Megalopolis

Adam Driver as architect Cesar Catilina

Well, whatever else it is, Megalopolis isn’t boring. Mad, megalomaniacal, chaotic, absurd and confused, certainly, but also inspired and weird in a good way, it’s a deliberately difficult piece of “late style”, financed entirely by Francis Ford Coppola out of money made from his wine business. Not beholden to anyone, the director can do what the hell he wants, and he has. The closest thing to it in intention is Godard’s late works – odd movies like Film Socialisme or Goodbye to Language, doggedly playful and wilfully experimental attempts to say everything there is to say about everything. At another level it’s an 85-year-old man’s confusion about the way the world has gone … Read more

Captain America: Brave New World

Captain America head shot

A bit Sixties, a bit Eighties and a bit all over the place, Captain America: Brave New World is a strange mishmash of a movie. According to Variety, it wiped the floor with Kraven the Hunter at the box office. Which says more about that movie than this one, having seen both of them. First up, it’s a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie (Kraven was Marvel but not canonical MCU, if these theological niceties mean anything to you). Second up, Chris Evans has been replaced by Anthony Mackie as Captain America, least interesting of the Marvel superheroes. Third up, the story harks back to The Incredible Hulk of 2008, which heavily featured General “Thunderbolt” … Read more