Megalopolis is baffling and plainly nuts – but worth it

Its really weird. Its hard to even recommend anyone go see it. I don't think its bad, but its hard to say that its good, its hard to say that its anything except weird, in so many ways. It plays with a dozen different themes interchangeably and intermittently, storylines progress at lightspeed into being forgotten, sometimes for no reason, it seems like all the actors were given the stage notes to forget how to act, but in a way that only a skilled actor could. Mostly, its incredible that it got made at all, its rare to see a movie this weird and expensive get made.

Well. At least it's not more derivative or reboot or "multiverse" stuff. It's new. Something Hollywood forgot how to make during this past decade.

More than a Roman character, Catalina reminded me of "Howard Roark" from The Fountainhead. It's been at least a decade since I last read it, but I thought the movie was quite influenced by that book.

It was one of the worst movies I've ever seen, IMO. It came across like a combination of a high school shakespeare parody and someone retelling The Fountainhead from memory but if they read it five years ago. The story was nonsensical, the message and themes were a muddy mess, the dialog was both stilted and overwrought. Basically the only positive thing I can say about the movie was the costume design was good. I didn't walk out of the theater because I thought I might as well watch to see how they finish up the story: that was a mistake. I should have walked out. You should not see Megalopolis.

in my theater the audience was laughing uproariously at a lot of it (some but not all intended to be funny). then everyone applauded at the end.

The film has too many media meta-narratives surrounding it. It was the subject of op-ed pieces before release. Critics invested their agendas into the film months and years ago. At this point I'm not convinced I can give it a fair viewing. My bias is to like it as a contrarian.

It is normal to project your external experiences and expectations into fiction, but this is something else.

I don't know why the Graeber context is missing from all examinations of this. It's not just a fall of Rome or Ayn Rand story. Graeber's writing was the dominant inspiration (since the rewrites that were turned into what we see today).

Context from Coppola via IG:

> These are 4 books that strongly have influenced @megalopolisfilm and my view of the "society we live in." I offer three by David Graeber and one short story by Herman Hesse.

> To see where I’m coming from, please understand that our family, Homo Sapiens, has been around for 350,000 to 400,000 years. There is much evidence that the last 10,000 years have been under patriarchy (male domination) due to male animal herders from Steppes of Asia and the advent of "the horse." With that unfortunate innovation, men swooped down like something out of a #Kurosawa movie, and began woman-enslavement in particular, slavery, war, caste, plague, and many things we all should agree are terrible. Also, "man" began writing, usually out of the need to record who was entitled to bags of barley and matrimony of various types, to ensure that our heirs were actually our children. Before this period of so-called “civilization” were thousands of years of matriarchy. Unlike patriarchy, women did not necessarily give out orders, but rather things were settled in egalitarian councils led by women, and often with a wise woman giving perspective.

> A wonderful glimpse into that world is in Herman Hesse’s unfinished tetralogy THE GLASS BEAD GAME, which is followed by three short stories, of which I recommend “The Rainmaker”

> #DavidGraeber #HermannHesse

(He completely misunderstands Graeber and Wengrow but his enthusiasm for their work is underrated)

I was super excited to watch it and I wasn’t disappointed, but for entirely different reasons than I expected. The absolute absurdity of the film is genuinely hilarious, I was stifling laughter for most of the runtime for how ridiculous the acting, situations or environments were. It’s like a high budget The Room.

> There is nothing sexier than a megalomaniac architect

I am flattered

--

Does this community have any good insight on this "project and implementation"?

News just in!

# Francis Ford Coppola on Books That Influenced “Megalopolis”

https://www.newyorker.com/books/book-currents/francis-ford-c...

idk, I found the first half baffling but somewhat interesting. The second half ends up being rather dull. Glad I saw it but can't recommend it as it feel more like the movie isn't nuts and experimental but poorly planned and badly edited.

Sounds almost like a fever dreamy Fellini movie. A modern satyricon?

I saw it today and enjoyed it. There were so many similarities between this story and the life I'm living that it was a little uncanny.

In the year 2000, the Internet wasn't as it is today. Most weren't on it, and it was still mostly just a bunch of people talking to each other, not commercial in nature.

Point is, when Battlefield Earth came out, no one really discussed how it was a Scientologist film, certainly not mainstream media, and not the general public. Yet certain corners of the Internet did, and there was all sorts of conspiracy theory style concern thrown around.

Some said that it had subliminal messaging, designed to lure people into scientologist's hands. It didn't have 1st order, or 2nd order level subliminal messages, but deep, deep 5th or 6th order messages, utterly undetectable mental memes that would be unpacked by your unconscious, and lead you deeply into their fold! Post-watch, you'd be primed to clutch your arms around their ideals, and you and yours would be theirs.

Whatever this 5th or 6th level subliminal messaging was supposed to be, or even what this gibberish meant, I wanted no part of it. So when some of my friends went to watch it, I thought of several questions to ask them, prior and post, and cleverly discussed a few topics with them. I was hoping to get a pre-watch view on topics that might be changed, and then get a post-watch view after.

I sort of post-watch interviewed them all, casually asking questions, and detected no real significant deviation. Still, I was uncertain and didn't see it in theatres, where supposedly the surround sound, large screen, and "socially derived, shared audience mega-cues" had the most "devastating impact".

Anyhow. My point is, this movie's descriptions in this post makes me think of that. All this discussion of it being wonderful gibberish has me recoiling in Battlefield Earth horror, my normally inquisitive self is now huddled in fear under a bed of paranoia.

The worst part is, even if I don't see it... well you'll all be changed around me, and now the world is different, regardless. That's how they get you, you see. Even those unvarnished by such machinations, fall prey to a changed society, akin to standing on shifting sand, you follow where the soil takes you.

And yes, I haven't seen Battlefield Earth yet.

I'm ashamed to admit that I paid to see it. I believe that it was made deliberately repulsive. The selection of the ensemble cast consisted of more than a few who usually play antiheroes or unsympathetic/evil characters.

I did laugh out loud at a few lines, and while the theater held about a dozen other patrons, nobody else was into laughing. There were no other reactions. I should've walked out after the first "Wow Platinum" scene, because the final one was disgusting.

"I’d prefer to see something baffling and plainly nuts by Francis Ford Coppola than, say, sit through Dune again."

Glad hen announced hen's taste. Not sure I'll like megalopolis...

It reminded me of Southland Tales.

Not a bad thing

Megalopolis is Calamitus Maximus!