When Lionsgate released the second trailer for director Francis Ford Coppola’s blockbuster “Megalopolis” on Wednesday morning, it was greeted with a flurry of scathing criticism of his past work from several prominent critics.
The trailer features purported reviews of “The Godfather,” with The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael calling it “debased by artifice” and The Village Voice’s Andrew Sarris criticizing it as “a sloppy, self-indulgent film.” Quotes from critics such as Roger Ebert, John Simon, Stanley Kaufman, Vincent Canby and Rex Reed are likewise projected on screen, scathing Coppola’s work on masterpieces such as “Apocalypse Now.” The idea is that these films have stood the test of time, but the initial reaction has not. When “Megalopolis” premiered at Cannes, it was dismissed by many critics as a spoiled mess. The new trailer aims to position Coppola’s latest film as a work of art that will stand the test of time, just like the famed director’s previous works.
While that’s an interesting point, there’s a pretty significant hole in the trailer argument. The issue is huge, but these quotes don’t actually appear in any of the reviews cited. As Vulture points out and Variety has verified, neither of these phrases are to be found in the version of the article available online. At this time, it’s unclear where the quotes came from. The quote in which Ebert describes “Dracula” as a “triumph of style over substance” is actually taken from a 1989 “Batman” review.
Variety writer Owen Gleiberman was misquoted as calling the 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula a “beautiful mess” and emphasizing its “absurdity” when reviewing it for Entertainment Weekly, where he was working at the time of the film’s release.
“Even if we hate critics, we don’t have the right to force words down our mouths, but the whole mini-scandal in this whole thing is that the entire trailer for Megalopolis is based on a false narrative,” Gleiberman says of the trailer quote. “Critics loved The Godfather, and Apocalypse Now got mixed reviews but a lot of critical support from critics. As for calling Bram Stoker’s Dracula a ‘beautiful mess,’ I wish I had said that. It sounds like a kind thing to say about that movie now.”
Some of the critics quoted in the trailer really disliked Coppola’s earlier work, like Reed, who called Apocalypse Now “a collection of pretentious drivel.”
As for Megalopolis, it may indeed merit a critical reevaluation. Variety’s Peter Debruge responded negatively in his review of the film, writing that “the legendary director constructs a deeply personal but sloppy allegory about his relationship to art,” adding that “worldbuilding, a valuable tool of the 21st-century Hollywood franchise, doesn’t seem to be his forte.”
“Megalopolis” opens in the U.S. on September 27. Lionsgate did not immediately respond to Variety’s request for comment. Reid, who continues to review the film for the Observer, did not respond to a request for comment. Kael, Simon, Ebert, Camby, Kaufman and Sallis are all deceased, making it difficult to get their reactions.
