Francis Ford Coppola's bizarre new epic movie about a visionary architect has been panned by critics. Will Wiles asks what it all says about the profession's role within contemporary popular culture.

One of the characters in Charlie Kaufman's 2008 film Synecdoche New York lives in a house that's on fire. It's on fire when they buy it, and the fire continues for years. Eventually it has tragic consequences.
The metaphor is not particularly subtle. But that image of the burning house, the idea of it, is very powerful. It gets under the skin and stays there, and a decade and a half later it's still smouldering away. It occurred to me again after watching Francis Ford Coppola's bizarre new epic Megalopolis.
Megalopolis has already been hatcheted down to a spreadable paste by reviewers Megalopolis is full of striking imagery. In one instance we see the beleaguered mayor of New Rome, Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), sitting at his desk as it sinks sideways into shifting sands. It's a very beautiful shot, with a sort of psychotropic effulgence that's used throughout the film.
Again, the metaphor is not subtle ? it doesn't need to be. But it doesn't disturb, it doesn't get under the skin. There's no mystery in it. It's more like the visual gags in a Zucker Abrahams Zucker movie.
Megalopolis is filled with such blunt images. While its hero, architect Cesar Catalina (Adam Driver), is unjustly persecuted in the courts, a giant statue of Lady Justice slumps miserably in the stree...