-Written by Kyle Bain.
Vic Ajax (Reed Birney) has been framed for murder, and he’s headed down to the electric chair. As he pleads with the guards, he goes into incredible detail regarding the actual events of a series of murders that have recently plagued his city. Crimewave presents viewers with a handful of highly-animated characters that blur the lines between fact and fiction.
There’s no way you walk away from Crivewave without questioning what the fuck you just watched. Crimewave is a clusterfuck of emotion, a hodgepodge of characters, and a heavily fractured narrative that never really makes much sense. However, the beloved Writer-Director Sam Raimi and Writers Ethan Coen and Joel Coen intentionally created something like this (sort or–as a result of some studio interference), and they are certainly successful in their venture. Is Crimewave a great film? Absolutely not, but it exists within a niche corner of filmmaking that will appeal to some viewers–and those viewers are the ones that the Coen Brothers and Raimi (in his directorial follow up to Evil Dead) looked to reach. Everything going forward comes down to whether or not this film was made for me–and that definitive answer will come soon enough.
One character in particular sticks out to me the most, and that’s Arthur Coddish (Brion James). This character is an enigma, one of a kind–truly unlike anything that I’ve seen before in any art form (and I’d venture to guess, and I pray, that individuals like this don’t exist in the real world). A series of high-pitched screams, terrifying facial expressions, and limited dialogue, Arthur exists as a way to accentuate the insanity present in Crimewave. He plays opposite Paul L. Smith (Faron Crush) as the easily manipulated, effervescent hitman at the center of the conspiracy within the narrative. He reminds me of a unique combination of the three ghosts from Casper (1995), as he possesses a quality that somehow allows him to be both detested and loved. I look back and still cringe and the spine-tingling shrieks that emanated from James, and I’m still met with chills–and still, he’s the aspect of Crimewave that has somehow managed to resonate with me the most.
It’s always fun to read up on some of the production notes, and to learn about the ins and outs of what occurred behind the scenes during the production of a film. Crimewave seems to have been doomed from the start, and it appears that it’s nothing short of a miracle that this film was fully realized and brought to life. Raimi and the Coen Brothers are masterminds, true savants in regard to their respective crafts, and had there been others at the helm, I’m not sure that Crimewave is ever birthed. To some degree, reading up on the issues that plagued this film from the start allowed me to better appreciate it.
Renaldo ‘The Heel’ (Bruce Campbell) is most well known for the roles he’s played in nearly every one of Raimi’s films–and here is no different. Renaldo is one of the most infuriating characters ever to grace the silver screen, but he’s also one of the more enjoyable (and to be clear, I found him delightful throughout). The snarky dialogue presented to Campbell seems almost to be a reflection of the disdain present throughout the course of the film’s production, and seeing that frustration brought to life adds depth to the characters, the narrative, and Crimewave as a whole.
Crimewave is funny, but it’s also so fucking stupid. What are audiences really meant to make of this film? Are they meant to accept this as genuine, as a parody, as something entirely different? One of the things that makes this film so compelling is the fact that I feel it can be taken any number of ways–though, the success of the film still relies heavily on that target audience being reached. There’s depth within certain aspects of Crimewave, even if that depth isn’t obvious and it stems from outside factors. I think you have to do some digging and some soul searching in order to determine whether or not Crimewave is a film for you.
So, am I the target audience? I suppose to some degree that I am, as there were aspects of Crimewave that appealed to me, but there were often moments in which the film felt like it simply existed. Raimi has always been hit or miss for me. Films like Spider-Man and Drag Me to Hell worked for me, but Evil Dead and its cult following is something that has always eluded me in terms of what I consider good cinema. Crimewave exists somewhere in between. Again, there are moments to which I responded with genuine laughter, and others where I questioned whether the Coens and Raimi were successful in their venture into the insane. I do believe that Crimewave possesses a ton of value, but it really takes a specific type of viewer to understand that. Again–the success of anyone viewing Crimewave comes down to whether or not you are the target audience, and in my case I’m enough of a cinephile to fall into that category.
Directed by Sam Raimi.
Written by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, & Sam Raimi.
Starring Louise Lasser, Paul L. Smith, Brion James, Sheree J. Wilson, Edward R. Pressman, Bruce Campbell, Reed Birney, etc.
7/10 = WATCH IT FOR FREE
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