film what Coppola sees as his “masterpiece”? Ultimately, it’s up to us to answer that in our own perspectives, no matter what’s in his self-analysis. (If you do watch, keep an eye out for minor roles for Coppola relatives Talia Shire and her son, Jason Schwartzman, along with other big-screen idols ,such as Laurence Fishburne and Dustin Hoffman.)
SHORT TAKES
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
Some options for your consideration: (1) Beatles '64 review, documentary available on Disney+ on November 29, 2024; (2) Wicked: Part One's records on opening weekend; (3) The possible "Trump Effect" on the 2025 Oscars; and (4) 5 reasons why Wicked: Part One could win Best Picture Oscar next spring (I do very much look forward to seeing it, may have to visit a theater;
this site also has Variety’s current predictions for all of the upcoming Oscar category nominees).
We encourage you to visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviews for our past posts* (scroll to the bottom of this Summary page to see additional info about your wacky critic, Ken Burke, along with contact info and a great retrospective song list). Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage. If you’d like to Like us on Facebook (yes?) please visit our Facebook page. We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it unto us! Please also note that to Post a Comment below about our reviews you need to have either a Google account (which you can easily get at https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount if you need to sign up) or other sign-in identification from the pull-down menu below before you preview or post. You can also leave comments at our Facebook page, although you may have to somehow register with us there in order to comment (FB procedures: frequently perplexing mysteries for us aged farts).
*Please ignore previous warnings about a “dead link” to our Summary page because the problem’s been manually fixed so that all postings since July 11, 2013 now have the proper functioning link.
If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here at the blog please
use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work.
OUR POSTINGS PROBABLY LOOK BEST ON THE MOST CURRENT VERSIONS OF MAC OS AND THE SAFARI WEB BROWSER (although Google Chrome usually is decent also); OTHERWISE, BE FOREWARNED THE LAYOUT MAY SEEM MESSY AT TIMES.
Finally, for the data-oriented among you, Google stats say over the past month the total unique hits at this site were 3,779—a huge drop-off from the marvelous 40-50K of some recent months; never overestimate yourself! (As always, we thank all of you for your ongoing support with our hopes you’ll continue to be regular readers.) Below is a snapshot of where those responses have come from within the previous week (with appreciation for the unspecified “Others” also visiting Two Guys’ site):
0 Response to "Megalopolis, Short Takes on some other cinematic topics"
Posting Komentar