CS Film Club II

Ok, let's go.


My Crime/Wave(s) Adventure

For round 239 of the film club, I chose to watch Crimewave, which JustWatch indicated was available through Hollywood Suite, a movie channel that my parents got so I thought I'd watch the film while visiting my parents. And I did. Kinda. Crime Wave tells the story of Steven, an aspiring screenwriter struggling to write the perfect colour crime movie. The problem is Steven has a knack for beginnings and endings but struggles with the middle of stories. The young daughter of Steven's landlord finds herself fascinated by his discarded crime picture scripts however, and dedicates her time to helping Steven make his masterpiece. The resulting film is a bizarre mash-up of educational film parody, ode to the struggles and intrigue of making art, and surreal journey through a mixture of 50s suburbia and 80s culture.

This was not the film I was recommended.

I was recommended Crimewave, Sam Raimi's much maligned follow-up to The Evil Dead. But both Crimewave and Crime Wave were released in 1985, with the latter in some cases retitled to The Big Crime Wave to avoid confusion. Evidently, JustWatch didn't get the memo and incorrectly listed Crime Wave's streaming options for Crimewave. It didn't take too long to realize I was watching the wrong movie. Frankly I should have been suspicious in the first 30 seconds when a title card said "Written-Produced-Directed by John Paizs", but the opening titles are so stylized I thought this might be some fictional "movie-within-a-movie", which to be fair it sort of is but Paizs is legitimately the director and also stars as Steven. Eventually it became clear this was not a Sam Raimi joint (the lack of Bruce Campbell is a dead giveway) but at that point I was so perplexed by Crime Wave that I could not stop watching? What the fuck was this thing? Turns out it's a Canadian surrealist independent comedy that was reportedly a favourite of fellow cult-Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin. Much of the film's humour comes from its glimpses into Steven's "colour crime movies," each following the exact same formula where a certain business or field (popular music, self-help, literally just being a couple) is dominated on the East Coast and West coast and in the Deep South, before a new contender emerges from the North, but the field is so locked up the contender resorts to crime to break their way in. These scenes were some of my favourite parts of the film, hilarious parodies of educational films packed with good jokes and delivered with incredible zeal by narrator Douglas Syms.

Some of the gags outside of these parodies are a bit more inconsistent, but through the highs and the lows Crime Wave is propelled by its strange creative energy. The budget is clearly low, but Paizs both embraces this limitation and turns it into an aesthetic strength, while also putting forth some very compelling imagery. There's a conversation between Steven and an unsettling cowboy figure that reminded me very much of a similar scene from Mulholland Drive. The film's camp sensibilities are not to everyone's tastes, and to by honest aren't totally to mine, but the core is an earnest and good natured movie about the magic of art. It's also got some very funny parts and is generally one of the oddest films I've seen lately. And I watched The Baby a few weeks ago!

B

Anyway, onto the movie I was supposed to watch.


Crimewave (1985)

Crimewave is an interesting beast given that it is largely a terrible movie that nonetheless demonstrates the considerable talents of its director. Sam Raimi's energetic camera and comic-book framings are all over this thing and there's a couple of scenes like the bit with the plotted plant in the window or the crosscutting of the dance contest with scrubbing dishes that show real visual ingenuity. Bruce Campbell also has a fairly major supporting role and is genuinely rather funny. Early on, I find myself thinking this might not be so bad after all. But then the rest of the movie happened. The narrative is downright incomprehensible despite the core idea being a fairly simple mix of gawky schlub trying to impress the girl and cartoony chase movie. All of the actors outside of Campbell are significantly less funny or charming, including the protagonist who were meant to root for. Worse still are the exterminators/assassins duo, who are extremely annoying. Paul L. Smith constantly yells, while Brion James shrieks in Three Stooges-esque tones, definitively making the point that Raimi's stooges influence is better when it's more subtle. Honestly this kind of loud-mouthed obnoxious crime-comedy duo would be re-used by The Coen Brothers, who wrote Crimewave, much more effectively in Raising Arizona, a film which bears a lot of narrative and stylistic comedies to Raimi's film and generally feels like the good version of Crimewave. There are glimmers of Raimi's skill and of a genuinely funny comedy, but they are drowned out by the obnoxious tone and relentless pacing of gags which become exponentially less funny as the film goes on. Unquestionably the worst film I've seen from Sam Raimi, though it's failure did lead to Evil Dead II so everything worked out.

D


Thanks to Neverending for accidentally steering me to a cool Canadian gem!

All part of the plan.

Hell yeah. Glad you liked it. I love the ending. On the nose, like you said, but it really hit me hard.

The Big Heat (1953)

Neither Doomsday nor PG Cooper officially recommended this movie. What a rotten thing to do. Had to steal it from Dracula. We’re sisters, under the mink, after all.

When a crooked cop kills himself, Glen Ford is sent to investigate, and learns that the corruption goes all the way up to the commissioner. He’s warned to drop the case, which he refuses to do, and a group of mobsters kill his wife. Now it’s personal.

On the surface, this is a fun little crime thriller. If you think deeper, it’s a silly movie about a guy that talks tough and solves problems with his fists. No real detective work is done and all the scenarios are ridiculous. But this is a morality tale from the 1950’s and it works on that level. Good vs Evil. Justice prevails. We need heroes in a bleak world. Even if they’re imaginary ones on the big screen.

Sweet!  So glad you liked it!

I am.

in

Well seeing as though we have pretty much the same group that we've had for the last 5 or 6 rounds and since I'm online at the moment let's just start the new one up. If anyone else wants in for this round just say the word.

Round 240

Doomsday assign to PG Cooper
PG Cooper assign to PhantomKnight
PhantomKnight assign to Neverending
Neverending assign to Dracula
Dracula assign to Doomsday

Let's aim for August 15th as the due date.  

Coop:

A Guy Named Joe
Open Range
Perfect Days
Lone Star
Gallipoli


If it makes your life easier, here's a pretty decent rip of Lone Star.


archive.org/details/wrtg53zjr57u8itrfz875

Might do Open Range. You made a good case for it on the podcast.