Reviews

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  ★★★★★ review by Evan "Video Freak" Pincus on Letterboxd

  (Yell text of review as loud as you are able. If an exclamation point is not included, it's implied. Please watch this movie, it's a masterpiece.)

  THE TOP! FEW FILMS MADE IT! ON THE EAST COAST THERE WAS LARRY COHEN'S "THE STUFF", A CARTOONY TRIBUTE TO CLASSIC MONSTER MOVIES. THE DEEP SOUTH WAS TOM SCHILLER'S "NOTHING LASTS FOREVER", A DREAMLIKE RETRO ODDITY THAT NEVER MADE IT OUTSIDE THE STUDIO DOORS, SAVE FOR RARE SCREENINGS AND EVEN RARER TELEVISION BROADCASTS. THE WEST COAST WAS IN THE GRIP OF BRIAN DE PALMA'S "PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE", THE MOST ACCLAIMED HORROR PHANTASY OF ITS TIME. BETWEEN THOSE CLASSIC FLICKS, EVAN'S FAVORITE MOVIES SEEMED PRETTY WELL SEWED UP! NEW FILMS HAD IT TOUGH BREAKING IN! BUT! FROM THE NORTH, THERE WAS COMING ONE MOVIE THAT WOULD SMASH THE ORDER AND SHAPE AN ALL NEW AND ALMIGHTY CINEMA EMPIRE! ITS NAME... WAS "CRIME WAVE". ITS DIRECTOR, JOHN PAIZS, HAD... A DREAM.

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  ★★★★½ review by Joe on Letterboxd

  I left the theater wishing that "color crime" was an actual genre, but then I realized it is - it's just this movie.

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  ★★★★★ review by Evan "Video Freak" Pincus on Letterboxd

  "The beginning went like this..."

  I believe there's a 35MM print of this somewhere out there. I hope one day I get to see it.

  
  
  EDIT: 2K restoration, my mistake. Still.

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  ★★★★★ review by Patrick Pryor on Letterboxd

  One of those movies so on my wavelength that I wish I could watch it again as soon as it ended. I couldn't even find a copy at I Luv Video, so I didn't have a chance to watch this l'il masterpiece until tonight in a glorious restored print!

  Boy am I glad I caught it! I really loved the multiple narrative frames within this film: a girl looking in on a tenant in her garage while also peeping his aborted color crime movie scripts. The sneak peeks at the scripts stood out for me by far -- hyper stylized in a fashion that hit the sweet spot in my brain. Cover musicians fighting to the top, a self help fanatic bashing in his skull, a dog driving a car. I felt like my thoughts had been projected onto the screen. I also haven't laughed so hard during a movie in ages. My favorite bits: "The Last White Man in South Africa," choking a wheelchair-bound woman with Milk Bones, "the bitch-goddess success!"

  I really liked the unique structure of this movie, too. It works as both a coming of age tale, a commentary on filmmaking, and a deeper and deeper probe into the mind of an obviously disturbed man. I actually found the naïveté of the narrator super funny. Despite reading all these insane scribblings about murder and suicide and describing Steven as a "quiet man," the narrator simply thinks he's a swell guy who loves movies. SO GOOD. I can't believe I spent 27 years in the game without this movie in my life.

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  ★★★★½ review by Paul Corupe on Letterboxd

  Canada’s best comedy film is a ramshackle, pop-culture embracing labour of love that only gets better with time.

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