‘Megalopolis’ ending explained: is Cesar’s utopian vision intact?

nme.com:

Megalopolis is in cinemas now, but is Adam Driver’s character’s vision of utopia intact at the end of the film?The sci-fi drama was released in cinemas on Friday (September 27), and is set in an alternate present-day version of America, where Driver’s futuristic architect Cesar Catilina, who has the ability to pause time, is clashing with the conservative mayor of New Rome, Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito).The film also stars Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Nathalie Emmanuel, Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire and Jason Schwartzmann, and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May.Megalopolis has been a passion project for the director of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now since the early 1980s, but has continually been faced with financial challenges.

With major studios hesitant to invest, Coppola eventually chose to fund the film himself, selling personal assets, including portions of his wine empire.The project has been riddled with controversies, with an extra from the film saying she was left “in shock” after being kissed by Coppola on the set, and a trailer that included fake quotes from critics leading to a marketing consultant being fired.It has also been met with mixed reviews, including a somewhat hostile reaction at Cannes.

In NME’s two-star review of Megalopolis, Lou Thomas wrote: “The whole piece is so uneven, that at times it’s akin to watching a toddler being given free rein as an interior decorator.

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you always should.”The film’s protagonist Cesar Catilina believes he has a new bio-adaptive material, Megalon, which will change the world, and he wishes to use it to build ‘Megalopolis’, a utopian city of the future.However, his vision is met with fierce opposition.