Docs: Pavements

The nineties band Pavement was the "most influential and best band in the world," claims director Alex Ross Perry. And so he made Pavements, a fragmented mix of documentary and fiction unlike any other film about a rock group. Exactly what the American band's whimsical rock songs deserved.

Pavement was one of the most striking American indie bands of the 1990s. The quintet led by Stephen Malkmus has been back together for a few years now. Their first creative project isn't a new album, but this meta-film. And no, the plural "Pavements" isn't a typo, because Perry looks at the band in various ways. He's charting the preparations for their reunion, directing the off-Broadway jukebox musical Slanted and Enchanted featuring Pavement songs, and working on a classic biopic titled Range Life. And then there's the Pavement exhibition, which paints a fictionalized picture of the band. 

Young music lovers will no doubt recognise Joe Keery (the Stranger Things actor who makes music as Djo and plays a youthful Stephen Malkmus here) and Natt Wolff (of The Naked Brothers Band) as enthusiastic band members.