“When we leap into the unknown, we prove we are free,” says trailblazing and controversial urbanist Caesar Catalina (Adam Driver) in Francis Ford Coppola’s long-awaited Megalopolis. As the title itself suggests, this film has the director reflecting on his own megalomaniac tendencies—and Coppola himself certainly leapt into the unknown when he put up $120 million of his own money to finance the movie through the sale of his wine-making empire. The question, then, is whether this Catalina wine mixer sticks the landing, and whether the freedom that Coppola has granted himself translates into something interesting for his audience, too. One thing is clear: This unbridled expression—with the film’s wild kaleidoscopic montages, almost sped-up narrative progression, and bizarre performances—makes Megalopolis a perfect example of the so-called late style some older auteurs adopt (for better or worse) at the end of their careers.
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