The Cover |
OK. Let me take a deep breath
before I explain this film. Jeremy Davies plays Paul, a young filmmaker
who has moved to Paris in order to work in the industry. The film he's working
on is classic late 60's retro, Codename: Dragonfly. It's a film about a
super-sexy spy and revolutionaries who have established a secret moon base.
Paul has also been working on a film of his own - a documentary where he
films himself talking to the camera. It's a palette cleansing activity for
him, a way to make him forget the miserable time he's having at work. But
soon, Paul is tapped to direct Codename: Dragonfly himself.
CQ is a mostly good film with flashes of mediocrity.
It's brilliant in the way that it comments on filmmaking and film history,
but it is a bit slow at times. As any good film about film does, it includes
several films within a film. It’s a strange setup - hard to explain,
but fun and interesting to watch.
As Agent Dragonfly, Angela Lindvall can only be described as luscious.
She plays a somewhat vapid actress in a very vapid film, so it's hard
to tell where she starts and where the character ends. But she sure is
pretty.
CQ was written and directed by Roman Coppola's, son
of Francis. It's a great debut and goes to show that growing up in such
a film oriented family has its advantages. His sister Sophia has shown
plenty of talent on her own. Coppola makes the film for film lovers, so
the audience is probably very limited. If you're the kind of person that
watches IFC and actually cares about the latest indie films, CQ should
definitely be something you check out.
Movie Grade: A
Video: 3 out of 5
The film print looks pretty dirty at times - but I fully believe that
it's purposeful. It's trying to invoke the look of the French New Wave.
Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1 / Full Screen 1.33:1
Lindvall and Davies |
Audio: 3 out of 5
Simple, simple Simon.
English and French (2.0)
Extras: 4 out of 5
Some great stuff on this disc. First up is the commentary with Coppola
and his cinematographer. They're full of information. The disc has both
widescreen and full screen on the disc - always a good thing in my book.
The commentary is on one side. On the other side of the disc are the rest
of the extras. There's four short documentaries by various filmmakers
(including Sophia Coppola) shot on the set of CQ. There's
also a short making of and some featurettes that probably total an hour.
The best extras are the Codename: Dragonfly and Paul's Documentary that
show up in the movie, but are broken into little parts. Here they are
as a whole. Also included are some music videos and trailers.
Overall: 3 out of 5
It's a niche film, but a good one. The kind of thing you'd watch after
taking in a Goddard and Truffaut retrospective.
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