"Pavements" film about legendary indie band drops trailer starring "Stranger Things" Joe Keery

The film is directed by Alex Ross Perry, who helmed the excellent 2019 movie "Her Smell," but figuring out just what it is seems difficult. It definitely isn't a straightforward documentary. The band appears, at least the five-piece version of the band that existed from "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain" on (R.I.P. Gary Young). However, there's also a fictional version of the band in the movie, with Keery playing frontman Stephen Malkmus. That would appear to be part of "Pavements," but also there are parts of "Pavements" that are about the making of this fake biopic, as Keery clearly is appearing as himself as well.

While the whole thing seems pretty heady and complicated for a quintessential "slacker" band that seemed to make a point of trying as little as possible, it does appear in line with the iconoclastic nature of a band that always seemed to try and keep the mainstream at bay (and who, as the movie intimates, played a key role in the dissolution of the original iteration of Lollapalooza). Also, we know we have used parenthetical asides quite a bit, but that does feel fitting for discussing a movie that is clearing couching ideas inside ideas inside ideas.

"Pavements" will be released nationwide on June 6. Nationwide doesn't mean "in a ton of theaters," of course. This might be too specific a movie even for summer blockbuster counterprogramming. However, it seems like a fascinating, experimental dive into perhaps the most-influential indie rock band in history.