‘Pavements’ review: A slanted, charming biopic-prank documentary

Every team has its biggest fans. The ’90s slacker/alt rock band Pavement is probably the most important band out there a personbut from its opening frames, Alex Ross Perry’s Pavements downplays the magnitude of this idea, overridingly mocking the party’s status in its original text. In an era of so many biopic musicals, this is a semi-ironic, recent take on Perry – part drama, part documentary, and part Perry. mockumentally — it may just be what the doctor says.

For those who have only a passing knowledge of the Stockton, California, rockers – Stephen Malkmus, Bob Nastanovich, Scott Kannberg, Steve West, and Mark Ibold – this way of showing the film of the group’s concert may seem ineffective, but it also completely covers their weakness, the experiment. the front of the church. The unique form of Perry’s film has its strengths and problems. However, like Pavement itself, what sets the film apart is its complete refusal to adhere to tradition. It is, for better or for worse, unique.

What Pavements about?

With split screens comparing the group’s breakup in the late ’90s and their reunion in 2022, Pavements you establish a sense of dual perspective and narrative early on. Although the film ends up narrating the lives of its members (and the life of the group as a whole) in a slightly sequential way, this comparison shows what seems to be the film’s remarkable limits: a story of early success later given a new lease on life. However, the strange nature of the group’s revival soon becomes apparent, revealing just how good this movie really is.

Much of the film appears on a split-screen, which has become a common practice in music documentaries, since Todd Haynes’ Rothko-inspired. The Velvet Underground self-generating, new-every-time Eno. However, Pavements you use this indicator for the purpose of getting into the cheek early. On the other hand, the band’s lead singer Stephen Malkmus expresses his youthful, perhaps absurd philosophies in a decades-old video. On the other hand, actor Joe Keery (Steve Harrington in Stranger Things) begins to say the same words, with strikingly similar names. This reveals – ironically, and surprisingly – that the original film titles exist as well as their fictional versions, a group of young actors (including the likes of Nat Wolff and Griffin Newman) starring in the film called. Range Lifean award-winning celebrity biopic.

The Doctor vacillates between presenting the making of this ridiculous project and presenting it as a film within a film, its images sprinkled throughout. Pavements (complete with its “For Your Consideration” watermark, as if it were an awards pollster). Perry actually directed and directed this feature-length, Bohemian Rhapsody-style satire in New York last year – Veteran actors such as Jason Schwartzman and Tim Heidecker are cast in biopic stock roles, such as a band manager and a record manager – with the aim of including this first shot in a documentary.

Soon, Pavements begins to document not only the band itself, but the development of three similar artistic projects that accompany the group’s recent reunion: the aforementioned film, a museum installation dedicated to the group, and It’s tilted! Enchanted!a Broadway-style jukebox song featuring Michael Esper and Zoe Lister-Jones from the group’s discography.

Pavements takes a diverse approach to its studies.

The film cuts between its four aforementioned trajectories – the band and its performance, the biopic and its creation, the museum, and the exhibition, each with its own dedicated, almost screen-sized amount of time – with reckless abandon. However, these topics can be linked to two interesting axes. On the other hand, the old photos of the band, compared to their museum memorabilia, serve to contrast the past with the present, and ultimately create a chronology, although not chronologically. On the other hand, the biopic project is tongue-in-cheek, as if it’s more about the biopic genre than Pavement itself, and as such, includes the band’s funniest songs. But this couldn’t feel more different from a musical theater project, drawing from the group’s words and songs to create an honest story (this show also made its debut, in 2022).

While Pavements it may seem like it’s moving for the first two hours, the quick cutting between these four modes helps to piece together a complete fabric – about the group’s story then and now, and the conflict between their method and the meaning of their work. While watching the movie, you may not feel like you’re learning something about the band or its members, but that means you’re not reading things in the linear, literal language established by most music documentaries and biopics.

However, the most entertaining parts of the film are undoubtedly those involving Keery, who recounts his fictional preparation process in painstaking detail. More than anything or anyone Pavementsthe actor seems to embody the spirit of the group with his own Borat-like pranks, where he hangs out with talking coaches to prepare for his role as Malkmus and meets different people he thinks can help him stay in shape. Ideally, it is only a musical film Pavements it’s like any fashion Popstar: Never Stop Never Stop.

What does Pavements actually you have to say about the band Pavement?

The film, in its head-spinning way, goes to great lengths with a movie-within-a-movie, all but fully presenting itself in its time. However, this extended lark isn’t really about the band, per se, the way the other parts are – none of it is enough to make any viewer a Pavement expert. Beyond a few dates and events, you probably won’t get out of it Pavements you know more about its members and their college disc jockey days than you did when you walked in, which understandably raises the question: “What’s the point?”

The point, it might seem, lies in the making of the film itself, as an anti-biopic that opposes everything conventional Hollywood biopic – or rather, what it stands for. If Pavement were an anti-establishment band, then Pavements its an anti-establishment film made with their participation. In presenting a wonderful vision of what a straight biopic could look like, Perry helps them avoid overly critical re-canonization.

In a way, he helps those who end up new. Bands, when they reach a certain age or limit, become invisible cover acts, too Pavements is determined to prevent this from happening at all costs, even if it means making a film on the edge of the avant-garde that might alienate part of its audience.

Still, even when the various narrative threads come into play Pavements starts to roll, the movie remains an engaging sensory experience, given how much screen time is devoted to performance videos, both original and recreated. At the end of the day, despite the tricks and antics Perry pulls, he knows full well that the reason people show up for music biopics in the first place – and the reason they’re made to begin with – is the music that connects to people’s music. emotions. This, he delivers in spades, while maintaining respect for Pavement by being, well, disrespectful.

Pavements it currently has no theatrical or digital release date.

Update: Sep. 25, 2024, 4:51 pm EDT Pavements premiered on September 7, 2024, for its World Premiere at the Venice International Film Festival. This post has been updated to reflect the New York Film Festival premiere.