Playing in Theaters
Creative freedom is virtually impossible in the Hollywood system and likely always has been. Even the most prestigious and accomplished filmmakers, who have proven successful in the past, are as susceptible to the whims of studio executives and shareholders as everyone else within the Hollywood system. While it can be possible to deliver an unusual and fascinating creative vision using Hollywood assets, it often comes at a terrible price on the filmmaker's part.
This is why legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola decided to independently finance his passion project, Megalopolis, entirely on his own (apparently going so far as to sell part of his winery), allowing himself total creative freedom to bring his unadulterated vision to life, because the sad truth is that no studio on Earth would even consider investing in this particular project.
This film is many things, most valid and too numerous to list in this review. Suffice it to say that I don't think I have ever seen anything like this movie in a long time. I can't say it's for everyone, nor does it have a coherent story; it is a waking, sometimes confusing, but ultimately satisfying dream that asks a lot from the audience. It may be a bit full of itself occasionally, and there may be too many instances of disorientation, but at no point during the film did I ever feel entirely lost. Uncertain, maybe, but not lost.
The film does not call for a summary of the plot or story because, as I've alluded to before, there isn't really a plot or story. Yes, there are distinct characters who are doing things and have what feels like meaningful interactions with each other, but the reason for any of it isn't quite as clear-cut as conventional wisdom might prefer.
Rather than go over the details of the plot/story, allow me instead to list the many things this film reminded me of during my viewing:
Fritz Lang's Metropolis from 1927
Julie Taymor's Titus
Elmer Rice's The Adding Machine
Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead
Terry Guilliam's Brazil
Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey
I, Claudius
Most of the works of William Shakespeare
Cloud Atlas
German Expressionism
Dream Logic
I suddenly forgot what I was talking about!
This short list of previous works and feelings best summarizes my experience with this fascinatingly unusual experience of a film. If any of the things I listed are as appealing to you as they are to me, this film will be as unusually fascinating to you as it was to me.
Megalopolis is a film made for a singular audience with limited appeal that will somehow speak more volumes to the right-minded kind of people it deserves to be seen by and will sadly fade away into obscurity, only to be discussed and favored by the true believers who still believe in artistic integrity and rejects the confines demanded by the Hollywood system. Yes, this film is not for everyone, but I wholeheartedly suspect it will hit with the right kind of audience; my kind of audience!
We are not a dying breed; this is our time to show up and show off! The Godfather of Cinema has just made it so!
Ladies & gentlemen, I am TheNorm; thank you all for reading.
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