Pavements

How best to commemorate the career of Pavement, one of the defining indie-rock bands of the 1990s? Frontman Stephen Malkmus would likely be opposed to the usual encomiums. A museum exhibition? A jukebox Broadway musical? A prestige movie biopic? Alex Ross Perry (Listen Up Philip, Her Smell) gives us all of the above and more in his pleasurably rule-flouting sorta-documentary. Fueled by a sardonic, tricky sense of humor reminiscent of Pavement’s caustic, idiosyncratic music, Perry’s film shows little patience for hagiography—or any other orthodoxy—in its nonlinear, absurdist approach. Pavements integrates archival footage of the band at the height of their cult popularity, newly shot material following them during their 2022 comeback tour, and a kaleidoscope of semi-scripted contemporary scenes about the shooting of a movie within the movie starring Jason Schwartzman, Fred Hechinger, Nat Wolff, Tim Heidecker, Logan Miller, and a hilarious Joe Keery as an actor seeking awards glory. This irreverent inquiry into mythmaking evinces a deep love for its subject and for a now lost alternative culture.

Join us for a post-screening Q&A with actress and filmmaker Zoe Lister-Jones after the 7:30pm screening on Saturday, May 17.