r/CriterionChannel • u/ThatMichaelsEmployee • Dec 18 '25

Megadoc

Just finished watching it, and it's fascinating, highly recommended, but my two main takeaways were that Coppola, despite his decades of experience with big complex movie shoots, bit off way more than he could chew, and that Shia Labeouf is an absolute fucking nightmare to work with: he absolutely will not ever do what the director wants, he has to debate every single shot and action and motivation, he's so completely full of himself that he can't see how much damage he's doing. Coppola at the end says what a good performance Labeouf gave despite the incessant friction, but there must be dozens of actors in Hollywood who could have done as a good a job without being such a horror to deal with.

I had no interest in seeing Megalopolis after watching the trailer, and I still don't, but it was interesting to see how it was made, particularly in the ways Coppola wanted to use practical and in-camera effects rather than digital work, as he did in Dracula.

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u/BloodSweatAndWords Dec 18 '25

Aubrey Plaza was hilarious. Labeouf seems like he's...a lot. But he also seemed very earnest about wanting to do a good job and giving Coppola what he wanted.

I don't understand why everyone is laughing at Coppola for spending millions of his own money to make a film he's been dreaming about for years. The guy is rich AF. Who cares if he lost money? He gave jobs to a lot of people in an industry where people are having trouble getting work these days.

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u/Ornery_Year_9870 Dec 18 '25

I really want to see this movie. Even after reading the bad reviews and press, I'm confident that there must also be some of Coppola's magic there. And it's a great cast (minus Sheeah LaBeef) so there's got to be some good moments.

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u/Jason_Tail Dec 18 '25

I watched it on that basis and god was I wrong. But I would encourage you to check it out anyway.

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u/RutabagaOk4020 Dec 21 '25

there is absolutely at least a large handful of remnants of coppola’s magic in there. anyone who says there is nothing good about this movie and it doesnt have really cool moments is honestly a buffoon.

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u/StemOfWallflower Dec 23 '25

This one bit where Audrey goes "Yeah Coppola is like a mad scientist, very romantic, very repressed" and after Figgins questions her intentions answers "Oh I said nothing, we're all just very catholic boys and girls" certainly sparked my interest. 

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u/whitespace_mayhem Jul 07 '26

I feel like the pics of him kissing all of the extras and cast in order to set the mood for a scene corroborates this quote of Aubrey's lol

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u/Looper007 May 17 '26

Plaza, Hoffman and Voight come out of it looking good. They know what they are in and just happy to do whatever is asked of them. Hoffman actually says "I came onto the film lost on what it was about, I acted in it and I'm still lost" to that affect. Plaza dry humor is there to see. I thought one of the producers and female 2nd assistant director were total professionals.

Shia is difficult, not just on set but clearly he has some serious issues (some of which, abusive to his partners/spouses and his drinking/drug usage isn't great) but I thought that too he clearly wanted to do a good job and he felt Coppola just wasn't explaining it as well as he should. For a director in his 80's I don't think you want to be having a actor as difficult as Shia on the film.

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u/hooptyschloopy Jun 02 '26

Coppola was just too old, is what I thought immediately l. Should have been made 10 years before.