Megadoc is pure catnip for anyone who walked out of Megalopolis baffled, and a bracing mirror for those of us who admired Francis Ford Coppola’s swing. Mike Figgis assembles a fly on the wall portrait of a volatile production and lets the footage speak. What emerges is a study of a director who insists chaos is a method, then keeps proving how easily method turns into self sabotage.
Figgis’ camera finds Coppola in constant motion, selling new ideas in the morning and discarding them by night. You see the clashes that shaped the final film, from acrid standoffs with the visual effects team to combustible exchanges with Shia LaBeouf. The contrast with Aubrey Plaza is telling, she leans into the improvisatory mood and seems energized by it. Adam Driver is mostly absent, which the documentary explains as a concession to his process, fewer cameras on the days he worked so he could focus. Even in omission, the portrait makes sense.
The best sections simply watch a huge machine try to run while its parts are still being invented. Production design teams build bold sets without a guarantee that the shots will survive the edit. Camera moves are sketched on the floor, then tested at speed to see if they sing. It is fascinating and exhausting. You understand why a veteran filmmaker might crave lightning in a bottle, and exactly how many people get singed when the bottle breaks.
Coppola looms as both legend and liability. The figure who wrangled Apocalypse Now, The Godfather trilogy, and The Conversation can still conjure grand visions. He also finances the freedom to indulge them, which gives him latitude others would never receive. Figgis does not villainize him. He just observes the cost, time lost to arguments, crews cycling in and out, a set that starts to feel like a weather system that everyone must endure.
There is a personal thread too. Figgis frames the documentary with clear curiosity about how movies are actually made at this scale, and he has the patience to sit with the mundane labor between bursts of inspiration. That choice pays off. The cumulative portrait is not a hit piece, it is a record of process, ego, luck, and the way a film can drift toward its director’s temperament whether anyone wants it to or not.
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I still like Megalopolis, maybe even because of the hope it wears on its sleeve, but Megadoc complicates the aftertaste. Seeing the combativeness and the improvisation in real time makes it harder to separate what is onscreen from what it took to get there. That tension is what makes this documentary worthwhile. It captures one of the strangest productions of the decade and sends you back to the movie with fresh questions.
Score: 7/10
Megadoc (2025)
- Cast: Francis Ford Coppola, Eleanor Coppola, Talia Shire, Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Giancarlo Esposito, Chloe Fineman, Laurence Fishburne, Dustin Hoffman, Shia LaBeouf, George Lucas, Aubrey Plaza, Jon Voight
- Director: Mike Figgis
- Genre: Documentary
- Runtime: 107 minutes
- Rated: NR
- Release Date: November 21, 2025
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