American Zoetrope

‘Megalopolis’ – A Beautiful Mess, and I Liked It

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

So, help me, I liked “Megalopolis.” Francis Ford Coppola’s passion project which has been decades in the making. It was finally unleashed unto the world at large, and the reviews have been incredibly polarizing as audiences were either enthralled or baffled by what they witnessed. it was pretty much considered a box office bomb in advance as studios had no idea of how to promote it, and it debuted with a terrible $4 million gross which looks horrid for a film with a $120 million budget. But while it has been met with the same critical and commercial derision as another Coppola film, “One From The Heart,” was greeted with back in 1982, it shows he has no fear or shame in taking grandiose risks with the material given to him.

Going into “Megalopolis,” I was determined to watch it with as open a mind as possible. Judging from the many Hollywood studios’ collective refusal to promote or market it, I assumed this would be a genre defying motion picture since no executive had a clear idea of how to sell it. I also did not go in expecting something along the lines of “The Godfather” or “Apocalypse Now.” Those classic films were their own things, and this one is quite another.

What I discovered was a cinematic mess, but it’s an enthralling mess with many ideas on its mind and beautiful visuals few other filmmakers could pull off. Seeing it with an audience, some of which did walk out on it, made it all the more entertaining as everyone really got into it, for better or worse. Like Richard Kelly’s “Southland Tales,” I really dug the heedless ambition Coppola brought to this long gestating project, but “Megalopolis” is a bit better as the story is a little more understandable and easier to get the gist of.

The film, which is described as a fable, is set in an alternate version of America where New York City has been rechristened as New Rome. Crime is terrible and poverty is rampant while the rich revel in their decadent desires. Then along comes Cesar Catalina (Adam Driver), a futuristic architect whose invention of the Megalon, a new bio-adaptive building material, offers a great change to the world. His plan is to use it to build a futuristic utopian city of his design. He also has the ability to stop time in its track, which gives no meaning to the term, “time stops for no one.”

But, as Nick Nolte once said at a press conference I attended, “there will always be change and there will always be resistance to change.” The resistance comes from corrupt New Rome Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito) who prefers to keep the status quo the same as it ever was where the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer and like the average New York mayor, Cicero is constantly booed by the citizens he zealously yields power over. Even as the crowds jeer him, he still smiles that big smile of his which makes me wonder if he is ignorant, hopelessly naïve, or just a narcissist.

Now I am sure you guessed it already, but the Roman names are intentional as Coppola is comparing the fall of Rome to what America is going through, and he was influenced by the Catilinarian conspiracy when he wrote the screenplay. That conspiracy involved a coup back in 65 BC when Lucius Sergius Catilina attempted to overthrow the Roman consuls of Marcus Tullius Cicero and Gaius Antonius Hybrida, and forcibly assume control of the state. it is clear both Catalina and Cicero want a measure of power over the citizens of New Rome, and neither will let anything stand in their way in obtaining it.

Another character making a play for political power is Clodio Pulcher (Shia LaBeouf who is especially lively here), Catilina’s resentful cousin who looks to embarrass him in the most unforgettable ways possible. He looks to win the New Rome citizens over by starting a campaign which invites comparisons to the term “Make America Great Again.”

There is a lot more I can tell you about “Megalopolis’” story, but there is honestly enough for several movies here. As a result, watching it once is not nearly enough for me. There are a lot of plot threads which go in various directions, and while some may say this film does not have enough of a center, I think it does. Perhaps it will take some time to put all the pieces together when it comes to this passion project. Or, if Coppola lives long enough, we will get another cut of the film as he likes to fiddle around with his previous works.

Some have expressed fierce criticism over how the actors seem to be acting in different movies here as the performances range from natural to utterly theatrical. Indeed, there are a various number of acting styles clashing with one another here, but I was not really bothered by this. Considering how divided America has become in the past decade or so. We have citizens accepting one reality while others are accepting its polar opposite. As a result, the conflicting styles this motion picture has to offer us made a lot of sense to me.

Adam Driver makes Catilina into an especially compelling character like he always does, Jon Voight does some of his best work in a while as Catalina’s wealthy uncle, Crassus, who has more tricks up his sleeves than the actor would ever be quick to let on. Nathalie Emmanuel, who plays Julia Cicero, Catalina’s love interest and Cicero’s daughter, and does a great job of further emphasizing the intense conflict between the two men.

But if there is a most valuable player to be found in “Megalopolis.” It is Aubrey Plaza who portrays Wow Platinum, a television personality who goes from being Catalina’s mistress to Crassus’ lover and wife as she desires nothing more than money and power, and it becomes crystal clear what she will do to get them. Plaza is given free rein to chew the scenery every which way she likes. there is no forgetting her presence once you walk out of the theater as she revels in portraying such a despicable Lady Macbeth-like character.

What else can I say about “Megalopolis” that I haven’t already? Yes, it is a mess full of ideas which Coppola has spread all over the place, and there are flaws which are quite glaring. Still, it is an infinitely creative piece of work. The visual effects serve the material without overwhelming it, and there is an unforgettable beauty in the color scheme Coppola employs here.

I have no shame in giving “Megalopolis” a positive review. No, it is not Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece (for me, that would be “The Conversation”), but it was great fun seeing the famed filmmaker and winemaker swinging for the stars. He walks a tightrope throughout, taking risks and challenges along which most directors would never do today.

“Megalopolis” is very, very earnest in its designs as Coppola leaves us with a plea for peace and a world which everyone regardless of class and creed can fully benefit from. This may seem like a pipe dream considering how the world is currently tearing itself apart due to religious or ideological differences, but it is a memorable epitaph, should this film be his final work.

And at the very least, we will always have Adam Driver’s unforgettable delivery of “da club.”

* * * ½ out of * * * *

Exclusive Interview with Tye Sheridan on ‘Last Days in the Desert’

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

Credit: François Duhamel / Broad Green Pictures

Continuing my explorations of interviews I have conducted in the past, I came across this one with Tye Sheridan and his performance in “Last Days in the Desert.” Written and directed by Rodrigo Garcia, it focuses on an imagined chapter of when Jesus (played by Ewan McGregor) went on a fasting and praying journey for forty days in the desert. Among the people he encounters on his travels is a character known as The Boy who is portrayed by Sheridan. The Boy is taking care of his ailing mother and building a house for her and his father to live in. But while he is eager to help his parents, he really wants to visit Jerusalem and hopes Jesus can lead the way for him.

I got to talk with Sheridan back in 2015 when he was promoting “Last Days in the Desert.” These days he is best known for playing the young Scott Summers/Cyclops in some of the “X-Men” movies and the lead role in Steven Spielberg’s “Ready Player One.” When I talked with him all those years ago, he was coming off of “The Tree of Life” in which he made his film debut, Jeff Nichols’ “Mud,” “The Stanford Prison Experiment” and “Entertainment” where he played an actor doing an unorthodox clown act.

While talking with Sheridan, I discussed how interesting his resume was in how it led up to him playing his character in “Last Days in the Desert.” We also talked about how he prepared for this role and how his costume helped to inform his performance. In addition, we discussed the challenges of filming in the California desert, and it gave me a strong appreciation of those who have experienced the hottest of summers Texas has to offer.

Please check out this exclusive interview below. “Last Days in the Desert” is now available to own and rent on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital.

‘The Cotton Club Encore’ Gives This Movie The Version it Deserves

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

thecottonclubencore-keyart

For years, Francis Ford Coppola’s 1984 film “The Cotton Club” was upstaged by its behind the scenes drama which included the cold-blooded murder of one of its financiers, Roy Radin. With Coppola teaming up again with producer Robert Evans and writer Mario Puzo, audiences must have been expecting another “Godfather” movie, but what they got was something quite different. Despite some good reviews, the movie proved to be a commercial failure, and far more time has spent documenting all of what went into its nightmarish making to where I am truly surprised Eleanor Coppola has never given us a documentary on it like she did with “Apocalypse Now.”

Now it is 35 years later, and Coppola has given us another version entitled “The Cotton Club Encore.” This version came about after he discovered an old Betamax video copy of his original cut which ran 25 minutes longer. From there, Coppola spent $500,000 of his own money to restore this film, and in the process he added 24 minutes and deleted 13 minutes to give us this new cut which just arrived in select theaters. For the record, I have not seen the original 1984 version, but after watching “The Cotton Club Encore,” I am certain I do not even need to bother as this cut is outstanding and absolutely exhilarating to take in. What seemed deeply flawed in the past now seems almost perfect.

In essence, “The Cotton Club” is about two men trying to navigate the hurdles life keeps throwing at them. One is cornet player Dixie Dwyer (played by Richard Gere) who arrives back in Harlem to see his family which includes his mother Tish (Gwen Verdon in an inspired piece of casting) and his brother Vincent (Nicolas Cage) who looks to be all too enthusiastic about becoming a mobster. After saving the life of gangland kingpin Dutch Schultz (James Remar), Dixie finds himself getting involved in the criminal element which, despite his better judgment, succeeds in elevating his career as a musician to a whole new level. In the process, however, he does make the mistake of falling in love with Dutch’s girlfriend, Vera Cicero (Diane Lane). Suffice to say, romances like these come with bloody endings rather than happy ones.

The other main man in this story is Delbert “Sandman” Williams (Gregory Hines) who, along with his brother Clayton “Clay” Williams (Maurice Hines, Gregory’s brother), get hired to perform at The Cotton Club, a jazz club located in Harlem which featured a roster of black (or African American if you will) performers who sang and danced their hearts out. While there, Delbert becomes infatuated with a singer named Lila Rose Oliver (Lonette McKee) to where he cannot wait to sweep her off her feet. But it doesn’t take long for the cracks to show in his personal and professional life as he gets constantly berated by club management which is intent on reminding him where his place is, and he later makes a decision which threatens to tear him and his brother apart forever.

The Cotton Club was a real club in New York which was open from 1923 to 1940, and while it did feature mostly black performers, no one of color could patronize it and the clientele was white. This irony ended up lasting all the way up this film’s making as the financiers, worried about the long running time, gave Coppola the following notes:

“Film’s too long. Too many black stories. Too much tap dancing. Too many musical numbers.”

Coppola by then was so burned out emotionally from the movie’s production that he acquiesced to the financiers and cut down many of the African-American related scenes to where the focus was more on the gangsters and the Gere/Lane love story. No wonder he sounds so weary when talking today about the changes he made and of how regretful he was about compromising his vision. It also serves as a sad statement of how things in show business did not change much as, even in the 1980’s, African-Americans were still getting the short end of the stick.

With “The Cotton Club Encore,” Coppola has restored much of the African-American storyline, and this is really where the movie is at its best. Seeing these actors and singers perform their hearts out is endlessly thrilling as is the director’s success in transporting us back to the bygone era of the 1930’s. Coppola really does take us back in time to where I felt like I lived through this era which brought with it great music, good and bad times, violence and, among other things, a stock market crash. Heaven forbid we ever go through anything like that crash again, huh?

One of the big treats of all though is watching Gregory Hines and his brother Maurice dance the night away. Both are extraordinary tap dancers, and the love they had for performing is on display throughout as they make their moves look like a piece of cake. Seeing Gregory here serves as a strong reminder of what an incredibly talented and gifted artist he was, and it is also especially bittersweet as he has long since left the land of the living. He was only 57 years old when he passed away after a battle with liver cancer, and he is still missed.

Indeed, this bittersweet feeling threatened to overwhelm me at times as “The Cotton Club Encore” features a number of actors who have since died like Bob Hoskins who portrays the ruthless club owner Owney Madden, and Fred Gwynne as his right-hand man, Frenchy Demange. The scene these two actors have together following a hostage situation is classic, and is another reminder of the talent we have lost over the years.

Another tremendous performance to be found in “The Cotton Club” comes from Lonette McKee, an actress I first became familiar with in “Brewster’s Millions.” With this new cut, Coppola has gone out of his way to restore her showstopping number of “Stormy Weather,” and watching her belt it out left me speechless. She doesn’t just sing the song, she lives through it, and it is an emotionally draining moment I still think about. It is one thing for a singer to hit all the right notes, and it is another to really perform it to where you are giving the most vulnerable performance imaginable, and McKee pulls this off beautifully.

The movie’s other main story of an illicit love affair had me worried for a bit as this tale has been told countless times on stage and screen to where we feel like we know how it will go. Regardless, it still proves to be enthralling in its own way. While it is easily upstaged by the African-American story, it is still fun to see Richard Gere and Diane Lane mix up as they prove to have a palpable chemistry which they would build on years later when they starred in Adrian Lyne’s “Unfaithful.” While it is a little weird to hear Gere’s Bronx accent at first, he quickly reminds us why he is such a magnetic leading man, and he proves to be quite the coronet player as well.

The only real problem I had with “The Cotton Club,” and this is probably the case with either version, is there are too many plot threads which meander, some of which fail to reach a fulfilling conclusion. Despite his efforts, Coppola is unable to manage these various threads to where everything fits into a cohesive whole. At times, it almost made me wish he cut more out of this version as things might have flowed better as a result. And yes, there is that fake head (you will know it when you see it) which proves to be as fake as the baby in “American Sniper.” Perhaps some CGI magic could have helped with it.

Still, when all is said and done, “The Cotton Club Encore” proves to be a stunning achievement as Coppola has finally given this film the version it truly deserves. While he may have come onto this project as a hired hand at first, it is clear to me he really fell in love with the subject matter and took joy in recreating a historical period which deserves far more than a passing glance.

It has been a big year for Coppola as he has announced plans to make his dream project “Megalopolis” a cinematic reality, and he also gave us another version of one of his classics with “Apocalypse Now: Final Cut.” With “The Cotton Club Encore,” he has righted the wrongs he made in the past, and he can now pat himself on the back instead of moan over the mistakes he made over 30 years ago. More importantly, this movie is no longer upstaged by its production stories and can now be appreciated on its own terms.

Relax Francis, you did great!

* * * * out of * * * *