Pavements Review: The World’s Most Important Movie About the World’s Most Important Band

In Pavements, director Alex Ross Perry and editor Robert Greene subvert the musical biopic genre and use the medium itself to capture the very essence of the band “Pavement”.

That’s the kind of self-aware absurdity you’ll find in writer-director Alex Ross Perry’s movie, which is described in the press notes as “a documentary that may or may not be entirely true, may or may not be totally sincere, and may or may not be more about the idea of the band—or any band—than a history of Pavement.” The description is fitting, as the film is in no way a traditional biopic, but rather, an amalgamation of subjects that are somehow connected to the self-described “World’s Most Important & Influential Band” – a band that revolutionized the US lo-fi indie music scene and that still remains unknown to many despite their influence on the genre.

Besides telling us the story of how Pavement’s five members – singer-songwriter Stephen Malkmus, guitarist Scott Kannberg, bassist Mark Ibold, drummer Steve West, percussionist Bob Nastanovich, and original drummer Gary Young – met and went on to give birth to a sound that defined a generation, Pavements also focuses on various projects involving the band. Back in 2022, to celebrate the band’s reunion after their “break up & it’s not a big deal” in 1999, Pavement did four things: a reunion tour, a museum exhibition in Tribeca, a rock biopic called Range Life, and (wait for it) a stage musical, appropriately titled “Slanted! Enchanted!” after one of their most successful albums.

The film encompasses all these projects into one unconventional biopic that also includes footage of the band as well as scenes in which actors Joe Keery, Nat Wolff, Logan Miller, Griffin Newman and Fred Hechinger play – or, rather, prepare to play, and occasionally think they’ve become – the five members of the band, joined by Jason Schwartzman as Matador Records founder Chris Lombardi.

On paper, it shouldn’t work, but this is no ordinary band. We’re talking about a band whose stage antics included anything from interrupting songs halfway through to distributing leaves to the crowd, and who count hilariously titled songs like “Grave Architecture” and “Summer Babe (Winter Version)” in their repertoire. Pavement embodies pure chaos, but with a controlled, self-aware attitude that has always defined their work and drawn people to them. Which is why it’s not only appropriate but also pure genius to have the documentary itself embody the very essence of the band by simply existing.

If you’re a fan of Pavement, you’ll adore Alex Ross Perry’s film. You’ll find yourself laughing for its entire runtime, as more and more improbable facts about the band are revealed, with Joe Keery acting as a tour guide throughout it all, never breaking out of character – that character being not Stephen Malkmus, but a fictionalized version of Joe Keery who prepares to play Stephen Malkmus. There’s a point where he even explains that he’s doing this to win an Oscar, and the film’s inclusion of highly dramatic exchanges with a “for your consideration” caption is only one of the many clever devices the film uses to make you laugh.

Some of the people at my screening – particularly those who had never heard of Pavement – were puzzled by Pavements‘ narrative choices, but many were won over by it by the end, and even ended up learning a lot about the band throughout it all. The issue, here, is that there isn’t a huge deal of material to be found about Pavement out there; Ross Perry and editor Robert Greene have found a way to overcome this, all while avoiding the talking heads format and using the film itself to introduce the band to us.

So what if Pavements isn’t a traditional biopic? The film feels like exactly the right way to tell the story of this specific band, and it working so well – as a product that’s not only entertaining and innovative, but also informative, as biopics should be – is a testament to the talent both in front of and behind the camera. By the time the credits roll, you’ll feel like you’ve known the band all along, and you’ll find yourself inexplicably attached to them, as if they were old friends you had forgotten all about. You’ll exit the screening singing their lyrics out loud and wanting to watch it over and over again.

Pavements had its World Premiere at the Venice Film Festival on August 4, 2024.