Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis collected divisive reactions as soon as it premiered on the festival circuit. Many were already giving their impressions about how his ambition and passion couldn’t quite land in the execution of his vision. It even became a marketing point early on as the studio tried to get ahead of the bad word-of-mouth by giving the perspective that the film is already ahead of its time. However, that marketing ploy would then suffer its own controversy when it was revealed that the critic quotes that were used in the trailer (in order to show how his past regarded works were subject of their own scrutiny) were actually manifested. The film is now out and has had a disastrous showing at the box office and while one review gave it a perfect rating of five-stars, it comes from Coppola himself. ScreenRant now reports on the reactions of the film from other notable directors.
Spike Lee stated, “My brother continues to amaze me and his fearlessness, like he’s going to do what he has to do to get it done. Bottom line.” Spike Jonze would react by saying, “I’m still smiling from it. Radical. I’ve never seen anything like it. I remember hearing about it but never could have imagined what it came to be. There was so much I loved about it, but the tone was the thing that got most under my skin. It was funny and alive and electric and made the world and ideas so vivid. The performances Francis created with the actors and the details of the world… I laughed out loud the whole time. The play and surrealism and joy of creating. It’s incredible that he’s been thinking and working on it as long as he has but it still felt of today, about now and the world we are both in and careening towards.”
Guillermo Del Toro glowed about the film and said, “Francis is still the same bold, fearless, inventive filmmaker that he was in his 20’s. I was Swept by Megalopolis!” And finally, Steven Soderbergh reacted, “WOW! This might be the craziest thing ever shot on American soil. Certainly, one of the most sustained acts of pure imagination I’ve ever seen. I dreamt about it all night—it was inspiring!”
Our EIC, Chris Bumbray, kept an open mind and the film still couldn’t resonate with him as he hoped, saying in his review, “In the last forty minutes, Megalopolis becomes a real disaster, with so much jam-packed into the movie’s third act that it becomes almost impossible to keep up with it. It becomes nonsensical as it races towards its ending. Again, one can’t fault Coppola for his ambition. He financed the movie with money he earned, so he had every right to make exactly the film he wanted to make. But it’s hard to imagine this ever connecting with anyone other than hardcore Coppola devotees or maybe connoisseurs of bad cinema.”