{"product_id":"john-paizss-crime-wave-4","title":"John Paizs's Crime Wave","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eJohn Paizs’s ‘Crime Wave’\u003c\/em\u003e examines the Winnipeg filmmaker’s 1985 cult film as an important example of early postmodern cinema and as a significant precursor to subsequent postmodern blockbusters, including the much later Hollywood film \u003cem\u003eAdaptation\u003c\/em\u003e. \u003cem\u003eCrime Wave\u003c\/em\u003e’s comic plot is simple: aspiring screenwriter Steven Penny, played by Paizs, finds himself able to write only the beginnings and endings of his scripts, but never (as he puts it) “the stuff in-between.” Penny is the classic writer suffering from writer’s block, but the viewer sees him as the (anti)hero in a film told through stylistic parody of 1940s and 50s B-movies, TV sitcoms, and educational films.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eJohn Paizs’s ‘Crime Wave,’\u003c\/em\u003e writer and filmmaker Jonathan Ball offers the first book-length study of this curious Canadian film, which self-consciously establishes itself simultaneously as following, but standing apart from, American cinematic and television conventions. Paizs’s own story mirrors that of Steven Penny: both find themselves at once drawn to American culture and wanting to subvert its dominance. Exploring Paizs’s postmodern aesthetic and his use of pastiche as a cinematic technique, Ball establishes \u003cem\u003eCrime Wave\u003c\/em\u003e as an overlooked but important cult classic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"By Jonathan Ball","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55075356967292,"sku":"9781442670006","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0251\/4980\/0541\/files\/9781442670006_ffcdf5ff-9d92-49c5-877c-6c98e3b92b88.jpg?v=1743626449","url":"https:\/\/combined-academic.myshopify.com\/products\/john-paizss-crime-wave-4","provider":"Combined Academic Publishers - Mare Nostrum Group","version":"1.0","type":"link"}