The GoodTrash Bois return to the Garbage Chute to talk about the highly anticipated new feature from New Hollywood Godfather Francis Ford Coppola, Megalopolis. Following a storied trek through development hell, persistent production problems, and tribulations finding distribution, the movie finally arrived thanks to Lionsgate. But, was the final product worth all of the heartache and hard time? Dalton, Dustin, and Arthur sit down to discuss their thoughts regarding Megalopolis. Tune in now, and then let us know your thoughts: goodtrashgenrecast@gmail.com
GoodTrash GenreCast
Megalopolis (2024): Garbage Chute Review
The GoodTrash Bois return to the Garbage Chute to talk about the highly anticipated new feature from New Hollywood Godfather Francis Ford Coppola, Megalopolis. Following a storied trek through development hell, persistent production problems, and tribulations finding distribution, the movie finally arrived thanks to Lionsgate. But, was the final product worth all of the heartache and hard time? Dalton, Dustin, and Arthur sit down to discuss their thoughts regarding Megalopolis. Tune in now, and then let us know your thoughts: goodtrashgenrecast@gmail.com
- Broadcast on:
- 29 Sep 2024
- Audio Format:
- other
(upbeat rock music) Hello everybody and welcome back to The Garbage Shoot, a bonus series dedicated to delivering reviews on the newest flicks and theaters and non-streaming. The garbage shoot is presented by your good trash family and often a guest host of some variety, but not today. Today, the three good boys of good trash went to see the epic new release from the Godfather of the New Hollywood, Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis. - I'm Arthur Gordon. - I'm Dustin Sells. - And I am Dalton Stewart. - That's right. We're gonna be discussing the epic new masterpiece from the Godfather and director of Jack. - Megalopolis. (laughing) - A man truly who contains multitudes. - Yeah, so this is a review show. We may do some slight analysis. We'll see what happens, and we try to unravel this thing, this text, if you will, in doing that, we will let you know what we think about it, and if you should spend your time watching this two hour and 20 minute movie. I'm gonna start with a little rundown of the movie and some production history, and then we will begin going around giving you reviews. Does that sound good, gang? - Sure, perfect. - Cool, everybody's slightly on board. Megalopolis is a Roman epic set in an imagined modern America. The city of New Rome must change, causing conflict between Caesar Catalina, a genius artist who seeks to leap into a utopian, idealistic future, and his opposition, Mayor Franklin Cicero, who remains committed to a regressive status quo, perpetuating greed, special interests, and partisan warfare, torn between them as socialite, Julius Cicero, the mayor's daughter, whose love for Caesar has divided her loyalties, forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves. After decades of development and finally production, Megalopolis premiered at Con in May of 2024, in competition for the Palm Door, a month later Lionsgate acquired domestic distribution for the film, the road to Megalopolis is paved with rumored conflicts during production, the refuse from Coppola's wine company, and questions of artistry production in the future of cinema. The movie is rated R for sexual content, nudity, drug use, language, and some violence. It runs 138 minutes, and we now gather at this table to try and parse through what some might call a masterpiece, and what others might co- dismiss as the ramblings of an old man. Dalton, I go to you first. What do you think of Megalopolis? - I mean, what more can you say about a film that's sitting at a 2.8 on letterbox, to some a masterpiece? Angel to some demon to others, you know? - It excites to show you. - It excites to show you Francis Fort Coppola has in his dirty little puzzle box of fuck stories. Boy, if you've ever been annoyed at an audience or an author surrogate who gets laid a lot, you're going to hate this one. God, the confessions of a wife guy. Oh, Lord, oh, Francis, we get it. You thought you were quite the looker in your day or whatever. Yeah, I don't know. I am more leaning towards ramblings of a mad man, you know, grandpa's rant at Thanksgiving dinner, but that doesn't mean it's not interesting, and that doesn't mean it's not worth your time. I think it is, never again, shall we see it's like, you know? Truly one of the last of the new Hollywood, the now old new Hollywood guys, you know, maybe the last sort of gargantuan auteur blank check. Well, I mean, literally he had to start a successful business and sell it to finance this film. So again, it just feels so monumental, historic, you know, of note, right, however much you wanna gussy it up and it feels of note. So yeah, I think it's really exciting, even when it's kind of a slog. Yeah, for the first hour, I was pretty much locked in. I was like, where are you going with this, Frank? Like, what is this? And then we kind of resolve this big circus set piece with a lot of moving parts, both like plot mechanics-wise, but also just like set piece-wise. And that for me is where the movie peaks. It has a few delights sprinkled throughout the back half, but that kind of midpoint is really where the film reaches. It's heights as far as both like entertainment and like philosophical interest. From there, it does become about how we must let the great men of the world save our children. And, you know, if you've been listening to the stuff we've put out for 12 years, you know, that kind of sentiment doesn't really fly with us over here. So it's frustrating as as often as it is really, really thought-provoking. Dustin, what do you think? Nope. There are pretty moments. And that's about all I can say for it. It is too confused. There are too many cooks in the kitchen inside of Francis Ford Coppola's head. And there are too many things. He can't think of master to serve, yeah. Yeah, just, you know, we've got to explore. I mean, I'm all for a multi-layered, multi-level sort of conversation in a movie so long as you are executing. This is multi-layered, multi-leveled, and we never get anywhere. But, Dustin, once we start having those conversations, that basically is a utopia. No, no, I agree. I don't think so. No, I mean, you have to propose solutions. I mean, the problem with post-modernism is deconstruction great, but then what do we do? And this is one of those things in which this thing fails. It does deconstruct, you know, colligula. It does deconstruct some of the Godfather even. It does deconstruct Metropolis. It does do that, but then it doesn't get me anywhere. And why? Very, very frustrating. There are moments of it where we've got nods to Shakespeare, we've got nods to Vertigo, we've got nods to a number of other movies, The Phantom of the Opera and what have you. And then I dig all of that kind of pastiche, kind of referential sort of homages that the movie is wanting to do, but get me somewhere for the love of everything. No, I never get on board. I'm bored the whole time, I guess is what I should say. - Wow. - Yeah, never, I mean-- - Not once. - Not for a minute. Not for a minute. I mean, I would much rather talk about the panel before the movie than the movie. - Wow. - Which was in presentation-- - Oh, that one, no, I agree. That was better. - Problematic. And also just, you know, at least it's a disaster. This movie is also, I mean, it is a failure in many ways, but I prefer a failure when I know what you're reaching for. And I never get a real good sense of that other than I think Steve Jobs is supposed to save us. - Yeah. - Which gave me this weird kind of like, the way in which it, you know, is playing with the sort of metropolis energy. It gives me a strange sort of, and Rand vibe, despite being anti-Trump. - Yeah, it becomes, becomes objectivist on accident almost. Yeah, I kind of had the same takeaway, which I don't think is what it's going for, but what else could you, a brilliant man finally builds a perfect city when people stop getting in his freaking way? - Right. - Like, what else would you call that? - Yeah, I'm with you, Dustin. I'm frustrated by that. I guess I just find the road much more interesting to walk. Are there, are you between us? Are you on either end of our poles? Are you beyond either one of us even? - No, I'm deciding much closer to Dustin on this one. I just, I think, you know, looking back at the synopsis, which I pulled from the official megalopolis website from, I guess, Lionsgate? I don't know who made that website, but even there, you can tell there's no clear direction on what this plot is. It tells us there's a conflict between Caesar and Cicero, and there's-- - Also the conflict with the cousin, yeah. - But, I mean, the cousin's not mentioned here, but this is a movie that, to Dustin's point, feels like about 400 half-baked ideas, and none of them got finished up. You know, I walked out of the theater and I still don't know what the movie's supposed to be about. I don't know what the narrative threat is in this movie, other than Cicero wants to build, or Caesar wants to build, and Cicero does it, but maybe he does, but John Voigt's, I thought it wasn't gonna be a bad guy, but maybe isn't, and I don't know if-- - It is, actually, but makes a good decision. - Right, and has comically the funniest film weapon of all time, maybe? - Yes, he's hysterical. - So, Zaini's a weird word for this movie. It's a movie where every actor is in a different movie, none of them are in the same thing. - I think, I wanna watch the movie Dustin Hoffman's in, though. - I don't wanna watch any movie Dustin Hoffman's in, found most parts of Dustin Hoffman being in this, like, he was the least certain. I thought-- - Oh, you're gonna hate our Dustin Hoffman marathon. - That was great. - I can't wait to have fun with Tootsie. I thought Aubrey Plaza and Shia LaBeouf were, like, the most locked into the fable, and sort of, like, understanding the arch-ness. - I don't know that I like Aubrey here. - Interesting, I think she's great. - She has moments, I think, as Shias, that's the star. - I like Shias. - I like Shias. - Yeah, Shias is the star of this movie. - It's dinner, yeah, one A and one B for me, I guess. What kind of, in the same ball? - At times, Driver's trying to be in that movie with Shias, but he's not. - Go back to the club. - I don't think John Voigt's funny here, he just likes to have lost the entire time. I mean, he is, like, 90 or whatever. - Well, that's kinda how I feel about Hoffman. I feel like all the elderly actors are fully to have no idea what their thing is. - I don't think they do, and again, I think it's a script issue, and then-- - I don't think he could explain to people, yeah. - With Adam Driver's character, Cesar, like, I still don't know if he was supposed to be a good guy or not. Like, I'm obviously the protagonist, but-- - I think that's by design? - Maybe, but I think it's a problem, 'cause I don't know if I'm supposed to be rooting for him, or what anybody's motivations are, or why can he spend time but not do anything with it, like-- - Yeah. - Like, I don't know. I think it is very cool to be able to say, I saw a new Francis Ford Coppola movie in theaters, and it was a pretty packed auditorium with a lot of young people who will hopefully be inspired to write, talk, make movies. Like, I appreciate that sentiment, and that's, you know, Sanford, I don't share that on the letterbox of, maybe this would inspire somebody to do something better and bigger, and I think that's cool. But it is, you know, and I think it is a kind of moment where Lionsgate has sort of distanced himself, they've kind of put this in a place where it probably won't do anything in awards season, and-- But it does also feel like they're allowing Coppola to kind of have a moment with it, and so I can appreciate that, but, you know, he is of that new Hollywood, the one whose career didn't go the same sort of way as Corsese, or even DiPama, who had a bit more consistent career, or Spielberg, or-- He probably had the highest high, you know? He'd be surely. That run of Godfather, Godfather II apocalypse now is insane. I mean, and I don't like one of those movies-- Coppola is the worst in the world of the new Hollywood. That's a good way to put it, you know. Has crazy early, you know, like young-- Not average, Wonder Kid, Wonder Kid stuff. That's more long-term successful, I think, than Wells. The thing that Coppola is really good at is adapting a screenplay. He needs rails. I mean, the one-two punch of Outsiders and Rumble Fish is like, I thought it was movies rock. Yeah, and the Godfather, you know, which is also an adapted screen tray. Like, that's just, and Patton, he wins an Academy Award for. He wrote that. Oh, yeah! Oh, really? Yeah. I totally forgot about that. Yeah, yeah. He has a pretty rough '90s, you know? He does Rainmaker, which is fine. Mm-hmm, and another adaptation. Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack. Yeah. Yeah, what is this, but, yeah, I think Megalopolis-- I don't know, man, I was so antsy. Interesting. Like, 20 minutes in, like, let's go, let's do something. I'm not feeling this. I think it's just too unfocused, too uncertain, and too unfinished, you know. And it's, you know, I think there's a documentary about this, maybe being made, or coming out at some point, and, you know, tracking the production history of this. I think it's-- I call it Farts of Darkness. Maybe-- That's really good. That's funny. Farts of Darkness. Really good. Thank you. Yeah, so I was pretty out on it, pretty cool. I was-- that holds Dustin, like, the next day. I was like, you know, there were several moments in there. I was, like, we could have just left of him and watched the substance instead. A lot of the same ground is covered more interestingly and more effectively in the substance. Honestly, it's just a more interesting movie. I think I'm the whole-- Yeah, this is-- You know, in a runtime, similar sort of a tour, like, statement about society, yeah. And, you know, I think trying to shoehorn it into-- I mean, obviously, the political stuff's there. Pretty heavy-handedly, I think. But, you know, the conversation of a meta-film, you know, of this artist who's kind of being rejected by the traditional system is, you know, a huge part of Coppola's career. And I think that kind of is interesting. But I just wish it was focused. I wish there was a story. I wish there was a narrative. And I wish he could do something with his time manipulation, which is such a weird thing to introduce. I like a convoluted plot. I like-- I like an intricate plot. I like a complex plot. It just-- it fails to satisfy. Oh, it's so loose. Yeah, if you're-- you got to decide you don't care about the narrative of this one early, I think. Yeah, it's not-- I mean-- Which, again, like I said, for the first hour, it's doing so much like, don't forget this person. Don't forget this person. Like, it's doing so much like reminding you what people's deal is that it truly takes an hour for any kind of momentum to get started. And so that's why I think maybe I was locked in, was I was just like, kind of having fun with the world and getting to know people. But I agree. Yeah, I mean, even I, who am defending it a little bit with much more gusto than either of you, I kind of felt the slog, especially in sort of the back half of the second act, because we're trying to, like, you know-- I don't know, try to stay spoiler free. But like, Caesar's dark night of the soul, let's say. It's a bad shit happens to him. And that whole sequence is a fart speaking of Dustin. Yeah, it's just-- it's nothing. It does not come together at all. But then you get a sequence, like, 20 minutes earlier, where he's driving through the ruins of Atlantic City. And we've got all the, like, the statue of Justice, like, leaning-- There's some cool moments. There's some cool moments. There's cool moments, yeah. Yeah, well, there's some fun shots at the-- maybe it's at the carnival, but we get some of those, like, really fun, like, drivers, like, tripping moments. Yes, it's fun. There's, like, some cool sequences. There's some pretty shots. And there's some pretty moments in it. And some fun visual, like, that opening of him about to-- there's a walk on the crisis. Yeah, he's cool. And really sets up something. And I was-- you know, I'm really curious. I was kind of doing some reading about this. I guess at some screenings, there's, like, an interactive element with, like-- We had him. We had him. They didn't get the mic working. I saw him. I saw him enter the theater with his mic stand and, like, try to get going, and it didn't work. Yeah, this was, like, an interactive engagement of, like, a poster at MC or saying a line and then driver responding to it or something like that. Yeah, yeah. And so, like, cool. Drenched. Yeah, what is this? Yeah, that had been fun. But I guess that's what happened to Canada. Well, we had-- We had festivals, and then, yeah, let me tell you this. We had some production-- Yeah, perfect action issues. If I had bought a ticket to this, I would have been live at 15 minutes into this Q&A, because it was constantly dropping the live stream. Yeah, and the volume was cranked to about 400 on the overture, as we waited for it to start. Like, there's just some bad exhibition work from Regal. Oh, yeah. No, Regal is not taking good care of that IMAX. I'm trying to get him at all. Yeah, it was-- I would be so mad if I'd paid to see this, because I'm sure-- I mean, you paid, or-- Yeah, I paid. I don't know. When they came in and apologized and said, you know, it's an IMAX corporate issue and there's nothing we can do but the movie will play without a hitch, I was like, all right, well-- That's truly all I wanted was to be reassured that I could watch the fucking movie without issue. Without issue. Now, was it really disappointing for us to lose the Q&A feed? Riotus Spike Lee was asking Francis a question about black and brown people and that we just missed? Yeah, I mean, I mean, the sound our auditorium made was incredible every time the buffering happened, but on that one in particular, it was just like, oh, just like, a noise I couldn't even begin to articulate to you, listener. It was so many different reactions all at once to this question getting teeted up. And then we come back to an answer in progress, and it's just Francis Ford Coppola talking for way too long about how much he loves the Haitian people. Oh, guys, yeah, we should take it here. It's Q&A corner, finally. Dustin's right. It's so much more entertaining than the movie. You've got to find this Q&A online from the New York Film Festival, it's deranged, it's so funny. Yeah, yeah, there's just so many little things of the moderator asking a question to Bobby and then-- so it's Coppola Robert De Niro Spike Lee is the panel. And this moderator, as asking De Niro a question, and then we get a 20-minute answer from Coppola. De Niro, I think, is asleep the entire time until-- Until-- See, here's how I read. I read that he was stewing. I thought he was pissed that Francis answered for him-- Oh, oh, yeah. Until I just think-- I don't know. Bobby, just in interviews, he always just-- I've seen him on other things, like roasts or whatever. And he always just kind of seems-- Checked out? Yeah. And so he's-- I don't know. He's earned it. I guess. He's like 78. And he's like so docile until the political read comes in. And he just comes out of his seat, which is funny, because the question was about the future of the technology of cinema or whatever. And then everybody kind of takes it a different direction. It's funny, though. Yeah. It's so funny. Yeah, Bobby was waiting for his chance to talk shit on Trump. Yeah. And he went for it. You think Donald Trump can make a lot plus? I don't think so. It's incredible. You're telling your friend he couldn't make your movie. Yeah, duh, obviously. He's never tried to make a movie. I don't think it could make a two-and-a-half-hour-long epic fable that doesn't make any sense. Well, that's the thing about a fable, right? If fables does have a moral at the end. That's sort of a big problem. The fable is doing a lot of hand-waving as far as, like, don't worry about logistics. Don't worry about, like, reality. But then there is no, like, ultimate, like-- it's weird because he's shopped this movie around for 40 years, which has allowed him to get to a point where in a Q&A, he can kind of sum up how he feels about the movie, and like, it's ultimate messaging pretty succinctly. The film does not. Yeah, and the Q&A, because it was so rambling, it sort of set me up to expect a rambling movie. I wonder if I would have felt better, given it more goodwill starting out. Going in, Fred. If I hadn't had the panel. Interesting, I wonder. I just don't know. You know, look, was it three older gentlemen saying a bunch of goofy bullshit? Absolutely. Yes. I also kept whispering under my breath, "King shit." So I have to admire the audacity of these guys. Sure. Just as artists I appreciate, and who's work has been a lot to me, growing as a film lover, it was like deranged rich guy nonsense. From the start of the Q&A, till the credits rolled on Megalopolis to be clear. I mean, this is the movie of a man who's been rich since he was 30 years old. Like, this guy just, I think you're so right to bring up Metropolis Dustin and just sort of this question of like, great men saving society, which is weird because this is also a film where we see like Caesar's notebook sometimes, right? And so that's kind of how we get a window in a Caesar's worldview. And he has a sketch of a tree named Homo Sapien. And a branch off of the tree Homo Sapien is called Civilization. And all the branches off the civilization are war and slavery and poverty. And it's like, OK, cool. Yeah, that's a fun idea. But you got to, bro, you got to do something if you're saying the agrarian revolution was a mistake. Yeah, that's awesome, but you have to follow that through. I mean, Civilization also gives us like poetry, right? Yeah, I mean, like, yeah, you could make the argument that maybe we would have made better art if we just kept, you know, tending to wild dogs. You got it, like, try to make an argument of some kind. As Dustin said, this is a fable with no moral, no message. Other than, damn, isn't Adam Driver cool and can literally get any old man's movie made at this point? It seems like he has some sort of good luck charm. Yeah, yeah. I mean, between this, Ferrari, Menelimanchia, to a lesser extent, and Annette. Leocra, like, not sort of in the same ballpark as Terry Gillian, for instance, Fort Copola, Michael Mann. But still, like, an autor who was struggling to get another movie made. The work was got. You know, scup it. Yeah, yeah. So I don't know. Is there any for you two, I guess, what all say is? Do you guys, like, even recommend this movie to people? I think people who like and care about movies should go see this because there's nothing like it. But do you guys think that this is fully a weight? I would-- I mean, I wouldn't advise any-- I mean, the people who are going to-- I would advise to see this going to see it anyway. Yeah. So I, you know, for the common folk, now I don't-- I wouldn't put somebody through this. I wouldn't recommend it to anybody I know. I would, but I know I would do that risking them getting really mad at me. Yeah. But I can live with that. That's how I feel. Watch Bram Stoker's Dracula. I would-- you would be better served watching Rumble Fish and Bram Stoker's Dracula. Those are low key, his two best late period movies. And to my mind, maybe his two best movies is a weird thing. I still like the godfather, and I still like Apocalypse Now. Well, and I've never seen Apocalypse Now all the way through start to finish. Oh, well, it's a big blind spot for me. Godfather, I need to revisit. I like well enough. But I just-- I don't know. The expressionism of Rumble Fish, the sort of crazy map paintings of Dracula, they're both just so overblown in the artistry. And that's what I like about them. Same. I think the only one kind of caveat on this is that I don't know how many more, if any, couple of movies we're going to get. Oh, this is the last one, for sure. So there's something in the film history about it, right? I mean, I don't want to see that. And so if that's the thing you care about, maybe go watch it. But I mean, again, if you're asking me if somebody should pay to see this movie, I would say no. Well, it's sad for it to be a last, because I think about the other side of the wind from Wells that we watched this year, last year. This year, which is a movie I really like. And it's got ideas and is doing some stuff. And this doesn't feel like that. Yeah, that's a similarly shaggy film that is much more successful, for sure. And who's to say, 10 years, we may all look back on Megalopolis is something of note. My friend, Abe, gave five stars, loved it, was locked in the whole time. So there are people who are, like I said, it's got a 2.8 on Letterbox. The star rating distribution is bananas. Some of us, even across the board. Yeah, people are having all kinds of different reactions to this, which is, I guess, why I would ultimately come down on the side of, if you're more than a casual. Now, to your guys' point, like casual moviegoers who are like, get out, get a sitter twice a year, and not this one, they wanna go to Top Gun 2 and Deadpool and Wolverine. Yeah, this is not for you. But yeah, anybody beyond that, I'd say it's worth your time just to like, 'cause there's nothing, it's just so stupid. It has to be seen to be believed, I guess is my argument. But I think you guys are fair to say like, it's also kind of a slog, and maybe not for everybody. Well, I think Dalton brings up the best point that, hey, go make an opinion for yourself. There you go. You go watch this movie, if you want, if you do have the spare change laying around that you wanna catch it, go catch it. Formulate a thought about it, and then you can let us know about that. You can do that over at goodtrashaunacast@gmail.com. You can keep up with us on Instagram @goodtrashmedia. We're all on Letterbox, social medias in some form. He's Dustin Sells, he's Dalton Stewart, I'm Arthur Gordon. This was our conversation over Megalopolis. Like, subscribe, rate, do all that fun stuff. You can head over to patreon.com/gtm if you wanna help us keep the lights on. We thank you for tuning into this. It is a heavy movie season, so I would anticipate a lot more coming down the shoot in the next few weeks. And so we've already, this is the third one this week. We've Dalton and our good friends over at the Cinematic Schematic discussed Rebel Ridge from Jeremy Songye on Netflix. You can watch that right now if you have a Netflix subscription. Dalton and our friend Kirsten Thurkelson discussed the substance. I tagged in at the very end for a couple of minutes on that one, and so you can go hear our thoughts there. And then, of course, Megalopolis. And who's to say what's coming down the pike? Because it's that time of year where we're gonna be watching as many movies as possible in our free time and trying to talk about it. So if you wanna see me in full, Sweatytooth Madman mode, Nick Sanford and I recorded a right out of the theater's reactions over at Birth Movies Death. Or, no, I'm sorry, that's a now defunct publication. Death by Movies. This is a little early title, Death by Movies. Yeah, we did like 45 minutes on just trying to figure out why our brains were on fire. It was, yeah, it's goofy. But I think if you, this was interesting to you, maybe go check that out. There you go. So thank you for tuning in. You keep watching, we'll keep talking, maybe. And we'll see you all next time. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)