Latest news with #indieband
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Pavements' director Alex Ross Perry spins fiction into one of the year's most fun and must-watch music films
We've seen music documentaries parodied in then past, but nothing's like Alex Ross Perry's Pavements (on Mubi). Part mockumentary, part parody and part biopic, with a jukebox musical production thrown into the mix, it's a particularly fitting execution to reflect the band Pavement. Perry blends different real, fake and satirical elements about the band for this brilliantly chaotic and satisfying film. The Pavement biopic "Rage Life," starring Joe Keery as Stephen Malkmus, isn't real. The stage musical "Slanted! Enchanted!" isn't either. But it also makes for one of the most riveting music films, honouring the legacy of the '90s indie band with a witty intro presenting Pavement as the "most important" band in the world. While it all feels like quite a lofty undertaking, this was the first and only idea Perry presented for Pavements. "There wasn't a version of this before the maximalist version and there was never going to be, ... it was as simple as that," Ross told Yahoo Canada. "My approach was, immediately, it's a documentary that takes place in a fictional world where Pavement are the most successful band of their generation, which is borrowing an opinion shared by their fans, but turning that into a fact." "And in this world, the band is so successful that every form of ancillary legacy storytelling and financial investment in building a museum or making a movie is theirs, and that will be the movie, and that was kind of just a fully formed ... idea." An absolute highlight is Keery, who we see going through method acting-style preparation to play Malkmus. "His work is just undeniable," Ross said. "He's so charming and funny and self-effacing and satirical and committed, and it's risky. He's putting his own name on the line to play this version of himself in a kind of outlandish way. And I found that his agreeing to do the movie and his willingness to play along and f—k around, for lack of a better term, was just so inspiring." "It just felt like this guy who probably gets asked a thousand things just had a lot of trust in me and in this strange project to do something entirely unique. And actors tend to want to do things that are entirely unique." The power of editing In order to a balance each moving piece of the puzzle, Ross credits editor and producer Robert Greene. "Robert Greene, who's the film's editor, and this is our fifth movie together, edited this movie in a way that no one else could have," Ross said. "His ability to both make something that is alive and playful and dynamic, also telling what we feel in a cohesive story, in two hours, and also doing all of this about his favourite band of all time. They're so close to his heart that he's the best and worst person to make something like this, because he loves every single thing about them, and somewhere out of that emerged exactly what we got." But with Greene's skill also came the ability for Pavements to appeal to both Pavement fans and those who have never even heard of the band, something proved at a screening in Toronto during the Departure festival where you saw Pavement newbie getting increasingly invested in this band. "Something that is simply for die-hard fans, it's just not enough," Ross said. "Oftentimes when I watch something about a subject that I am a die-hard fan of, it is clearly only made for me, and it's not the kind of thing I can, for example, convince my wife to watch." "It's just very clear to people when a movie is going to invite you in versus keep you at arm's length as an audience member who may or may not have the correct prior knowledge to really get everything out of the film. And all we ever talked about was that is the only goal we need to be reaching for. ... Maybe you've never heard of them at all and the movie just is its own thing."
Irish Times
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Four new films to see this week: Pavements, Armand, Superman and Modigliani – Three Days on the Wing of Madness
Pavements ★★★★☆ Directed by Alex Ross Perry. Featuring Pavement, Rebecca Clay Cole, Gary Young, Joe Keery, Nat Wolff, Fred Hechinger, Logan Miller, Griffin Newman, Tim Heidecker. No cert, limited release, 128 min Hybris documentary on Pavement, famously eccentric 1990s indie band, from the director of Listen Up, Philip and Her Smell. The film improbably juggles four separate projects (a documentary, a musical, an art exhibit and a fake biopic) into one shaggy, self-aware, mostly made-up opus. It shouldn't work, yet this overstuffed eclair stays sweet. Perry and editor Robert Greene (using split screens and collage techniques) build a dizzying kaleidoscope of timelines, earnestness and glee. What emerges is a film that's as formally adventurous and oddly affecting as the soundtrack. Will appeal to the band's growing Gen Z following. Full review TB Armand ★★★★☆ Directed by Halfdan Ullmann Tondel. Starring Renate Reinsve, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Endre Hellestveit, Thea Lambrechts Vaulen, Oystein Roger, Vera Veljovic. No cert, limited release, 117 min The feature debut from Halfdan Ullmann Tondel – grandson of Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullmann – finds an emergency parent-teacher meeting bubbling into an unnerving psychological crucible. Set within the bland, institutional corridors of a Norwegian primary school, the film chronicles a single afternoon that stretches into a surreal purgatory of suspicion, guilt and something like the compellingly demented choreography of Climax, Gaspar Noé's dance horror. Pal Ulvik Rokseth's cinematography adds claustrophobic weight to labyrinthine passages and isolated nooks. This singular film rightly won the Caméra d'Or for best first feature at Cannes film festival in 2024. Full review TB READ MORE Superman ★★☆☆☆ Directed by James Gunn. Starring David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion. 12A cert, gen release, 120 min Boring, cacophonous return to the Superman pool that, not bothering with any origin stories, throws us straight into broadly comic chaos as Hoult's Lex Luthor seeks to take over the world again. Hilarious references to 'punk rock' are misplaced in an enterprise that cost north of $200 million. The cartoonish closing battles make it clear that, not for the first time, Gunn is striving for high trash, but what he achieves here is low garbage. Utterly charmless. Devoid of humanity. As funny as toothache. Corenswet has so little worthwhile dialogue that his lead performance is hard to rate. Full review DC Modigliani: Three Days on the Wing of Madness ★★★☆☆ Directed by Johnny Depp. Starring Riccardo Scamarcio, Antonia Desplat, Bruno Gouery, Ryan McParland, Al Pacino, Stephen Graham, Luisa Ranieri, Sally Phillips, Philippe Smolikowski, Hugo Nicolau. 15A cert, limited release, 108 min Disappointing news for warring factions that hope Depp's study of Amedeo Modigliani turns out to be either masterpiece or dud. Three Days is no great shakes, but it is rarely embarrassing, either. Adapted from a play by Dennis McIntyre, the film goes among Modigliani (Scamarcio, strong) and his pals in an idealised Paris at the height of the first World War. The more it goes on the clearer it becomes that, though Depp no doubt admires Modigliani's work, his real passion here is for the eternally intoxicating fantasy of Parisian bohemia. Fair enough. The glamour remains. Full review DC
Daily Mail
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Iconic indie band return with first album in seven years - almost two decades after scoring a UK number one with legendary debut single
Popular indie band The Ting Tings have returned with a new album, almost two decades after scoring a UK number one with their debut single. The band, comprised of Katie White and Jules De Martino, released seventh album Home on June 6, shortly after announcing their return to music on social media. Better known for its buoyant indie-pop, the duo has ditched its trademark sound in favour of a '70s inspired collection of songs that draw inspiration from the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Joni Mitchell and The Eagles. Centering on themes of guilt and forgiveness, the album is their first since fourth offering The Black Light was released to mixed reviews in 2018, failing to chart in every country it was released. Long-term couple White and De Martino have since revealed they were inspired to write and record their new songs after welcoming a child during the coronavirus pandemic. 'Having continuously moved around during album cycles from the UK to Los Angeles to Berlin, De Martino and White found Ibiza as their home and have now lived there for many years,' reads an accompanying press release. 'After having their daughter during the pandemic, they sought succour in the foundational musical touchstones of their childhoods. 'As a band that has always self-written and produced they walked into their home studio, and asked themselves a simple question? 'In this new world of profound uncertainty, what felt good? The resulting songs are on the new album, Home.' Good People Do Bad Things, the album's lead single, was released on February 28, followed by the Stevie Nicks inspired Dreaming on April 25. Sharing a teaser of the track with Instagram followers shortly before its release, the returning band wrote: 'We are The Ting Tings. It's been a while.' Formed in Salford, Greater Manchester, The Ting Tings enjoyed enormous success following the release of debut single That's Not My Name in 2007. The song, released as a double A-side with Great DJ, soared to number one in the UK singles chart and an impressive 39 on the US Billboard chart. Debut album We Started Nothing gave the band further exposure after going double platinum in the United Kingdom, where it sold 639,876 copies and mirrored the chart success of its lead single by claiming the number one spot. However their second album, Sounds from Nowheresville, struggled to make the same impact following its release in 2012. Climbing to number 23 on the UK album chart, the release marked a progressive decline in the band's commercial fortunes that would continue with their third album, Super Critical. Released two years after Sounds from Nowheresville, the album limped failed to make an impact in the UK, where it limped to number 111. Citing the band's diverse range of influences in 2014, White said: 'Each record we make will be different from the last in direction and approach. 'As a band we have found identity in change. The way we listen to music today makes us feel that we do not have to be locked in a style forever. 'Fashion is fused, music is explored. Punks are listening to soul, Rockers to hip hop and so forth.' She added: 'As long as there's tunes we can fill in the gaps accordingly. Key differences here…. funk and disco.'
