Back To The Future

A few days ago I took on Gentleman Broncos for having a title that gives you nothing.  Just by chance I watched CQ yesterday, another film with an incomprehensible title that features snippets of a bad sci-fi film.

CQ itself isn't bad, though it didn't make a big splash.  A little self-indulgent (as are most films about the problems of people making films), but the stuff that works, works well.  It's a family affair, directed and written by Roman Coppola, produced by his famous filmmaker dad, and features sister Sofia and cousin Jason Schwartzman.

The story in set in the late 60s, and a young filmmaker, played by Jeremy Davies (who seems as tortured here as he'd be later in Lost--it's his specialty) is trying to come up with an ending to a partly completed sf film.  Meanwhile, he's working on a meaningful documentary (must be meaningful, it's in black and white) and having trouble with his girlfriend.  He's also become obsessed with the beautiful female lead in his film.

What's most fun are the lengthy excerpts from Dragonfly, the film within the film.  Even though CQ isn't big budget (maybe because it isn't), it captures the Barbarella-style 60s look amazingly well. (It even features John Philip Law, who starred in that film.) Most of the humor of the film is Dragonfly looking ahead to what life will be in 2001, the year CQ was made.

Davies' fantasy world starts invading his real world, or something like that. It doesn't amount to much, but it looks good and keeps moving.

By the way, as the film makes clear that CQ is code for "seek you", and I guess that's vaguely the theme of the film.