The Pop Corporation

Funny what people turn into films these days. The latest to surprise us (not unpleasantly, mind) is the movie about indie slacker kings, Pavement. It is called ‘Pavements’ and directed by Alex Ross Perry who we don’t know, but we’re going to assume they love a trucker cap and a plaid shirt and some beat up Vans.

The movie had a world prem at the Venice Film Festival this week, and while this is a scheduled post (there’s no point us lying about that – we say that in case someone’s uploading something to YouTube in the interim), the only place you can see a snippet of it is over on Vanity Fair. Click those words and you can see it yourself.

“You’re only going to get to make one Pavement movie. This isn’t Scorsese getting to make his fourth and fifth Dylan film. So why don’t I just make every Pavement movie that I, as a fan, would ever want to watch—or hate-watch,” Perry told the publication. It’s a fair point, honestly. Nice self deprecation too.

If you are wondering who plays Malkmus, that’d be Joe Keery from Stranger Things – he’s the one with a lot of dark shaggy hair. There’s also Tim Heidecker and Jason Schwartzman too, playing Matador Records honchos Chris Lombardi and Gerard Cosloy.

The clip in question is a spat between the label and the band about playing SNL, and given that there’s a lot of stories about the band which no-one knows if they’re true or not (heard the one about how Pavement were meant to play on 90210 but got in a fight on set before filming anything? Right), there’s a lot to go on whether it’s hearsay, lore, or whatever.

On that note, Perry says: “If you think the scenes in these movies happened, you’re a fool. This is a composite scene. We don’t need to show the seven things he turned down, so we just combine them all into turning down the biggest thing that never got offered.”

“It’s a musical. It’s a museum. It’s a movie. It’s a mosaic. What if the music documentary can actually be a film? I asked this question in June of 2020 when I began talking about this project. I dunno, it’s a weird movie and I’ve never seen anything like it.”

No news on when it’ll be released officially, but it’ll most likely appear in your local indie cinema in 2025.