where to even begin with this... I'll just randomly list what I was thinking about during the viewing: my first exposure to a movie as a 6yo was Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet; I haven't seen this film in full since. My ideas about it are such that I didn't have any grasp on the English language then but it was frantic with antiquated Shakespeare dialogue set in the modern, extravagant world. And Megalopolis has quite a bit of that. It's also a bit of Cloud Atlas, a bit of Southland Tales, a bit of Sin City and a whole lot of interior scenes that reminded me of the office sets from Ugly Betty. But then there's also every actor that's ever acted in a movie since the 70s, including Dustin Hoffman (briefly) and notably underutilized Laurence Fishburne who launched his career with Apocalypse Now.

The film itself starts off with what we saw from the teaser weeks ago, but after its cold open we're thrown into quite a messy picture before it even gets started. It took me a while to readjust my sensibilities as I was unaware that we were getting goofy with it. This movie simultaneously takes itself extremely seriously while also satirizing a million things - it becomes quite enjoyable, after its awkward start, like an expensive cartoon network output. Shia LaBeouf and Aubrey Plaza are locked into this aspect of the film. While Adam Driver does a solid job as any actor could delivering and mostly quoting -isms and historical sayings. There's also an interactive aspect to the film that played out during our screening at Cannes where the film is interrupted and the audience is meant to engage with it; I'm not sure how this would play out theatrically or on vod. But towards the end of this quite inspired and gargantuan "idea picture", Francis' ideas and concerns in the film do come through and it's oddly moving. I'm not sure how to even process it but I'm happy it exists. Biggest surprise of all is how much I enjoyed Jon Voight's performance, especially his glee at the sight of a wrestling match at the "colosseum".

I feel people will be harsh on it naturally, but I found it really enjoyable and daring. My main complaint of the film is that the interior scenes especially Caesar's office are shot like a CW TV show and look quite fake/ cheap (think Smallville the latter seasons, especially Lex's office). Some visual effects look great, some not so much. But it is not to the point where it could make or break the film, as the film itself is Francis and Francis is the film. Oh yeah, it's also fucking bonkers if I didn't mention already.