Crime Wave (1985 film)

Crime Wave, also known as The Big Crime Wave, is a 1985 Canadian independent surrealist comedy film written, produced and directed by Winnipeg-based filmmaker John Paizs.[1]

For other uses, see Crime Wave (disambiguation).
Crime Wave
Directed byJohn Paizs
Written byJohn Paizs
Produced byJohn Paizs
StarringEva Kovacs
John Paizs
Darrell Baran
CinematographyJohn Paizs
Edited byJon Coutts
Gerry Klym
John Paizs
Music byRandolph Peters
Production
company
Favorite Films
Distributed byNorstar Releasing
Release date
11 September 1985 (TIFF)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

It was shot principally in 1984 and premiered at the 1985 Festival of Festivals,[2] although Paizs subsequently opted to reshoot the ending, which had received more mixed reaction at TIFF than the rest of the film, before it received limited followup commercial release.[3]

The film lacked a major release in Canada and abroad, and remained almost as a "curiosity" that a few fans and movie critics remembered fondly.[4] Over time, word-of-mouth and some retrospective showings at film festivals helped Crime Wave to achieve a bigger notoriety, and it is currently considered as a cult film.

Plot

The film is a homage to late 1940s-early 1950s "colour crime pictures". Paizs plays Steven Penny, a struggling screenwriter who lives above the garage of a suburban family, and begins typing each night from the moment the street lamp comes on. Everything we learn about the character comes from Kim (Eva Kovacs), the family's daughter, who has a schoolgirl crush on him, as Penny never utters a word in the entire film.

Steven is able to write beginnings and endings, but not middles, and the movie depicts these endings and beginnings that introduce several characters from various geographic regions to settle upon the film's hero "from the North".

Cast
  • Eva Kovacs as Kim
  • John Paizs as Steven Penny
  • Darrell Baran as Ronnie Boyles
  • Jeffrey Owen Madden as Skip Holliday
  • Tea Andrea Tanner as Dawn Holliday
  • Mark Yuill as Stanley Falco (as Mark Hunter)
  • Neil Lawrie as Dr. C. Jolly (as Neal Lawrie)
  • Bob Cloutier as Mr. Brown
  • Donna Fullingham as Mrs. Brown (as Donna Fillingham)
  • Mitch Funk as Young Dad
  • Angela Heck as Young Mom

Style

The film is designed to emulate the look and feel of educational films from the period. Randolph Peters includes a flute and glockenspiel-based score emulating such films (the film concludes with a song based on this theme that discusses the possibility of Steven and Kim getting married sung by a small 1950s-style pop chorus). When Steven Penny is brought into some shady deals, the film takes on more of a neo noir look and sound, inflected with surrealism. One of the film's signature images is the one of a street lamp smashed over Steven's head, which he wears home.

Critical response

Jay Scott wrote that "If the great Canadian comedy ever gets made, Winnipeg director John Paizs, whose first full-length feature, Crime Wave, received its world premiere at the Festival of Festivals, may be the filmmaker to do it: Paizs has a unique, off-centre sensibility. When he's cooking, he sizzles."[5] He praised the first hour of the film but wrote that it fell apart in the final 20 minutes,[5] which provided part of the impetus for Paizs to reshoot the ending.[6]

In 2023, Barry Hertz of The Globe and Mail named the film as one of the 23 best Canadian comedy films ever made.[7]

References
  1. Gerald Pratley, A Century of Canadian Cinema. Lynx Images, 2003. ISBN 1-894073-21-5. p. 51.
  2. "Heaps of praise". Winnipeg Sun, September 13, 1985.
  3. Jamie Portman, "Self=taught Winnipeg filmmaker watches his Crime Wave build". Calgary Herald, June 14, 1987.
  4. John Danakas, "Crime Wave stunning film". Winnipeg Sun, March 20, 1987.
  5. Jay Scott, "Winnipeg director can't quite end it all: Half-cooked Crime Wave". The Globe and Mail, September 14, 1985.
  6. Ben Waldman, "Doing time with John Paizs: The 1985 film Crime Wave was Winnipeg auteur's big break — after the first screening almost broke him". Winnipeg Free Press, December 23, 2022.
  7. Barry Hertz, "The 23 best Canadian comedies ever made". The Globe and Mail, June 28, 2023.
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