Megapolis debuts in the US theaters today after premiering at this year’s Cannes Film Festival on May 16. The movie has garnered a largely mixed reaction from the critics. It has an approval rating of 51% on Rotten Tomatoes after 146 reviews. It also has a score of 56 out of 100 on Metacritic after 50 reviews. However, Adam Driver, who portrays Cesar Catilina in the movie, believes it will gain appreciation over time as the audience’s opinion will “evolve.”
Adam Driver talks how Megalopolis’ reception could change with multiple viewings
Adam Driver stars as the futuristic architect Cesar Catilina in Francis Ford Coppola’s latest film Megalopolis. Review scores for the movie are largely divided. However, in an interview with Deadline, Driver said that he thinks opinions about the film will “evolve” with multiple viewings.
“He has the principle of show not tell,” Driver said about Coppola. He also added that Coppola wasn’t attracted to movies that tell the audience “exactly what the plot is” and “leave nothing” for them “to discover.” Instead, Driver implied that he is drawn to movies that are “one version when they come out,” but change years later because “you evolve or the world around has evolved and it’s something completely different and they keep giving you things.” The Ferrari actor explained, “That’s what I feel about most of Francis’ movies.”
Driver recalled his own reaction the first time he watched Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979). “I think I saw Apocalypse Now too young to really understand what was going on.” He said when he was 14 years old that he consumed films from Blockbuster that he “had to revisit later to really understand them.” Apocalypse Now garnered a mixed reaction upon its initial release. However, since then, many have come to regard it as a cinematic masterpiece.
In the same interview, Driver hailed the production of Megalopolis as one of the best shooting experiences of his career. “I was surprised by how much freedom he gives everyone, and he embodies his principles and puts his money where his mouth [is],” Driver said. “I mean he’s making it himself so there were no ancillary people getting in the way. So it was one of the best shooting experiences I ever had… This one and the movie Patterson were my two favorite shooting experiences for completely different reasons,” he added.
