Coppola's Megalopolis

 Having seen it now and watched it breeze by. 

I have some sense of what he's been thinking about 

these last few years. Not just his mortality, 

But there's always that.

A lot of longing for his youth.

But that's a long running theme.

Even when he was still young.

He's actually caught a fair share of the exuberance 

He surely felt when making his 2nd film.

The last 20 years of his picture making

Sparse but glorious 

Has him as genius amateur

Truly loving his work and paying for it.

Emotionally and financially.

Best scenes are the parties

Especially the central Wedding

Where the villainy is allowed to play itself out

Best performance given by his brother's grandson

Bailey Ives plays Huey

1st seen as a tuba player on the street

Later as Shia LaBeouf's right hand

Didn't recognize him as a Coppola at 1st glance.

Should have.  Plays the Nic Cage role.

FFC goes back to Cotton Club too.

Not meant as insult to the Coppolas.

He does them proud.

His uncle, his great uncle, cousins, father, all.

He and Shia play well together.

Kathryn Hunter is another standout.

Again, 1st time seeing her.

But can see she's been around.

More than anyone, she sets the tone.

Brings to mind Lisa Jane Persky in Cotton Club.

Francis Coppola was taking questions

on social media X, so I posed one: 

I was very happy to finally see Megalopolis 

2 days ago, in IMAX as recommended,

and was surprised at how quickly 

it seemed to fly by. So much of it

seemed to invoke the spirit & imagery 

of your 2nd film, You're A Big Boy Now. 

Were you trying to recapture your youth

in making it? Do it better this time?

I wanted to ask if he was conscious 

of trying to remake his 2nd feature.

But didn't word it well.

FFC didn't answer my question. 

Directly or otherwise.

Which is fine, as the pictures did.