Studio notes, more often than not, will ask filmmakers to make the characters more likable, to offer the audience someone to root for, even though some of the best films ever made center characters who are quite unlikable and even unredeemable. The trade-off in creating such characters, however, is to provide some reason as to why their plight matters and how their bad decisions illuminate the human experience.
Sometimes, unfortunately, anti-heroes are just obnoxious idiots, and enduring their stories becomes insufferable, as in Pet Shop Days, the directorial debut from Olmo Schnabel, son of artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel. While the film succeeds at capturing the look and atmosphere of New York City–set indie cinema of the 1990s — including a cameo from arthouse stalwart Peter Greene as a desiccated-looking drug dealer — Schnabel fails to elicit empathy for, or even interest in, his lead characters.
Alejandro (Dario Yazbek Bernal) lives on a lavish estate in Mexico with his parents. He’s close to his mother, Karla (Maribel Verdú), but his father Castro (Jordi Mollà) is a rich jerk who doesn’t understand his son and is always getting into arguments with him. Jack (co-writer Jack Irv) lives in a huge Manhattan apartment with his parents. He’s close to his mother, Diana (Emmanuelle Seigner), but his father Francis (Willem Dafoe) is a rich jerk who doesn’t understand his son and is always getting into arguments with him.
The film’s most provocative scene happens early on: Schnabel introduces Alejandro and Karla in such a way that at first they appear to be lovers. They snuggle on a bed, he insists they attend a party that she would rather skip, then he dictates her entire outfit, down to her jewelry and hair choices. (The audience is also meant to clock the fact that Verdú co-starred in Y tu mamá también with Yazbek Bernal’s half-brother, Gael Garcia Bernal.) The party is for Castro’s birthday, and when Castro and Alejandro get into a fight, Alejandro storms off, swallows some pills, gets behind the wheel of a car, and accidentally runs down Karla.
Fleeing to Manhattan, he crosses paths with Jack, who works in a pet store, much to the consternation of Francis, who wants him to get a “real” job or to go back to school. Alejandro and Jack have zero chemistry, but apparently spoiled sons with daddy issues recognize each other, and before long, they’re inseparable. When they kiss, and later have sex, Jack is thrilled, since it’s implied that it’s the first time he’s explored this avenue of his sexuality.
The screenplay (by Irv, Schnabel, and Galen Core) can’t quite figure out the nature of Alejandro’s exile — he seems to be hiding out from Castro, but then Castro seems to know exactly where he is. Alejandro lives it up in a fancy hotel, living off room service, but he also commits petty crimes for cash. Jack, meanwhile, is upset to discover that Francis is having an affair with his daughter’s tutor, but his bratty, overemotional response to this family betrayal reads more like the actions of a tween than a twentysomething.
Director of photography Hunter Zimny (Funny Pages) recalls the on-the-fly, available-light look of low-budget classics of yore, capturing the kind of breathless scramble usually associated with films shooting in the five boroughs without a permit. (With a lengthy roster of executive producers that includes Martin Scorsese, Pet Shop Days presumably had its paperwork in order.) The film’s look is its most exciting element, and as such, it will probably appeal most to younger viewers who might not have been exposed to movies like Liquid Sky or Spike of Bensonhurst.
Where the film collapses is in the amour fou of its two leads; whether it’s Gun Crazy, Pierrot Le Fou, Badlands, or The Living End, there’s got to be a spark, with at least one of the leads irresistibly sexy before going around the bend to full-bore psychopathy. Alejandro isn’t the kind of bad-boy who gradually reveals a dark side; he essentially carries a neon “STAY AWAY, I’M BAD NEWS” sign for the entire film. It’s only because Jack is such a clueless naïf that he gets drawn in, but the audience is left to wonder how someone who grew up in New York City can be this easy a mark.
Of the veterans, Verdú gets the most out of her limited screen time — after The Flash, this marks the second film this year where she steals the show with an underwritten mom character — while Dafoe (terrific in another Venice entry, Poor Things) offers up one of his shoutiest performances that doesn’t involve a Green Goblin mask.
Schnabel clearly has access to resources as a young filmmaker, and perhaps he will learn on the job if he continues to pursue the craft. There’s at least enough promise on display in Pet Shop Days to make that prospect seem appealing.
Director: Olmo Schnabel
Screenwriters: Olmo Schnabel, Jack Irv, Galen Core
Cast: Jack Irv, Dario Yazbek Vernal, Willem Dafoe, Peter Sarsgaard, Maribel Verdú, Jordi Mollà, Camille Rowe, Emmanuelle Seigner, Louis Cancelmi
Producers: Galen Core, Olmo Schnabel, Alex Coco, Francesco Melzi d’Eril, Gabriele Moratti, Marie Savare De Laitre
Executive producers: Giovanni Corrado, Raffaella Viscardi, Moreno Zani, Malcom Pagani, Renato Ragosta, Livio Strazzera, Theo Niarchos, Aimone Ripa Di Meana, PJ Van Sandwijk, Peter Brant Jr., Michel Franco, Reka Posta, Jeremy O. Harris, Martin Scorsese
Director of photography: Hunter Zimny
Production design: Madeline Sadowski
Costume design: Bruno Dicorcia, Holly McClintock
Editing: Sophie Corra
Music: Eli Keszler
Sound: Ash Knowlton, production sound mixer
Production companies: MeMo, Storyteller Productions, Tenderstories, 3 Marys Entertainment, ELA Films
In English and Spanish
100 minutes
