When teenagers Jacqueline (Mallory Wanecque) and Clotaire (Malik Frikah) first meet, she, still at school, stands up to this leader of a “gang of deadbeats”. “I’ll call you Jackie,’’ he tells her.

This prismatic portrait of the 1990s indie rockers plays at the Hi-Pointe Theatre from June 2-5. The band Pavement has always straddled the line between sincerity and irony, whether in interviews, ...