Slideshow
PAVEMENTS
Opens Friday, May 2
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY ALEX ROSS PERRY
The ‘90s indie rock group Pavement — birthed in Stockton, California; led by laid-back, inscrutable singer-songwriter Stephen Malkmus; and responsible for fan favorite songs “Here,” “Cut Your Hair,” “Stereo,” as well as the B-side-turned-viral hit, “Harness Your Hopes” — quietly disbanded in 1999, and reunited in 2022 for a triumphant world tour. Director Alex Ross Perry (LISTEN UP PHILIP) and producer/editor Robert Greene (Film Forum premiere BISBEE ’17) interweave fact and fiction as the revitalized band shares the screen with rehearsals for a stage musical (Slanted! Enchanted!, featuring jukebox musical singers Kathryn Gallagher of Jagged Little Pill and Michael Esper of American Idiot), readings for a biopic (RANGE LIFE, starring Joe Keery of Stranger Things as Malkmus) and a pop-up museum exhibition in Tribeca. A rock documentary that sidesteps the conventions and pitfalls of the genre, packed with Pavement’s finest gold soundz.
Presented with support from the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation Fund
2024 128 MIN. USA UTOPIA
Trailer
Reviews
“Dazzles as a spinning plates act…gleefully exposing the self-aggrandizing nature of most musician biopics.”
– Stephen Saito, Variety
“The band’s legendary status, quickly achieved in the early ’90s indie underground, has always felt somewhat at odds with the sense of shaggy self-effacement that their critics often mistook for a conscious lack of effort. Wisely anticipating that the traditional rock-doc format would be a poor fit for such a group, Perry has crafted a far less easily classifiable tribute…Perry’s humorously Cubist portrait finds a fitting balance between reverence and mischievousness.”
– Brad Hanford, Slant Magazine
“A SURREALIST LOVE LETTER TO THE ’90s INDIE TITANS. Director Alex Ross Perry takes a bracingly original approach to the music documentary in this portrait of the iconic 1990s indie band Pavement. Blending fact and fiction in intriguing and unexpected ways, the film is consistently entertaining and can be enjoyed whether you’re a longtime fan of the band or a total newcomer…In short, this is a thrillingly creative music documentary that serves as a loving tribute to the band and the sense of fun that Perry is having behind the camera is both palpable and infectious.”
– Matthew Turner, NME (UK)
Critic’s Pick. “Pavement might not have really been the most important band ever, but PAVEMENTS is an important documentary. It’s a reminder that the fourth (and fifth and sixth) wall can be smashed, that the rock doc can be reinvented.”
– Adam Solomons, IndieWire
“A joyous, slyly subversive celebration that…catches the band’s wayward spirit, as well as the downright ordinariness that came as an alternative to the bloated rock band ethos…The goofy, sweetly cerebral charm of a subtly strange band is captured in this ingenious tribute.”
– Jonathan Romney, Screen
