CQ (2001, R)

I had gotten through all of my "homework" movies that were going to lose the streaming option, and there were 4 of the time-sensitive movies that I wanted to see more than the others.  I knew I wouldn't get a chance to see more than one or maybe two before midnight when they dropped off (it was the last day).  I chose poorly.

The title of CQ was not thoroughly explained, though in one of the main character's dream sequences he saw a computer screen flashing between "CQ" and "seek you"... that's as good as I've got for you, folks, sorry.  The setup is that the main character Paul is a film editor (second-unit director: cuts and pastes the film stock into the proper order, with visually effective timing/etc based on the daily shots filed by the first-unit director), and American in Paris in 1969-1970, working on a sci-fi spy film taking place on the moon in the far future: the year 2001!  The director of the film is apparently in love with the lead actress and has no clear vision for the end of the movie so it just keeps filming.  I noticed that Paul's life, the film he's working on, and the film I was watching all had one thing in common: they go nowhere!  Seriously, I fell asleep near the end (in what I think must have been the climax of the movie) and didn't get to see it.  Normally I hate to miss the end of a movie, but I don't think my life is going to be lacking because of this one.  Paul lives with his French girlfriend who is the sweetest woman ever and loves him, but he apparently doesn't feel for her and prefers to record his video journal which he thinks of as making a movie but doesn't seem to be helping anyone.  I wanted to slap the hell out of him and say, "This is how you love her!"  Jason Schwartzman (Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, Rushmore) has a role in the film that is unfortunately brief; I tend to like him in movies.  He was amusing as usual.

One thing this film does have going for it is a fun look at what a 1960's sci-fi film could be with better picture quality.  They still used the cheesy special effects and period-music that would fit the era, so someone who likes that sort of movie (nostalgia, or film-history buff) might get a kick out of these parts of the movie.  If you like movies that explore the process of making movies (a film about a filmmaker), this provides that.  There are some dream-sequences which were kind of cool, and possibly my favorite part; also it wasn't always immediately clear that Paul has shifted to dream sequence, and I like things that question reality.  But overall, I'd give this 1.5 out of 5 stars.  I try to reserve 1 star for movies that actually make me angry at the director because he has wronged be, but this one was just sorely sorely disappointing.