DRAMA; 2hr 18min
STARRING: Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Jon Voight, Shia LaBeouf
Balancing act: Emmanuel and Driver
The ruined American city of New Rome is a prototype of decadence, landing somewhere between its ancient namesake and a mother lode of futuristic hubris in writer-director Francis Ford Coppola’s grandiose head-scratcher. Driver, stylishly tormented, is architect Cesar Catilina (his name being a reference to a 63 BC plot by Lucius Sergius Catilina to oust the consuls of Rome, because nothing in this gorgeous schemozzle is content with being clear-cut).
Cesar is gripped by his vision of a utopic city born phoenix-like from New Rome’s dereliction. For no discernible reason, he can also bend time to his will. Although convenient, this gets him precisely nowhere with New Rome’s reptilian mayor, Franklyn Cicero (Breaking Bad ’s Esposito). The mayor’s crocodile smile masks an ironclad fixation with maintaining his constituents’ misery, while his daughter, who is also Cesar’s lover (Emmanuel as Julia), has a designer ankle boot in both camps. Plaza adds snark to the stew as TV newshound Wow Platinum, Voight creaks in as her moneybags meal ticket (and Cesar’s uncle) Hamilton Crassus III, and LaBeouf rouses the rabble as Clodio Pulcher, Cesar’s sketchy cousin, who also has the hots for Julia. Understated the circus is not.
Having gestated in Coppola’s imagination since 1977, his self-described fable has the splashy stamp of obsession. Its sheen is off the scale. Its special effects and production design are gasp-worthy. But without the bones of coherence even the most dazzling visuals will dwindle to party tricks. By the end of its overlong run, this hellscape of humanity unmoored pans out as much ado about not enough.
