Review: Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Megalopolis’ is confounding but not boring

This year has brought us two fascinating, if flawed, films from directors who have staked their large personal fortunes in order to fund their passion projects.

First there was Kevin Costner’s (ongoing) throwback Western “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1″ and now, Francis Ford Coppola’s long-marinating cinematic experiment “Megalopolis,” funded by $120 million from his popular wine empire. While Costner grapples with the past, and Coppola the future, both films attempt to say something about the present, and reveal ways in which the filmmakers are mired in old ways of thinking.

With “Megalopolis,” where to even begin?

It’s the story of a daring, misunderstood genius, Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver), who seeks to create a utopia called Megalopolis, with his proprietary shape-shifting matter, Megalon. Set in a New York City avatar called “New Rome,” “Megalopolis” has everything: time travel, pop divas, circus weddings, an array of Coppola family members, a weird sense you’re watching a “Batman” movie, Aubrey Plaza stealing the show as a character named Wow Platinum and an interactive theatrical element.

This interactive element is a concept that Coppola has been toying with for years, and unfortunately, it won’t be at every screening of “Megalopolis.” But the much-touted gimmick involves a live actor in the theater coming out to ask Cesar a question at a press conference, which the character answers (this section will be edited into the film where the live element is not available). It’s a bit overhyped, but Coppola certainly gets points for even attempting it.

These Brechtian elements are threaded throughout the sprawling, discombobulated “Megalopolis,” with the intent to draw attention to the political message that Coppola hopes to impart.

He uses the allegory of ancient Rome and the fall of the empire coupled with familiar fascistic imagery in order to draw parallels to our contemporary moment. Shia LaBeouf plays Clodio Pulcher, the gender-bending, hard-partying fail-son of banking magnate Hamilton Crassus III (Jon Voight). Attempting to wrest power from his cousin Cesar, Clodio cosplays as a populist, fomenting unrest and rising to political prominence.

But for all his nods to the theater, Coppola gives his protagonist, Cesar, the uncanny ability to stop time, an inherently cinematic quality. Caught up in political turmoil over the development of Megalopolis, and the grief over losing his first wife, the stress causes Cesar to lose this power, until the true love and support of his new lover, Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel) restores it.

Performances range from high camp (Plaza) to sincerely self-serious (Driver), and the tone is all over the place, as is the narrative. While the experience of watching “Megalopolis” is confounding, it’s never boring. Visually, the film alternates between looking like a generic car commercial and an art deco sci-fi fantasy. The dialogue is either cartoonishly overwrought or hilariously lowbrow, and the film swings wildly between these various poles at a dizzying pace.

There are spots of brilliance though from Plaza’s outrageous performance to some stunningly gorgeous, if often narratively incoherent montages. Coppola still has the touch when it comes to crafting bravura cinematic moments, even though he never fully lets us be swept away by fantasy, returning always to thuddingly portentous and yet vague messaging time and again.

Yet there is something so distinctly human about this flawed endeavor. At a time when the existence of personal art is threatened by artificial intelligence, you simply have to hand it to the man to deliver something this boldly idiosyncratic, and ultimately, deeply earnest.

So raise a glass of Coppola red wine, in a toast to his sheer madness, or to make the experience more tolerable. Either one will do.

2 stars out of 4

Rated: R for sexual content, nudity, language and violence.

Where: In theaters Friday