‘Pavements’: Venice Review

Dir. Alex Ross Perry. US. 2024. 128 minutes.

That US indie outfit Pavement was ‘The World’s Most Essential and Influential Band’, as billed in Alex Ross Perry’s movie, would possibly come as a shock to those that should not followers. However to anybody who spent the 90s listening to the band’s witty, melodic, subtly eccentric songs, the declare made – nonetheless whimsically – in Pavements  isn’t too far off the mark. Directly a documentary concerning the band and its latest reside reunion, and a fictional embroidery round its standing (and missed alternatives), Pavements  is a joyous, slyly subversive celebration that, whereas unlikely to influence newcomers to the music, however catches the band’s wayward spirit, in addition to the downright ordinariness that got here as an alternative choice to the bloated rock band ethos. 

A joyous, slyly subversive celebration 

Connoisseurs of rock docs will definitely benefit from the oddness of Perry’s strategy which, in its artfully confounding manner, recollects the tale-spinning mischief of Martin Scorsese’s 2019 Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story. Following Ceremony Right here Ceremony Now, his live performance film for the band Ghost, Pavements sees Perry taking part in quick and free with the details, in collaboration with editor Robert Greene and DoP Robert Kolodny, each referred to as administrators of perplexing doc-fiction hybrids (respectively, Kate Performs Christine  and boxing film The Featherweight). 

Shaped in 1989, in Stockton, California, by guitar-playing duo Stephen Malkmus and Scott Kannberg (a.ok.a. Spiral Stairs), Pavement ranked excessive amongst American alt-indie bands, partly by advantage of practically attaining widespread success, with a sure public profile but in addition the stigma of being a critics’ favorite. Pavements comprises ample footage from its 90s prime, together with performances of songs from 5 studio albums, plus present-day footage centered on three main occasions coinciding with the band’s reunion tour.

One is the opening of a Pavement museum, that includes memorabilia together with the band’s adverts for Apple and Absolut vodka. One other is the stage present Slanted! Enchanted!, a jukebox musical constructed across the songs. And the third is the filming of a Hollywood biopic of the band, entitled Vary Life  and starring Joe Keery from Stranger Issues  as a troubled, broody Mallkmus and Jason Schwarzman as Matador Information boss Chris Lombardi.

Spoiler alert! Pavements  isn’t remotely what it seems. Regardless of extracts from Vary Life, seen in tough screener-style clips labelled ‘For Your Consideration’, there is no such thing as a such characteristic – though it’s enjoyable watching Keery play himself as an anguished Technique-style perfectionist doggedly engaged on his Malkmus. And Vary Life  is wryly believable in its generic scenes about music bosses leaning on recalcitrant artists to supply extra business product. 

Nor did Pavement ever do Apple or Absolut adverts – though a pop-up exhibition, together with cleverly faked artefacts, did happen in New York in 2022. Equally, Perry really staged Slanted! Enchanted!  over three nights in New York in December 2022. What we see of it suggests a ripely preposterous conceptual gag – the concept being to take ironic slacker songs “and put them in probably the most honest type doable, musical theatre.” Even if you happen to don’t know the repertoire, you’ll choose up on the counterintuitive frisson created by having a younger, starry-eyed refrain earnestly emoting to the outré lyrics – and oddly rousing melodies – of songs like ‘Gold Soundz’ and ‘Spit on a Stranger’.

Extra straightforwardly factual materials reveals some the reason why Pavement was too refractory, or simply plain down-to-earth, to attain rock star standing (though Malkmus went on to take pleasure in a cult solo profession). Included are anecdotes concerning the late Gary Younger, the band’s mercurial, exhibitionistic first drummer, and contributions from Kim Gordon, previously of Sonic Youth, who praises Pavement whereas noting that it could possibly be “annoyingly boyish”. Boyish they could have been, however Oasis-style macho they weren’t, and the goofy, sweetly cerebral appeal of a subtly unusual band is captured on this ingenious tribute.