I overheard the same question before and after seeing Megalopolis: What the hell is Megalopolis about?

In press for the film, director Francis Ford Coppola, of Apocalypse Now and The Godfather fame, has spoken at length about Megalopolis being a wake-up call for audiences to take up arms for the future of cinema and society as a whole — a bold act of optimism that envisions a road to utopia. But the film, out in theaters this week, is, in actuality, about history, and specifically about Coppola’s personal past.

The 150-minute fever dream of philosophy, politics, and Shia LaBeouf’s mullet isn’t subtle. Characters with names like Cesar Cataline and Wow Platinum deliver countless exhaustive monologues about the power of art, the calcification of bureaucracy, and the need for great, all-inclusive debates about the future. At one point, the antagonist delivers a speech from a tree stump that’s been sculpted into a swastika.

There’s nothing “sub” about the subtext here. It’s as blunt as a chain letter forwarded from your grandfather. And yet, all of these screeds are far more interesting and digestible than the sizable amount of........

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