Movie Review Monday: CQ
Set in 1969 Paris, CQ (written and directed by Roman Coppola) is an offbeat and campy film-within-a-film starring a pre-LOST Jeremy Davies as a young film editor making a documentary about his own life while working on a science fiction adventure movie directed by the renowned French director Gerard Depardieu.
The sci-fi film stars Angela Lindvall as Dragonfly, a sexy super-agent who lives in a spaceship on top of the Eiffel Tower and charges ridiculous amounts of money to the World Council to help solve their problems. Her most recent assignment? To stop a revolutionary (Billy Zane) who lives on the far-out side of the moon.
When Depardieu is fired from the film and his replacement, Jason Schwartzman, backs out, Davies is thrust into the director’s role he has always coveted. But his obsession with the sexy Lindvall/Dragonfly causes unexpected results, not the least of which is the blending together of the sci-fi film and his documentary, with both eventually merging with his real life.
The humor is subtle, the cinematography top notch, and the dialogue smart and funny. This is another example of what I thought was an excellent film that made no money at the box office. Granted, it’s not for everyone, but if you enjoy campy films about film-making and you appreciate homages to 1960’s European sci-fi spoofs, then you’ll love CQ.
