Elaine Albay

I really wanted to like this movie, and the theme that we must have a societal discussion about utopia resonates with me, but I believe the movie is ultimately harmful to that end. Cultural unity and people power are portrayed only in its most negative light as demagoguery. The movie does not even try to address capitalism. It's obvious that Catalina is Coppola's self-insert, and Catalina explicitly confirms that he is a sociopathic megalomaniac. Julia mostly exists in the movie to be the "muse" that inspires Catalina's mania and creative genius. Catalina's success at the film's resolution supports the narrative that toxic men with these qualities should be forgiven and enabled to do as they like because then it will result in a nebulous "good" that outweighs their toxicity. It makes one wonder: What things has Coppola done that he's justified using this extremely common delusion? It's clear that Coppola's specific delusion is that aspiring for utopia is a virtue in and of itself. It makes you a good person intrinsically. The movie ends with Catalina being given all the money and power in New Rome to create without limits or oversight. That's exactly what he has stated he wants for himself in multiple interviews. That is Coppola's fundamentally flawed answer for how we achieve Utopia. The reason it is so fundamentally flawed in the first place is because he had to mold it around his over 40 years worth of his rationalizations for why he believes it is actually a good thing overall that he is a sociopathic megalomaniac creative genius. He believes that's why he should be given what he wants. The movie says a lot about the kind of person that Coppola is and how little perspective on the world he has. Coppola pretends to ask of us to strive for Utopia , but what he's really asking of us is to agree with his very personal delusions.