Francis Ford Coppola’s passion project “Megalopolis” is a futuristic fable about the downfall of the American Empire.

The 85-year-old auteur envisioned the dystopian concept 40 years ago, writing, revising and re-casting it, spending $120 million to make it, using funds he’d made from his hits (“Apocalypse Now,”  “The Godfather,” etc.) and his California wine business.

Adam Driver stars as Cesar Catilina, a visionary architect who dreams of utilizing a miraculous material called Megalon to build an experimental Utopia from the ruins of New Rome (obviously allegorical New York City, since the familiar Chrysler Building is an Art Deco centerpiece). 

But Cesar must convince corrupt Mayor Franklin Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito)– whose rebellious daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel) he’s dating–and face ‘concrete’ opposition from Nush Berman (Dustin Hoffman), all explained by narrator Fundi Romaine (Laurence Fisbburne).

Inexplicably, Cesar has the ability to freeze everything and everyone in place by ordering: “Stop, time!” But that’s the limit of his supernatural powers. 

According to Coppola, who consulted with historian Mary Beard, author of “S.P.Q.R: A History of Ancient Rome,” Cesar’s turbulent coup can be traced back to Rome’s Catilinarian conspiracy of 63 B.C.

Lecherous old Hamilton Crassus III (Jon Voight) represents greed, while his duplicitous grandson Clodio (Shia LaBoeuf) epitomizes ambition – as the inherent debauchery is caustically chronicled by financial reporter Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza) on her “Money Bunny” TV show.

Archaic references to the fall of Rome are everywhere, along with Shakespearean dialogue, peppered with quotes from Greek/Roman/Sapphic poets. Driver even delivers Hamlet’s famous “To be or not to be…” soliloquy in its entirety.

Filmed in Atlanta, whatever credit there is goes to cinematographer Mihai Malaimare, Jr., who creates some indelible CGI imagery.

The film is dedicated to his wife, documentarian Eleanor Coppola, who died in April, 2024. The movie indulgently features several other Coppola family members, including his sister, Talia Shire, and nephews Jason Schwartzman and Roman Coppola. Only Nicolas Cage escaped.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Megalopolis” is an illogical, incoherent 2 – playing in theaters.

Ghoulish nostalgia dominates “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice,” as director Tim Burton riffs on his 1988 high-camp comedic ghost story.

In picturesque Winter River, Connecticut, widowed Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) – easily identifiable with the same jagged black bangs she wore as Goth Girl – is now a psychic mediator, communicating with the spirit world, hosting an exploitative paranormal TV reality show called “Ghost House” produced by her sleazy, opportunistic boyfriend Rory (Justin Theroux).

Lydia’s husband Richard was killed on an Amazon trek. Their skeptical teenage daughter Astrid (Jenny Ortega) loathes her mother’s morbid preoccupation with the occult.

Lydia’s narcissistic artist stepmother Delia (Catherine O’Hara) is still around but her father/Delia’s husband, Charles Deetz (originally played by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Jones), is eliminated in a blood-soaked Claymation sequence.

It’s Charles’ wake/funeral that brings the dysfunctional family back home, as Delia wraps their hillside farmhouse in Christo-style black gauze. That’s when Rory proposes to Lydia, who accepts – infuriating Astrid, who takes off into town where she meets Jeremy (Arthur Conti) and they plan a date for Halloween night when her mother’s upcoming “Witching Hour” wedding is scheduled.

Which brings us to the manic, malevolent, centuries-old demon Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton) who can be summoned from the Afterlife by saying his name three times in quick succession. 

In his Netherworld lurks the corpse of Delores (Monica Bellucci), who is determined to reclaim trickster Betelgeuse as her husband. Plus there’s ghost detective Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe), who was once and still is – a hammy actor.

Unfortunately, Barbara and Adam Maitland (Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin), the farmhouse’s former occupants who originally hired Betelgeuse to scare off the Deetzes, have moved on.

Scripted by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar – sharing story credit with Seth Grahame-Smith – it’s familiar, belabored and even more weirdly bizarre than the original horror fantasy.

FYI: Tim Burton’s real-life partner Monica Bellucci told Elle France: “I love this dream world where monsters are kind, like we can turn our darker aspects into something bright, forgiving. Tim Burton’s films talk about that a lot.”

On the Granger Gauge, “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice” is a sentimentally macabre 6, playing in theaters.