The Pitch: In late ’80s Stockton, California, Stephen Malkmus and his buddy Scott Kannberg have been fuckin’ round. They have been fuckin’ round with bizarre sounds, lo-fi recording tools, and crackpot concepts. Ultimately, these crackpot concepts started to draw some native consideration and, finally, some not-so-local consideration. Quickly, they’d expanded to a full band lineup and have been seemingly on tempo to turn out to be a defining voice of left-of-center guitar music. They have been Pavement.
Did they stay as much as the early, maybe barely hyperbolic accolades of faculty disk jockeys and journal critics? In some ways, with out query. In 2025, Pavement are constantly (and rightfully) hailed as some of the influential acts of the ’90s. And, hey, we’re nonetheless speaking about them — that counts for one thing, no? However have been they a fixture of pop music on the time, topping charts and main pageant payments like their tour-mates-turned-rivals Smashing Pumpkins? Nicely, it’s a sophisticated story.
That’s the story director Alex Ross Perry seeks to discover along with his new music documentary/biopic/meta joke/thingy Pavements. Unexpectedly, the movie serves as a conventional rockumentary full with archival footage and retrospective interviews, a doc of the manufacturing of the very actual Pavement jukebox musical Slanted! Enchanted!, a tour vlog of the band’s 2022 reunion tour, and a behind-the-scenes have a look at a fictional big-budget Hollywood biopic about Malkmus and the gang. For a film a few bunch of parents generally known as slackers, it’s a wild experience.
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A Slanted, Enchanted Construction: So, how does Pavements steadiness its varied components? Fairly nicely, truly.
Like an excellent avant-garde tune, Perry buildings his movie through recurring, intertwined segments. The viewer is launched backwards and forwards by way of the years, typically spending time with the younger Pavement members, typically with the current-day musicians, and typically with the likes of Joe Keery, who portrays Malkmus in Vary Life, the aforementioned fictional biopic.
On paper, it’s rather a lot to maintain monitor of. The viewing expertise, nevertheless, is remarkably clean and simple to observe, even with distinctive enhancing decisions like shifting side ratios and split-screen shows. Alongside the best way, parallel themes construct on one another to kind an imperfect however extraordinarily consultant mosaic of how Pavement took over the underground within the ’90s and what their enduring legacy means right now.
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Of the entire weaving plot threads, although, the event of the Slanted! Enchanted! musical sadly comes throughout because the weakest. There’s undoubtedly novelty in seeing the manufacturing come collectively, in addition to in listening to traditional Pavement cuts recontextualized into present tunes, however in comparison with all the pieces else Pavements has to supply, the theater sequences stand out as fairly a bit thinner. It’s clearly the side of the movie that the band members themselves had the least quantity of involvement in, and watching interviews with performers who admit to solely studying concerning the band within the audition course of, these segments really feel lower than substantive.
Fortunately, the movie by no means lingers in a single place for too lengthy, which means that the Slanted! Enchanted! subplot not often overstays its welcome. As a substitute, its nuggets of attraction serve their goal and it’s again to the band spinning the story of their unimaginable five-album run or Jason Schwartzman and Tim Heidecker portraying pivotal, dramatized, even perhaps absolutely invented moments from Pavement’s previous.
Navigating a Minefield of Sarcasm: The place the movie actually captures the essence of Pavement is in its tone, mixing a really Era X sardonic view of the world and “the person” with actual emotion and real sincerity.
As a band, Pavement existed as one thing of a contradiction. Oftentimes, they made inventive and profession choices that have been seemingly designed to maintain their highlight from burning too scorching. There’s their legendary, nearly mocking efficiency of “Lower Your Hair” on The Tonight Present, the legends of them turning down varied syndication alternatives and tv appearances, and their famously tumultuous relationship with Smashing Pumpkins and Lollapalooza (all of that are addressed in some trend within the movie). On the similar time, clips from Pavements showcase Malkmus expressing aspirations of reaching as many listeners as potential, scoring a success, and attaining sustainable success.
Which a kind of variations of Pavement most faithfully resembles the reality? Who is aware of; Possibly each, perhaps neither, however the mythology of their punk perspective, inner conflicts, and ever-present sarcasm has turn out to be integral to the band’s legacy. Pavements, well, leans absolutely into it.
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Perry is clearly not considering charting out the ‘official, definitive story of the band Pavement.’ Certain, he presents a common arch of the band and consists of fascinating anecdotes, however Pavements is way more of an try and have a good time and embody the indescribable magic that has led to the act’s cult standing.
Such a aim informs each minute of Pavements, none extra overtly than the satirical Vary Life. Footage of Keery and his fellow castmates getting ready for his or her roles, over-the-top and sappy scenes from the fictional undertaking, and even “For Your Consideration” adverts are all introduced with a straight face. In consequence, it’s tough to parse out what precisely is actual and what isn’t, a paranoia that (by design) even barely infects the extra conventional elements of the documentary.
The Verdict / The Most Necessary Band within the World: As a holistic assertion, Pavements units out to show that Pavement was/is a very powerful band on this planet. That sentiment is explicitly acknowledged inside the movie, and whereas it’s not solely clear how critically us viewers are supposed to take it, the movie does a fairly rattling good job at convincing you of its case.
By the top of its runtime, even the mildest of Pavement followers will possible have been swept up within the mystique of the band. The aesthetics, the presentation, the band members, and the final word narrative (nevertheless true or unfaithful it might be) are all, put plainly, fucking cool. It doesn’t harm that the entire thing is soundtracked by nice Pavement tune after nice Pavement tune, too.
Pavements is a genuinely distinctive watch that turns the thought of a rockumentary the wrong way up. It directly delivers upon followers’ thirst to be taught extra concerning the band whereas respecting the truth that their inconsistent story is a part of the attraction.
Above all, even with its sardonic humorousness, it’s a undertaking with a coronary heart of gold, one made by Pavement followers for Pavement followers. Very like Pavement’s finest work, it’s not quote-unquote “flawless,” but it surely simply is likely to be excellent for the weirdos who by no means obtained down with perfection within the first place.
The place to Watch: Pavements is ready to return to theaters for a restricted run beginning June sixth and can be accessible to stream on Mubi later this 12 months.
Trailer: