Platinum.

To take a cue from one of the main characters-- Aubrey Plaza in a fitting role for someone known for her eccentricity --was Megalopolis either a "Wow!" moviegoing experience and/or a "Platinum" achievement of a master Director?

This review will contain only a few, mild spoilers.

In my opinion, Francis Ford Coppola has indeed accomplished something, and it's far greater than the 52% positive rating currently trending here on TMDB. In the spirit of the film's unconventional nature, I'm going to start with my own rating, rather than end with it.

7 out of 10.

Megalopolis (2024) has in many places-- the set design, the clothing, even the general mood --the feel of a 1940s-era potboiler. But, it is set in the near-future, New Rome, to be exact, really a cover of New York City (the present-day Statue of Liberty is featured).

In the most reductionist terms, Megalopolis could be considered a mashup of Sydney Lumet's Network (1976) and Tinto Brass's Caligula (1979) (without all the copious nudity, but plenty of revealing costumes).

But again, that's a reduction. Megalopolis is so much more.

In several places in the film, written Latin is featured, and is even spoken at one point between the Mayor-- played by the ever-fascinating Giancarlo Esposito, as fastidious as ever --and his daughter, played by Nathalie Emmanuel. The inclusion of this "dead tongue" has been criticized by some critics of Megalopolis as one of many elements that feed into its pretentiousness, but it's an unfair critique. It seems clear that Latin is the secondary, lingua franca of the futuristic City, and this does not seem unreasonable, considering that there is a present-day movement (as yet unsuccessful) in Europe to make Latin the common communicative language of the Continent, rather than English.

Megalopolis is, at its nature, episodic, disjointed, and sprawling. I am being completely serious when I say, if one were to watch this completely high, it would probably easily rate a 10 out of 10.

I give Coppola credit for completing this vision, in the works in some form or other for 40 years or so (although the vast majority of filming was much more recent).

Would that we could all fund a passion-project out of massive personal wealth, contemporary expectations and the negativity of critics be damned.

I, for one, enjoyed Megalopolis a lot more than I thought I would.