Megalopolis (15)
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
★★

ONE of the greatest film-makers of our time, Francis Ford Coppola returns with his most ambitious passion project: a Roman epic, which was at least 40 years in the making, and which proves to be a glorious, baffling mess of visuals and ideas. 

The film, which he self-financed to the tune of $120 million and that features a star-studded cast, is set in an imaginary modern US, aka the Roman empire, where New York City is known as New Rome. 

It follows the conflict between Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver), an artistic genius, who is planning to build the utopian city of Megalopolis where America’s idealistic future lies, and his opposition mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito).

Cicero wants to maintain the status quo and perpetuate capitalist greed, protecting the interests of the rich and powerful.

The plot thickens when Cicero’s daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel) starts working for Cesar and subsequently falls for him. Meanwhile, Cesar’s maverick cousin Clodio Pulcher (Shia LaBeouf) is staging a political power play by rallying the city’s poverty-stricken masses to revolt against their rulers. 

Megalopolis is a visual assault on the senses as Coppola, now 85, throws everything including the kitchen sink at it, making it overbloated, overly theatrical and giving the viewer brain-ache, and in places the visual effects are patchy. 

Cesar, who spouts Hamlet for no reason, bizarrely has the ability to stop time as he ponders the future. However Megalopolis will result in the poor being made homeless to make way for his new build. So is he the villain rather than the hero?

The film also asks: “When does an empire die?” as it explores the slow downfall of the US, though this is lost in all the distraction of circus antics, femme fatales (a fabulous Andrey Plaza) and vestal virgins. 

Ending on an equally mystifying note, maybe Coppola should have spent longer making the film. 

In cinemas September 27. 

The Outrun (15)
Directed by Nora Fingscheidt
★★★★

 
SAOIRSE RONAN gives the performance of her career as a 30-year-old battling alcoholism in this visceral and compelling drama based on Amy Liptrot’s 2016 memoir. Liptrot herself adapted it for the screen with co-writer and director Nora Fingscheidt. 

Ronan, who produced the film with her husband Jack Lowden (Slow Horses), is extraordinary as Rona who, fresh out of rehab, returns to the Orkney Islands to deal with her troubled past. 

Her descent into alcoholism and drug use over 10 years is told in a deconstructed and non-linear way as the story moves from present-day Scotland to her past, living life on the edge in London with her partner Daynin (Paapa Essiedu). You keep track by the changing colour of her hair as her world implodes and she returns home to her bipolar father’s (Stephen Dillane) farm in Orkney and her uber-religious mum (Saskia Reeves, who ironically plays a recovering alcoholic in Slow Horses) who lives on the mainland. 

The film explores the healing power of nature as the Scottish terrain and bitter weather play a prominent role. 

This is a great advert for Ronan and the remote Scottish islands. 

In cinemas September 27.
 
 

My Old Ass (15)
Directed by Megan Park 
★★★

 
What would you say to your younger self if you could go back in time? 

That is the essence of this delightfully smart and funny coming-of-age tale with a fresh twist from actor/singer turned writer-director Megan Park. 

While high on mushrooms for her 18th birthday, Elliott (a phenomenal Maisy Stella), who has always been into women, comes face to face with her 39-year-old self who warns her to stay away from anyone called Chad as they are bad news. However when she meets him (Percy Hynes White), despite her attempts to stay away, he slowly wins her over and changes her sexual outlook. 

Audrey Plaza, in her second film out this week, gives another standout performance as the older Elliott, dubbed “My Old Ass.” Bizarrely they are able to speak to each other by phone which proves hilarious and bittersweet.  

A surprising gem. 

In cinemas September 27.

Wolfs (15)
Directed by Jon Watts
★★★

SUPERSTARS George Clooney and Brad Pitt team up for the first time in 16 years for this action comedy-of-errors about two professional fixers, or lone wolves, who turn up to the same job to cover up a high-profile crime. 

Smooth operator Clooney provides the class while Pitt brings the humour as they banter and bicker like pros, showing they have not lost their touch.  

Unfolding over the course of one night, the pair are forced to work together to dispose of the body of a young man (Austin Abrams), dead from a drug overdose, in the hotel room of a prominent New York official played by Amy Ryan. 

Written and directed by Jon Watts (Spider-Man: No Way Home) the first half feels more like a stage play before it switches gears into an action-packed car-chase adventure. 

Reminiscent of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Clooney and Pitt are a formidable and entertaining double act. More please. 

In select cinemas now and available on Apple TV+ September 27.