Megalopolis is a film about Great Debates by Great Men. It has inescapable original sins for which the public will not even grant it the graceful reputation of “fine.” It debuted in a time when the efficacy of debates is rejected by the engaged and by the polarized. It failed to convince us that men like Caesar Augustus of the Roman Empire and Robert Moses of the American Empire deserve our respect just because they wielded power with impunity. Unable to sell itself on its ideas, Megalopolis was sold as a boondoggle of the wealthy, while audiences kept having to learn the new, ever-rising price of eggs. But maybe no sin is more original to the disaster of the film than the presence of two of the “Great Men” who helm it, the infamous Shia LaBeouf (Transformers; Holes), and his tormentor, director Francis Ford Coppola (Apocalypse Now; The Conversation). Their months-long duel is the primary narrative of Megadoc, a new behind-the-scenes documentary by Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas; Internal Affairs) coming to theaters Friday, September 19th, 2025.
“Shia, you’re full of shit.” – Francis Ford Coppola
The film is intercut with table-reads of the film’s script throughout the decades. Famous faces cameo in archival shots, but none so compellingly as a young Ryan Gosling (The Ides of March; Barbie) in the role of Clodio, the villain played by LaBeouf. Gosling performs the brief scene with calculating resentment, a political populist informed by men like Newt Gingrich. LaBeouf, on the other hand, plays a tempestuous reactionary, informed by Trump. He leads a populist coalition of working-class voters whose homes Adam Driver (The Last Duel; Logan Lucky)’s Cesar Catilina has destroyed in the name of progress. This multicultural group sports red hats and is easily manipulated by acts of political violence and false accusations. Clodio, meanwhile, is the rich grandson of one of the world’s richest bankers, played by Jon Voight (National Treasure; Heat). LaBeouf had also participated in an early table-read. Since then, as he puts it, “between that (reading) and now, I’ve fucked my whole life up,” an understatement for his lies and abuses. He speaks of the work he did in a 12-step program where he had to make up with Voight, whom he had threatened to beat up because “Voight’s politics and mine are very different.” A wild claim, but informative for what comes later.
“I felt like I was put in a position where there is no way forward” – Beth Mickle
Three of the most fascinating scenes of Megadoc are fights between LaBeouf and Coppola. The first, early in production, sees LaBeouf questioning the blocking of a scene with Voight, and talking through it with Coppola. Despite spending his interviews talking about how he wants the actors and artists to play and have fun, the director spends much of the on-set footage telling people to just give him what he wants. In the first scene, Shia defeats him. In the second, Coppola is screaming on set, “I KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT, GIVE ME WHAT I WANT!” and Shia shoots back defeated, “I don’t know what you want.”
“Francis’s intentions in the film are quite monumental” – Jon Voight
It is rarely good form to analyze a film by thinking about what the filmmaker chose not to do, but Mike Figgis practically invites audiences to do so when he relays: “…the other actor that I’m having trouble with is Nathalie Emmanuel. She also — I got a message from her agent, ‘She doesn’t like to be filmed when she’s eating…’” He does manage to capture incredible moments such as Dustin Hoffman (The Graduate; Rain Man) having a meltdown, followed by Giancarlo Esposito (Do The Right Thing; Night on Earth) faking a meltdown to help him save face and keep the peace. It showcases the theater games that Coppola talks about in Live Cinema and Its Techniques (2017), and it captures him melting down at his crew several times. It barely spots the film’s lead, Adam Driver. Instead, Megadoc follows the stories of the willing, LaBeouf, Voight, Hoffman, Esposito, Aubrey Plaza (Emily the Criminal; Parks and Rec), Coppola, and VFX Supervisor Mark Russel (Minority Report; Synechdoche, New York), Production Designer Beth Mickle (Superman; Drive), and the film’s second production designer, Bradley Rubin (A Star is Born; Hail Caesar).
L-R: Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola and director Mike Figgis in MEGADOC. Photo courtesy of Utopia.
The public firing of Mark Russel and resignation of Beth Mickel and her team is the second throughline of the film. In an uncomfortable sequence preceding the firing, you can feel Coppola use the presence of Figgis’s camera and the politeness it extracts from his department heads, to “win” an argument against them. He berates them for delivering what he had asked them to deliver, which he now no longer wants. Figgis has begun a podcast series to promote the release of Megadoc, where he talks in further detail about his behind-the-scenes process. He talks about realizing that “having a row” is just “Francis’s way” in a scene not included in the film, where Voight came in with a haircut he hadn’t run by Coppola, sparking yet another fight.
LaBeouf and Coppola argue again during a scene where Clodios’s supporters “discover” that this famous man is rich, not poor, and turn on him. LaBeouf rightfully cites this as politically incongruous, and Coppola argues that it is. As production progresses, the incoherent politics of Megalopolis are heightened by Coppola’s own contradictions. He wants actors to play, but not that way. He wants the VFX done, but why did they do what he asked them to do? Of course, the GOP voters will one day turn against Trump when they find out he’s rich, because if they’re following him, they must think he’s one of them. Cancel Culture is bad, and yet villains must be held to account in the public square. The rich are evil, but those who use wealth to create art are misunderstood. “This movie is going to change the world,” but it is helmed by a man who refuses to change.
“I walked in with reverence, but I found it was not a reliable way to work with him.” – Shia LaBeouf
Both in this film and in the press, Coppola quotes Jacques Tati (Playtime; Mon Oncle) spending his last dime to make his final film as justification for spending hundreds of millions of his own money on Megalopolis: “But who cares if you die broke if you made something you think is beautiful.” This path for lionizing Tati is jarring as his final produced work is The Illusionist (2010). Its script is adapted from one of his, about his abandonment of his oldest daughter. A troubled film, which his family said was written to reckon with the contradictions in himself. Megadoc is an observation of Coppola’s own contradictions, but not a reckoning. On the aforementioned podcast, Figgis says of the public’s view of Megalopolis, “most of the reviews were fairly scathing, disrespectful, and entirely not understanding the point of view of Mr. Coppola. So this was more than a year ago. The documentary goes some way towards allowing Coppola to articulate his ideas and the range of what he’s trying to do. Which is extraordinary.”
So extraordinary are his ideas, that a second film had to be made to explain them, and they still don’t hold together. Again, what is not included in a film is often a poor critique, but when Megadoc discusses the controversies of Megalopolis, it ignores the accusations of on-set sexual harassment. The parallel between Driver’s Cesar being falsely accused of sexual impropriety via video and the on-set video of Coppola kissing back-up dancers under his employ is never drawn. Megalopolis takes as settled fact that what makes Men Great is the strength of their achievements, not the strength of their morals. Megadoc is not a challenge to this notion, but a lament that Coppola fell short of an achievement that would have made his on-set behavior not just acceptable, but commendable. Megalopolis is a fascinating disaster. Megadoc is a disaster of fascination. Megalopolis is a film that begs Great Men to lead us once again. Megadoc makes us wonder if Great Men ever did.
In select theaters September 19th, 2025.
For more information, head to the official Megadoc website.
Final Score: 2.5 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
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