Coppola’s ‘Megalopolis’ is a wild fever dream of excess and idealism

Giancarlo Esposito as Mayor Cicero in a scene from “Megalopolis.”

If anything is clear about “Megalopolis,” it’s that Francis Ford Coppola has a lot on his mind.

The legendary filmmaker spent decades on this Roman-style epic, set in the present day, about a civilization on the brink of collapse. A wealthy and powerful few of the old guard are running the gilded city of New Rome into the ground, a new generation is embroiled in a stalemate of a culture war between hedonists and puritans and a visionary architect caught in the middle is dreaming up a different future.

But none of that captures the wild experience of actually watching “Megalopolis,” a sprawling, operatic, clumsy and fascinating film that should inspire discussions for many years to come.

“Megalopolis” is not a disaster, but it’s far from a success. It’s a bacchanalia that’s bursting with so many ideas, so many characters, so many great lines and truly terrible ones as well that it’s nearly impossible to digest in a single, baffling viewing.

If there is a center to this story it’s Adam Driver’s Cesar Catilina, an artist who can stop time and who believes that a substance called Megalon, a shimmering people mover that can be used to make a translucent (but not naked) dress or reconstruct a face mangled by a gunshot, is the way to a utopia. Driver is a great actor who is utterly misused here as a grief-stricken, alcoholic, “Hamlet”-quoting megalomaniac aristocrat who spends his days in an art deco ivory tower (the Chrysler Building) fretting about time and what the corrupt Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito) is doing to the city.

We’re supposed to believe that Cesar is a widely desired catch who would attract the mayor’s beautiful daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel) to his side. But Kylo Ren had more charisma than Cesar.

It’s hard to stress just how much there is stuffed into two hours and 18 minutes. Shia LaBeouf is Clodio Pulcher, the rich kid son of Crassus, who has Mae West eyebrows and long feral hair. He is in love with Julia, jealous of Cesar and may be having an incestuous relationship with his party girl socialite sister Clodia (Chloe Fineman). He attempts his own political bid, preying on the city’s desperate peasant class. Laurence Fishburne is Cesar’s driver (and the narrator of the film). Dustin Hoffman is a fixer. Jason Schwartzman is around (and delightful, as always). There’s a pop star named Vesta Sweetwater (Grace VanderWaal) who has taken a virginity pledge. Even Romy Mars plays a teen reporter!

“Megalopolis” shines brightest with its crafts, including Milena Canonero’s decadent Roman-inspired frocks, Osvaldo Golijov’s sweeping, romantic score and Mihai Mălaimare Jr.’s golden cinematography that makes the feast of the production design glow lovingly.

But this is a film that I can only in good conscience recommend fully to cinephiles, who were most certainly going to see it regardless. It’s Coppola’s first in 13 years, after all.

Coppola is an artist whose films sometimes take time to find their place in audiences’ hearts and minds. No one understands that as pointedly as he does. Whether or not there’s a drastic reappraisal somewhere down the line, “Megalopolis” will forever be a fascination. LINDSEY BAHR, MDT/AP Film Writer

“Megalopolis,” a Lionsgate release in theaters Friday, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for “sexual content, nudity, drug use, language and some violence.” Running time: 138 minutes. ⭑⭑⭑⭑