In a futuristic New York known as New Rome, visionary architect Cesar Catilina dreams of building "Megalopolis," a utopian city that redefines society’s limits. Opposing him is the corrupt Mayor Franklyn Cicero, who clings to power and profit. Between them stands Julia, the mayor’s daughter, whose love for Cesar forces her to choose between loyalty, ambition, and the fate of humanity.
Holy shit this is so bad. Watching this feels like being confronted with a 100 million dollar conquest to waste your time in the most annoying way possible. Only the ultimate blood sacrifice can restore Francis Ford's dignity. It's futile to engage in this film's theoretical idiosyncrasies. One must reject the meta premise: as Mark Fisher has put it, it's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism; Francis Ford has managed to waste 40 years of his life to come up with a "radically" new society and all it has to offer are shiny airport escalators?? I couldn't but think of the old Renaissance masters, who often painted commissioned work. On the other hand we have this self-financed - free - abomination. Perhaps art is indeed most free when it has to subvert and negate ideological guardrails? Devoid of any constraints this film just presents incoherent chaos. Francis Ford's film is a testament to hopelessness. Can we not at least imagine a shred of negatio
