CQ (2001)

IMDb plot summary: A young filmmaker in 1960s Paris juggles directing a cheesy sci-fi debacle, directing his own personal art film, coping with his crumbling relationship with his girlfriend, and a new-found infatuation with the sci-fi film's starlet.
Directed by Roman Coppola. Starring Jeremy Davies, Angela Lindvall, Élodie Bouchez, and Gérard Depardieu.

There are parts of this that work so well for me. I really enjoy the juxtaposition of the young filmmakers' aimless everyday life with this hyped-up 1960s sci fi flick he's trying to edit. Something about seeing them both together really emphasizes the shallowness of both of them, albeit in very different ways. So I really like the conceit of the film, and a few of the individual moments, but a lot of this is brought down by just how unsympathetic our lead character is. He's pretentious and self-important for no reason and has no real motivation to do much of anything and even his final successes seem to be resolved rather aimlessly. This colors the rest of the film, since I started (mostly subconsciously) applying the things I didn't like about the on-screen filmmaker character to Roman Coppola, the film's actual director. Like... you don't make a film this self-indulgent about how tough filmmaking is and NOT have it be basically autobiographical, right? So there's a disconnect for me, which is a bit of a bummer because I wanted so much to like it as a whole. But it ended up being a slightly mixed bag.

2.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
CQ < Runaway Jury
CQ > Lady in the Water
CQ > Maleficent
CQ < The Big Lebowski
CQ < Ponyo
CQ > The Man with One Red Shoe
CQ > Kagemusha
CQ < The Woman in Black
CQ < The Best Years of Our Lives
CQ > Deceived
CQ > Fish Tank
CQ < Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

Final spot: #1685 out of 2808.