Pavements (2025)

IMDb plot summary: Documentary about the American indie band Pavement, which combines scripts with documentary images of the band and a musical mise-en-scene composed of songs from their discography.

Directed by Alex Ross Perry.

Pavements is a pseudo-documentary about the 90s rock band Pavement, composed of interviews and footage of the band alongside the filming of a spoof biopic, a jukebox musical of the band's work, and a museum exhibition. Even after reading through the Wikipedia I'm still not entirely confident I could tell you how much of this was real and how much is not. I knew nothing at all about this band, and this was definitely a unique way of learning more about them... if not a particularly helpful one. As I said, so much of this is apparently not true that I kind of lost interest in tracking it. The made-up movie is presented as too realistic, to the point where it doesn't have the plot or throughline I'd expect for something made up. It's not informative enough as a doc nor entertaining enough as fiction, and so it kind of sits in between for me. The most enjoyable parts were the ones that WERE in fact accurate, or commentary on what made Pavement special to people. It was the only piece where I felt like I actually got to know something about the band. The vibe I get is that that deliberate distance and (something of an) "F you" to the audience is very much a part of the band's branding, in which case, well, they nailed it, but it wasn't appealing to me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Pavements (2025)

📊 Ranked #2889/4175 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 31

lost to The Sparks Brothers (held at #2090)

beat Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (#3132 → #3133)

lost to The Inspector General (held at #2613)

lost to Mr. Right (held at #2872)

beat Braveheart (#3002 → #3003)

beat Another Thin Man (#2937 → #2938)

beat Double Jeopardy (#2904 → #2905)

lost to Run Lola Run (held at #2888)

beat Marry Me (#2896 → #2897)

beat Captain Fantastic (#2892 → #2893)

beat Red Notice (#2890 → #2891)

beat Hal King (#2889 → #2890)