Written, Cinematography & Directed By: John Paizs
Editor: John Paizs, Gerry Klym and John Coutts
Cast: John Paizs, Eva Kovacs, Darrell Baran, Jeffrey Owen Madden, Tea Andrea Tanner, Mark Hunter, Neal Lawrie, Bob Cloutier
A young director intent on making “the greatest color crime movie ever” can’t seem to finish his script–he has a beginning and an end, but he can’t quite figure out the middle. The daughter of his landlord, excited to have a real “movie person” living nearby, tries to help by putting him in touch with a man who wants to collaborate on a script–the strange “Dr. Jolly”.
Not to be confused with CRIMEWAVE directed By Sam Raimi and written with The Coen Brothers, it bit are throwbacks with a kinetic comedic energy throughout that Involve crime stories.
This movie is fast and loose. It’s silly and feels like a live action cartoon most of the time.
Crimewave feels like flipping through channels in the early days of NICKELODEON (the channel) that strange, electric moment in the 1980s when everything felt handmade, a little off, wildly imaginative, that was strange but you go it and anything was possible. As you were in on it and often the entertainment was Canadian. That comparison oddly fits, because while this is a Canadian production, it’s also brimming with a manic creativity and cartoon energy that is very much not for kids. This is playful cinema with sharp edges.
At its core, the film is a love letter to storytelling itself. It follows a director figure who seems to have at least one true believer in his talent, and through him we experience the flights of fancy that leap from his imagination into reality. The stories he dreams up, the characters he invents, and the worlds he escapes into all blur together, creating a film that feels actively alive—like it’s being written, revised, and reimagined in real time.
There’s an infectious enthusiasm to the way the film moves. We watch this creator live out adventures just as absurd and chaotic as the stories he’s writing, and the movie invites us to get lost alongside him. It’s propelled by voice, motion, and momentum, even when logic takes a backseat. That’s part of the charm and occasionally, part of the problem.
Halfway through, Crimewave reveals itself as a glorious oddity. It doesn’t quite know where it wants to go, and when it finally does arrive somewhere, it feels less like a traditional ending and more like an extended epilogue. The narrative thins out, but it does so in a way that feels intentional. Like the story is less interested in resolution than in wrapping its arms around its own madness.
Adding to the strangeness is the silent protagonist, who never speaks until the very end. Instead, everyone around him fills in the gaps, talking for him, about him, around him. Then turning the film into a chorus of voices orbiting a quiet center. It’s a bold choice, and one that reinforces the idea that this is a world shaped by imagination more than realism.
The film is more mad than you might know as the writer Director cinematographer also plays lead as the filmmaker. I guess that’s one way where you don’t have to worry about missing your lines so this might have been an extent of his imagination, placing himself in other situations or maybe it’s a confessional tale that means something bigger and is all about his writing
The score plays a crucial role in keeping everything suspended in an alternate realm, giving the film its dreamlike quality. Meanwhile, the ensemble cast jumps from character to character in a way that feels chaotic but connected, each performance feeding into the next like a chain reaction of eccentric personalities.
Ultimately, Crimewave is a fun, rare find. A movie that values invention over polish and energy over neatness. Even when it slows down to humanize its characters and ground itself emotionally, it remains entertaining, curious, and oddly endearing. It may not fully behave like a “proper” film, but that refusal is exactly what makes it worth watching.
Grade: B
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