Megalopolis Cannes Reaction: It’s day three of Cannes, and things are really heating up! Two films in competition both shared premieres at Cannes today, Andrea Arnold’s latest feature, “Bird,” and Francis Ford Coppola’s heavily anticipated and much-discussed “Megalopolis” – here’s what the early buzz is.
To start off with the positive news, after securing MUBI as its distributor just a few days ago, Andrea Arnold’s “Bird” is off to a great start, showered in acclaim from all sides and already tipped as an early contender for some attention at the Cannes awards later this week. Newcomer lead Nykiya Adams has received praise in the same way Katie Jarvis did for her lead performance in Arnold’s 2009 breakout “Fish Tank.” At the same time, Barry Keoghan, as her father, has also been met with positive reactions. The film doesn’t have official scores as of yet on Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic, but this bizarre blend of magical realism and social realism has been described by IndieWire’s Ryan Lattanzio as “shimmering, loverly and emotionally generous,” with Joe Utichi from Deadline complimenting Arnold on being “confident in her storytelling.” A film that generated an 8-minute standing ovation and was seemingly worth every second!
Coppola hugs and embraces the cast of ‘Megalopolis’ after the film’s premiere at the #CannesFilmFestival
🎥 @BazBam pic.twitter.com/wWgkNpJ4UB
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) May 16, 2024
This unanimous acclaim, unfortunately, could not carry over to what, for many, will have been their most anticipated film going into the festival. Coppola has been under a lot of controversies over the past few days in terms of his behavior on set, and the infamously messy production that cost $120 million and was forty years in the making seems to be polarizing audiences as much as Coppola as a person. An 11-minute standing ovation was clearly no testament to the film’s quality, debuting with a poor 57% on Rotten Tomatoes and a slightly better 62 on Metacritic, with no negative reviews as of yet. Aubrey Plaza seems to be the only element critics can agree on, liked by all, and many are praising the film’s bold vision and the sheer audacity of it. However, this is met in equal parts by criticism of the incomprehensible plot and bloated nature.
Even the really positive reviews still possess caveats, but even the most negative still praise the lofty ambition. Whilst it certainly isn’t the masterpiece fans may have been hoping for on Coppola’s return, it would appear there is as good a chance of you liking the film as there is not, so expectations and anticipation for the film have been surprisingly untampered. Either way, it doesn’t bode well for the film’s chances of securing a major US distributor, especially not one that could provide “Megalopolis” the awards run Coppola was hoping for. Undoubtedly, the film will be picked up, but it seems it would take an awful lot of guts for a studio to do so.
