This film is part of the Scalarama 2017 season. Since 2011, in honour of the old Scala picturehouse in King's Cross, every September, cinemas, film clubs and film festivals plus various organisations and individuals who have a passion for movies, have united to celebrate and encourage watching films together. You can find details of all this year's events here.
Here is the Castle Cinema introduction to tonight's offering:
Imagine if Steve Buscemi’s character from Ghost World made a movie, with levels of deadpan that make Jim Jarmusch look like Baz Luhrmann… but with a lurid perversion in every lovingly Bolexed frame that would make Baz blush. This is Crime Wave, John Paizs's one-of-a-kind ultra-indie black comedy, and it's coming to London for one night only as part of Scalarama. Lost in distributor limbo virtually since its inception, this is the film Canadian cinephiles talk about in hushed tones round the bonfire. The object of numerous off-grid screenings and bootlegs, it now finally has a glorious 2K restoration, thanks to the Toronto International Film Festival – and, thanks to Matchbox Cineclub, Crime Wave is having a UK tour. Presented by She Shark Industries and zeroFunction Productions as part of Scalarama.
Chicago Reader review:
New-wave film noir comedy (1985) from Canadian independent John Paizs, about a Winnipeg screenwriter suffering from an odd sort of blockage (he only completes the beginnings and ends of his gory scenarios), who decides to improve his writing skills by taking a course from a psycho sex criminal in Kansas. Well, if Pee-wee Herman was new wave, I guess this must be too, though perhaps that's stretching the ol' elastic a little too far. Like His Infantile Eminence and One Crazy Summer's Savage Steve Holland, Paizs mines a vein of male sexual hysteria beneath the ineffectual clown's disguise; with Pee-wee it's a self-conscious ruse, but I'm not so sure about the other guys. Light and dementedly enjoyable, though the cartoon stuntedness gets to you after a while.
Pat Graham
Here (and above) is an extract.
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