There are two ways to look at "Megalopolis," the long-gestating passion project from master filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola that opens Friday. On the one hand, it's an ambitious, bold, bizarrely idiosyncratic vision,

Naive, decadent, sluggish, dazzling, touchingly sincere in its belief that “a vital conversation” about the state of our nation can save us, even with barbarians at the gates: There’s something to vex everyone in “Megalopolis.

The director’s ambitious, self-financed passion project has plenty of chutzpah. If only it showed some discipline.

This year has brought us two fascinating, if flawed, films from older male directors who have staked their large personal fortunes in order to fund these unwieldy passion projects. First there was Kevin Costner’s (ongoing) throwback Western “Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1” and now,