I honestly consider myself a fan of Megalopolis, while the film definitely has its drawbacks you simply have to respect how audacious and unhinged it was and it’s hard to do anything but respect that kind of pure vision. While there’s no debating Frances Ford Coppola is one of the greatest auteurs to grace the silver screen, his reputation as a chaotic director who has pushed the limits of not only himself, but his cast and crew to the edge for the sake of great art has been well documented over the decades. His wife was even responsible for one of the most iconic behind the scenes documentaries – Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse on the making of her husband’s Vietnam magnum opus that almost consumed him. (Both his wife and Laurence Fishburn make appearances in this doc.)
When Megadoc begins, Coppola at 82, and after 40 years of development, is about to put 120 million dollars of his own money, after selling some of his wineries into shooting his dream epic – the ambitious and sweeping American metaphor Megalopolis. This time director Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) would document this herculean effort by the director now in his twilight who had helmed such classics as The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now as he attempts to reach those dizzying heights once again. As we begin the journey with the two week rehearsal process, our primary talking heads who will lead this story come into focus, Coppola – of course, Aubrey Plaza, Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman and strangely enough Shia LaBeouf.
While seeing Coppola’s process is definitely worth the watch alone, it’s the director’s constant verbal sparring with LaBeouf that steals the show. The admittedly persona non grata is transparent as he comes right out of the gate lamenting about how – given his current status in Hollywood, he doesn’t deserve to even be there. While his pseudo-intellectual conversations digging into the art if you will, of filmmaking, are nothing but irritating to those around him – they are fascinating to watch unfold as he uses his time to probe and annoy the hell out of the icons on set. It makes for rather tumultuous relationships with those around him that oddly enough becomes the driving throughline of the film.
That said, my biggest gripe is that while Figgis does his best to capture the creation of Megalopolis, the cameras stop rolling right after the premiere, just when Figgis could have helped offer what most fans will probably want — some context or commentary on its reception from its director. It would have been such a fascinating bookend, to have Coppola address the film’s struggle to find distribution, its bizarre release – that had a live human being interacting with the film in some screenings, and just how he’s re-releasing what he promises is a new cut that leans into the film’s “weirdness”. My lesser gripe would be Adam Driver’s lack of participation in the proceedings, especially since I think his performance in the film was probably the most surprising, delivering some truly bizarre meme-worthy dialog and takes.
The doc does KIND OF explain how the film turned into the surreal fever dream that it is – the two areas highlighted are: the edit, which we don’t see, but given the director’s penchant for asking for numerous outlandish reads on particular takes this seems like the key culprit. This was something puzzled over by candidly by Plaza, that material was indeed crafted; but why was it chosen and assembled in that particular way? Also Coppola’s ever-present indecisiveness, after he fires his production design and visual effects crew due to said inability, he’s like a ship without a rudder with these ambitious ideas he is trying to convey on screen – but he doesn’t know how. With the clock ticking and his own money running out, he opts for quick and dirty burning all the time and money spent on preproduction.
I still have so many questions and I would probably watch a four hour version of this doc if it was offered up. Just because how painfully honest it can be at times to the detriment of almost everyone involved. I mean it makes sense, Frances Ford Coppola taps you for what may be his final film, you’re going to say yes, and you’re going to try to give the director everything he wants, but what if he doesn’t know what he wants that’s a problem. I mean for a film with a studio, you have a kind of oversight that’s willing to step in and make these kinds of decisions. But here that doesn’t exist and you don’t want to step on a director like Coppola’s toes, and that’s what I got from Megadoc. I am now VERY curious about the “weirder” cut now more than ever, because the biggest issue with the film for me personally was the shifts in tone. If it’s consistent throughout, is that better or worse? I guess we’ll soon know, but in the meantime definitely check this out.
