Megalopolis review: a ‘desperately portentous’ and self-indulgent dud

It’s been 40 years since Francis Ford Coppola became hooked on the idea of making an epic sci-fi film, drawing parallels between modern America and ancient Rome. He had just finished “Apocalypse Now” and was anxious to follow it up with a similarly ambitious movie, said Justin Chang in The New Yorker. But the project was scuppered by “the critical and commercial failure of ‘One from the Heart’ in 1982”; then a series of “personal and professional crises kept it on the backburner for decades”. 

Now, finally, “Megalopolis” is here – financed by Coppola himself, who sold off part of his wine business to foot the $120m bill. And the film (which had its premiere at Cannes last week, but has yet to get a UK release date) is a “breathtaking and sometimes exasperating singularity”.