Johannes Plambeck

A man's reminiscing of the past contrasted against an anachronistic reversion of society to an earlier time. Strangely telling of times to come.

Can progress save humanity? Is ambition amoral? Megalopolis eschews the Ben Hur Hollywood age in an allegory about civilizational collapse set in a futuristic New York city. it's intentionally whimsical, obtuse and awkward in its dialogue, and psychedelic in its delivery. Francis ford Coppola takes several artistic liberties, verging on the precipice of awkward and out of touch. The film weakly juxtaposes American politics under Donald Trump with the decay of the Roman empire shortly after Marcus Aurelius. The cast is ecclectic and large, giving the audience a sense that the world is larger than the typical insular cast of a Hollywood movie; however, this illusion ends halfway through the film. The dialogue flips between verse and common vernacular without any warning so as to remind the audience that the film is in fact an allegory. While not a groundbreaking film, Coppola paints a vision of a new sort of humanity, but the morally compromised social milieu that it supposedly rises out of is not relatable to anyone, not even the most debauched and rizzed influencers.