33/40
The city of New Rome faces the duel between Cesar Catilina, a brilliant artist in favor of a Utopian future, and the greedy mayor Franklyn Cicero. Between them is Julia Cicero, with her loyalty divided between her father and her beloved.. Francis Ford Coppola wrote the script in the early 1980s, but the film was kept on the back-burner partially due to his financial debts. Pre-production finally began in 2001 after filming 30 hours of second unit footage and holding table read with Paul Newman, Uma Thurman, Robert De Niro, James Gandolfini, Nicolas Cage, Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Edie Falco, and Kevin Spacey, but the project was scrapped after the September 11 attacks, because a scene from the script (page 166) "predicted" the attacks. Coppola fully abandoned the project in 2007, and didn't begin developing it again until 2019.. At 40:12, the tool in Catilina's hand changes color without him moving.. Cesar Catilina: *You* wanna help me?Julia Cicero: Yeah. And, well, I… well, I want to learn.Cesar Catilina: And you think one year of… medical school entitles you to plow through the riches of my Emersonian mind?Julia Cicero: Entitles me?Cesar Catilina: Yes.Julia Cicero: [scoffs] Entitles me?Cesar Catilina: Yeees!Julia Cicero: Entitles me?Cesar Catilina: YEEEEEES!Julia Cicero: You have no idea about me! You think I am nothing, just a socialite?Cesar Catilina: No, not nothing, but I reserve my time for people who can think. About science. And literature, and… architecture and art. You find me cruel, selfish and unfeeling? I am. I work without caring what happens to either of us. So go back to the cluuuub, bare it all, and stalk the kind of people that you enjoy.Julia Cicero: Fine! I will.Cesar Catilina: Come back when you have more time!. The "Ultimate IMAX Experience" version of the film features a live actor asking questions during the filmed press conference.. Featured in Amanda the Jedi Show: MEGALOPOLIS is my Nightmare | Explained (2024). My PledgeWritten by Grace VanderWaalPerformed by Grace VanderWaalCourtesy of Columbia RecordsBy arrangement with Sony Music EntertainmentProduced and Orchestrated by Kris Kukul. It's the huge go for broke swing everyone said it was, and an immensely interesting mess. For everything that works in Megalopolis, there's something that doesn't. Parts are very creative and unlike anything else, and then long stretches pass that are utterly boring. It's 138 minutes long but feels like it exceeds the three-hour mark. Whether that makes it feel appropriately epic or too often dull will probably depend on the viewer.It's also the kind of movie where I'm not sure overanalyzing will help. Coppola is trying to say so much in one film, and a good part of it comes out nonsensical as a result. There were a few points during the film where I wondered if it was all some practical joke. It might mean a lot to him, or maybe only parts do and the rest of the time, he's laughing at us.Somehow, all at once, I'm disappointed, exhausted, confused, and impressed. There's a certain balance here with the entertaining and boring. Visuals that look striking alongside parts that are visually garish. It's a movie that film buffs will argue about and remember while 99% of the population will continue to live their lives in blissful ignorance of its existence.I can't quite decide whether it would be better to have be among the blissful many or the baffled 1%. I can offer no advice to anyone else who's considering giving it 138 minutes of their finite time. I'm glad I saw it and I also feel it was a bit of a waste of time.. From Alien: Romulus to Road House, take a look back at some of our favorite posters of 2024.