Movie review: Francis Ford Coppola gets 'Megalopolis' out but it's messy

Glimpses of Francis Ford Coppola’s brilliance peek through in “Megalopolis,” but the film is such a muddled mess it’s hard to say it’s anywhere near a classic.

Coppola mixes acting styles, storytelling and visuals in an unruly way, suggesting the sci-fi epic was directed by a number of people. Parts are highly artistic and wooden; others are realistic and frightening. The whole thing boils down to a battle between art and politics.

Adam Driver stars as Cesar Catilina, a Nobel Prize-winning architect who envisions a way of rebuilding New Rome into Megalopolis. His chief nemesis, Frank Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), is the city’s mayor and father to Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel), the woman Catilina is attracted to. That complicates the war between forces and softens some of the stiff storytelling.

For good measure, Coppola pulls in Jon Voight (as Cesar’s wealthy uncle) and Dustin Hoffman (as the mayor’s fixer). He also has his sister, Talia Shire, and nephew, Jason Schwartzman, in the cast but gives some of the juiciest moments to Aubrey Plaza and Shia LeBeouf as a couple willing to do just about anything to get ahead.

As Coppola unfolds the drama he references everyone from director F.W. Murnau to experimental filmmaker Matthew Barney, suggesting this is much more than a Batman-less Gotham City.

Hoffman and Voight could easily fit in another iteration of “The Batman,” but they’re often left hanging while Driver plays esoteric games.

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Esposito normally works in epics like this, giving countless miniseries the heft they need to hide the flaws. Here, he’s exposed, revealing a theatrical side that doesn’t quite work with what Coppola has concocted.

Gaudi-like sets help connect “Megalopolis” to the fall of Rome. They’re interesting to consider (particularly when Driver and Emmanuel are out on beams contemplating life), but they don’t justify why a simple story is dressed up with designer-like trappings.

Far more interesting is the coupling between Plaza and LeBeouf. She’s a journalist willing to do anything to get ahead; he’s Catilina’s jealous cousin, looking for his own way to tower.

Laurence Fishburne checks in as a driver, but also serves as the film’s narrator. That lends an air of importance, but it can’t hide the Dick Tracy seams that seep through.

Look closer at the cast and you’ll find a mix of faces from television (“Saturday Night Live’s” Chloe Fineman) to teen movies (D.B. Sweeney and Bathazar Getty).

When he does get to some kind of conclusion, Coppola drags it out, as if to indicate there’s a level of importance to be savored.

There’s not, but that doesn’t stop him from trying. While “Megalopolis” isn’t as seminal as one of the “Godfather” films, it does say plenty about its maker. This may have been the project that took decades to launch but it’s hardly as memorable as something like “The Conversation,” which took months.