Perhaps no movie playing at Venice this year was as shrouded in mystery as Alex Ross Perry’s Pavements. We knew it would have something to do with Pavement, the critically beloved but only moderately successful alt-rock band that released five studio albums before breaking up in 1999. And we knew it would not be a traditional music documentary. In interviews, Perry called the film a “semiotic experiment” that would pay tribute to the band’s sardonic humor.