 CQ (2001) Problem is, the main character is a total bore, and the storyline is 92% pretentious with only a few decent half-smirks in terms of comic relief. Also, there's no satisfactory explanation as to why the movie is called CQ, other than as a confused reference to a very minor detail in the sci-fi film. Roman Coppola probably wrote CQ based on stories his father (Francis Ford so-and-so) told him about the swinging 60s, and it has the feel of a vaguely inaccurate 1960s Parisian travelogue: in one scene alone, the Concorde booms overhead, someone shows off a newfangled "video camera," and Jason Schwartzmann plays an obvious parody of Roman Polanski. The main character – so dull I don't remember his name – zombie-walks through it all, interspersed with painfully pretentious moments of him making a documentary about his own life, including, I shit you not, lingering shots of hand soap. The best part of the movie is the fake sci-fi film, Dragonfly, about a sexy space-age secret agent who rockets to the moon in a tight silvery jumpsuit to stop a Che Guevara-esque guerilla (the totally irrelevant Billy Zane) from starting a "free love" revolution on Earth. Lindvall, a roughly 10-year-old Swedish model, is perfectly cast, primarily because she looks freaking fantastic in the skimpy costumes and has a really sexy deep voice. CQ is visually striking, but otherwise pointless. It attempts to make a statement about something by connecting the editor's art to his personal life, and how the artist gets sucked into his work, or fantasizes about getting sucked into his work, or fantasizes about fucking a blonde supermodel while his undersexed naked French brunette supermodel lover pouts in the background. Really, Coppola should have just made a feature-length version of the campy sci-fi movie and left the editor nonsense on the cutting room floor.
Review by Crimedog |