05/09/2023 - VENICE 2023: A couple of messed-up kids hit sleazy New York’s wild side in Olmo Schnabel’s debut feature

Originally titled Pet Shop Boys but recently renamed (owing to legal issues with the band of the same name, perhaps?) Pet Shop Days [+see also:
trailer
interview: Olmo Schnabel
film profile], Olmo Schnabel’s debut feature has had its world premiere in the edgier “Extra” portion of the Orizzonti programme at the 80th Venice International Film Festival. Like his father Julian at times, Schnabel the younger does not shy away from New York’s grittier streets, going the whole nine yards along the way. Pedigree presence is provided by the likes of Willem Dafoe, Emmanuelle Seigner, Peter Sarsgaard, Jordi Mollà, Maribel Verdú, and Dario Yazbek Bernal (Gael García Bernal’s brother), the latter playing the lead together with Jack Irv (also a co-writer). Michel Franco and Martin Scorsese serve as executive producers. The result itself has bits of Abel Ferrara, Larry Clark, Olmo’s dad’s Basquiat and some Midnight Cowboy, in a sleazy mix.

There’s even a Pet Shop Boys reference early on in the film, as Alejandro (Bernal) does a call-in to a radio competition with a chance to win $1,500 if he knows the band behind the song “West End Girls”. His rude, four-letter response to the presenter’s hearty welcome suggests a spoilt kid with a loose-cannon personality. Not that we were in any doubt. The first five minutes, ludicrously intense, show him in bed with his mum, being scolded by his crime-lord dad during a birthday speech, attempting suicide and committing probable manslaughter – all on the same night, down in Mexico. Now he’s escaped to New York, where he feverishly scuttles about, mainly getting “fucked up” (his words).

Meanwhile, another messed-up kid, Jack (Irv, recalling a young Jon Voight) wakes up, gets dumped by his latest girlfriend, hits unsuccessfully on his sister’s French tutor (who is already sleeping with his dad) and heads out for work – in a pet shop. Here, Alejandro turns up and randomly asks for a job. The two kids connect and hit the town, gorging on drugs, strippers and orgies, where they also engage in some mutual coital interaction. Alejandro then comes up with a plan to rob rich widows of their jewellery by entering their homes posing as UPS messengers. Jack, smitten with his new, fun pal, tags along (usually in drag, for some reason). Meanwhile, a Mexican henchman arrives, looking for Alejandro. Also meanwhile, Jack’s dysfunctional family gets ready to finally implode. Things are about to get really fucked up (our words; no other ones really fit here).

Schnabel, an energetic new acquaintance with an advantageous surname, will be an exciting future watch. Any accusations of nepotism should be swiftly brushed aside; he gets meaty performances out of newcomers and seasoned players alike, handles the frantic goings-on with cocky panache and shows a keen sense for imagery. His Upper Manhattan is an entirely different New York than that of Leonard Bernstein in the Venice-competing Maestro, although we more or less move about in the same neighbourhood. It seems there’s still a wild side to be walked for those so inclined.

Pet Shop Days is an Italian-US-UK co-production staged by MeMo, Twin Productions and Storyteller Productions, and co-produced by Tenderstories, 3 Marys Entertainment and ELA Films. Its international sales are overseen by WME Independent.