Her Smell<\/i><\/a>. Ever since, the writer\/\u200bdirector\/\u200bproducer has kept almost exclusively to directing music videos. Or so it seemed. As it turns out, Perry has been hard at work on a\u00a0sprawling, singular band-movie project \u2013 a\u00a0major stylistic departure and a\u00a0magnum opus to date for the once-post-mumblecore filmmaker \u2013 Pavements.<\/p>\nFor those that don\u2019t know going in (like me), Pavement \u2013 or \u200b\u201c<\/span>The Slacker Rolling Stones of the 90<\/span>s\u201d as a\u00a0talking head describes them \u2013 are one of the great disrupters of rock music history, which is funny when you look at a\u00a0picture of them and even funnier when you hear them talk. The scene-shattering, genre-forming band that held indie rock court from 1989<\/span>\u2009\u2013\u20091999<\/span> (with subsequent reunions in the 21<\/span>st<\/sup> century) couldn\u2019t seem less revolutionary.<\/p>\n\n
Get more Little White\u00a0Lies<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Equal parts Pavement band history, 2022<\/span> reunion rehearsal, career museum exhibit, ironic stage musical, 9<\/span>\u2011figure biopic and behind-the-scenes mockumentary, Pavements<\/i> is, above all, a\u00a0trailblazing docufiction without borders. But what\u2019s real and what isn\u2019t?<\/p>\nThe archival footage and the 2022<\/span> reunion tour? Real. The big-budget biopic? Fake. The exhibit? Real \u2013 well, sort of. The jukebox musical in New York City? Real-fake (they did rehearse and have two workshops, but it was never going to run like the movie suggests). The mockumentary? Real\u2026in that it is fake. This movie? We\u2019ll see. There\u2019s no guarantee that whatever we watched\/\u200bparticipated in at Venice isn\u2019t simply the next pseudo-piece of the meta-pie. It wouldn\u2019t be the first fake movie premi\u00e8re of the project.<\/p>\nThe constant blurring of the lines makes for a\u00a0fascinating, often hilarious, watch. The idea that something absurd might be real \u2013 say, like, an actor developing vocal fry to play frontman Stephen Malkmus in the fake movie only to not be able to shake it and regret taking the role altogether \u2013 is comical. But the idea that they wrote this ridiculous thing about themselves (Malkmus is credited for the screenplay alongside Perry) is hysterical, like the numerous direct comparisons to The Beatles, given there is no band less like The Beatles than Pavement.<\/p>\n
This is the latest collaboration between Perry and real-life wizard Robert Greene (Kate Plays Christine<\/i><\/a>, Bisbee \u200b\u2018<\/span>17<\/span><\/i>), who\u2019s made an industry name for himself writing, directing, producing, and editing genre-bending blends of documentary and fiction, making him the perfect editor\/\u200bproducer to understand, clarify and build upon Perry\u2019s ambitious vision to chronicle the\u00a0band.<\/p>\nJoe Keery, Nat Wolff, Fred Hechinger, Tim Heidecker and Jason Schwartzman take roles in the faux-film, with Keery and Schwartzman proving particularly memorable. The former plays himself as a\u00a0ditsy, overcommitted method actor sinking into the role of Malkmus for the upcoming biopic Range Life<\/i>. Fake articles trumpet the anticipated grandeur of the \u200b\u201c<\/span>Paragon Vantage\u201d-produced project and its enormous budget. Schwartzman, on the other hand, is primarily seen in the Range Life dailies as the band\u2019s scrappy manager, delivering over-heartening one-liners while For Your Consideration watermarks on and off screen over swelling music and his hokiest, most emphatic moments.<\/p>\nTo watch Pavements<\/i> is to laugh with Pavement (all of whom were roaring during the premi\u00e8re), to feel in on the joke, and nearly a\u00a0part of the band. In that sense, it captures the artistry, ingenuity and humor of its subject better than an encyclopedic history ever could \u2013 a\u00a0music doc for whom success, in the spirit of Pavement, looks very different.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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