Be Gay, Do Crime: Olmo Schnabel’s ‘Pet Shop Days’ is a Thrilling Tale About Family, Vice, and Being Young In New York City
One of the most thrilling premieres from SXSW 2024 is this queer New York love story that will make you miss being young and stupid.
When you’re a New Yorker, you can’t help it — talking about “the energy” of the city. Derisive and jaded as New Yorkers are, we become fanatical (though not sentimental) when talking about our city. But no matter the specifics we dredge up, it always comes down to that intangible feeling of being in —and of — New York. That elusive “energy” that’s so hard to capture in speech and even harder to render on film or TV in a way that does justice to the city.
Think of the rare cinema that manages to make New York feel like New York. Imbued with that energy, that spirit, but also told each time from a refreshing perspective. It’s why Breakfast at Tiffany's and Taxi Driver can seem to be polar opposite films but both tell a true story about Manhattan. It’s why, watching Pet Shop Days, I was instantly transported to a city I know and love. Yet it felt so new in this violent, sex-fueled saga about coming of age and in love in the greatest city in the world.
“It’s a fantasy that talks about a lot of real, tangible things, but it's definitely a New York fantasy,” explained Director Olmo Schnabel about his thrilling, visionary debut.
But what is this fantasy of? The city? Love? Being young and reckless in New York? Although there’s something approaching romance in the film’s premise, it doesn’t paint a romantic picture of any of the themes it explores — family, queerness, youth. Instead, it takes you to the underbelly of the city, like Orpheus journeying to Hades, and dares you to glance back at your own coming of age and all its messy, regrettable, but unforgettably intense parts of your past.
Much like its main character Alejandro (Dario Yazbek Bernal) seduces Jack (Jack Irv), this is how Pet Shop Days seduces you: by inviting you to explore your darkest impulses.
“Right now, everything's so censored and calculated,” says Schnabel about why he made such a film. “I thought that the film and the ideas behind it were very free.” He hopes audiences feel that freedom, too, in every part of this journey. From its form to its characters, Pet Shop Days is rapid, unflinching, and high impact.
It follows Alejandro and Jack as they fall in love, fall into vice, and try to escape their lives and families by digging themselves into deeper, darker holes. All while running around New York City. With mesmerizing performances by its leads and a directorial eye that feels extemporaneous yet intentional. Pet Shop Days happens fast but leaves you slow.
I spoke to fellow New Yorker Schnabel alongside Bernal and executive producer Jeremy O’Harris about how this film came to be and what audiences can expect from a movie that does the unexpected at every turn.
POPDUST: What does this project mean for you? What made you get involved?
Schnabel: So my other lead, Jack, was my closest friend growing up. And he had written this script in college and sent it to me, and I thought it was really refreshing, exciting, youthful, and unapologetic. I thought that it would be an original New York story. I was thinking about what my first project was going to be and I thought, well, this is the one I could also really kind of leave my footprint in it. It gave me the opportunity to also put a lot of different things — maybe from my experiences growing up and my relationships — into it so that I could do this sort of exorcism therapy of putting things there and turning them into fiction and making it something that I could also just create a discussion around.
Bernal: I got the script a couple of years ago. Immediately, something in me said, Yes. And I think there was an aspect of myself that felt very close to Alejandro. Not even like, context-wise, it was just the feeling and the possibility of playing a character that was so out there. And that was really struggling with himself. I immediately told Olmo that I wanted to do this because I wanted to experience this — his world, what he's feeling, and what he’s living. And as Olmo said, it was a bit therapeutic as well, for me to just play with these things, and really go out there and play with something new in a different tone in a different city. And so there was something very cathartic about it. From the first moment I read it, I was like, Okay, there's something here for me, that I need to work with.
O’Harris: Coming from where I come from, I was able to escape Virginia by watching movies about New York. The energy that was inside of the script — we're saying “energy” a lot, but it is real, you know — I think that there was a sense, when new queer cinema started with movies like The Living End and Mala Noche, that there was this endless possibility of what kind of stories you could tell with young men. And I felt like I was missing those. When I witnessed the first cut of the movie, I was like, Oh my God, this feels like the kind of movie I would have found in the back room of Blockbuster and taken home, coveted, and imagined how I would run away from my family and create chaos with someone else in an effort to individuate myself. I felt like it was rendered so beautifully and with so much freedom, that I was like, Oh, is there any way I can be a part of this? And luckily, I could.
POPDUST: Visually, it's a very rich film. There’s a combination of a lot of small scenes that add a bunch of texture. And all of that comes together to ground the characters and the setting. How did you go about creating all that texture?
Schnabel: Immediately when I got involved, I connected with the story and I really imagined the world where this took place. It wasn't such a meticulous process for me to invent things. So I thought that the fact that I could just kind of respond naturally to my situations, and the circumstances was what made me feel confident when I was on set. The story was personal enough to me that I had the courage to be the person who's like, this is what would happen. And those are questions that everyone's asking — all the actors, like why would I do this? You need to be able to have an answer.
I think the thing I'm most proud of about the movie is that I do think it's an original New York story. Even in its dysfunction, at times. You can see moments and you could compare it to other films. But I also think that in its totality, I do think it's a very original New York story. I think that's very difficult. Because it's a place everyone knows, we've seen it hundreds of times in other films. So I think building something that felt original to us was a huge accomplishment.
Bernal: I think the movie was kind of showing itself to us. As we were doing it, everybody — everybody in the crew, everybody, all the actors — wanted to succeed. It's not easy to find that sort of atmosphere where everybody's giving everything for the movie to find its path. And that's one of the best environments you can be in because it's safe to try things. And when you try new things, you find new, new things. And the movie also had a personality of itself that was trying to be its own thing. Because I think we're used to seeing movies that are sort of premeditated or trying to fit into somebody's taste. And I think we needed a movie with personality saying, yeah, this is New York. This is how I see New York.
POPDUST: The form follows the plot, in that way too. You were figuring it out and so were these characters.
O’Harris: Every scene starts in one place and completely subverts itself. And I felt like that came from the freedom you guys had. I mean, one of my favorite scenes in the movie is the very first one. It starts in this Freudian way where you think, Are we watching lovers? Oh, wait, it's his mom? Oh, wait, now he's putting on her pantyhose? And it comes from a sense of play that I felt like was constantly on set with you guys. Willem [Dafoe] would take over a scene again, and again, and again, and try new things. I think that gave everyone else, especially the younger actors, license to also play and try new things — which is why there's that unpredictability.
Schnabel: When you're running around New York and you're doing some things legally, but some of it … clandestinely, you always have to be open to, when something doesn't work out or you lose a location or you can't film somewhere, it's like, okay, whatever the alternative is going to be, it's going to be better, and it's adding something. So it's embracing that element of surprise, and being confronted with challenges that actually turn into kind of privileges or advantages. You're not just stuck on one idea of how to do things, but you're open to kind of experiment. I mean, I definitely don't know everything, and I'm growing as a filmmaker. So I was also developing my language, asking those questions.
POPDUST: How did that shape the characters themselves? I felt there was a tenderness between them amidst all the violence.
Bernal: It's very interesting that you bring up the tenderness because I've always thought of it as a movie that is about pain. The pain of growing up and when your expectations or the ideas that you have, are not met, or they don't happen. And I think it's also a movie about a lack of tenderness. Particularly Alejandro. There is no tenderness for him. Nobody gives him that space for love. Jeremy and I were talking about this, but I also think it's a movie about fathers in many ways. And that sort of lack of tenderness in that relationship between men. Lacking … is a big — I think it affects you a lot. It's very clear how that lack of tenderness and that impossibility of just saying “I love you” completely gives way to all these things that Alejandro ends up doing. And so I think in retrospect, I see the character actually lacking that tenderness, and his pain is a craving for tenderness that he never gets from anyone, anyone at all.
Schnabel: At the beginning of the movie, with his mother, you realize that this person actually might have been someone who might have had their problems, but that had potential. But he creates his worst nightmare. What we realize is there's a line you cross and anything is possible after that. And there's a lot of manipulation and confusion. But the confusion comes from where these characters are at that time in their lives. Jack is easily manipulated because he's living his mundane life. And it's at a standstill, and he's not really motivated by anything. So with his attraction to Alejandro, he’s like, even though I might know it's dangerous, it's more interesting than anything else that's happening in my life.
Bernal: That happens to everybody. And I think that's why the interaction between them is so interesting. Because I think we can all see ourselves in that. I saw my teenage self in Jack. I was so bored with my environment that, obviously, anybody who had a bit of spark, I was like, okay, yeah.
O’Harris: Wanting to free yourself from that sense of safety to be alive is something I think we can all relate to. That makes it like really eatable to like some part of our imagined experience of living or moving to a new place.
POPDUST: What do you want audiences to feel as they experience this film?
Schnabel: Everyone comes in with their experience, and that gives people the possibility to have a different experience. It's not straightforward in the way that everyone comes out with the same messages. So I think it's openness, and the idea of creating a dialogue and having a discussion – and disagreeing. You can come up with your own answers. The most important thing is for people to be active in it, and to feel like they've gone through an experience themselves.
O’Harris: Watching movies like this made me want to make movies. The reason that these films exist is to tell people to pick up the camera, find a group of friends, say yes to each other, and just see what happens. And you'll make something that feels really honest and true to you. Because I like films that feel impossible to make when you watch them. Like how did anyone say yes? Like, how did you get allowed to do this? And like knowing that you're allowed to tell any story that's in your head? Is the thing I want from this.
Bernal: For me, it's just bringing people along for the ride. It's New York, it's love. It's violence, it's sex. It's Mexico City. There's nothing better than going in and watching a movie that takes you wherever it has to take you. And you see yourself in the movie. And you reflect on things that maybe you did or certain people you hang out with. In retrospect, you're like, okay, yeah, it was hurting or I was doing this because I wanted attention from this person or whatever. I want people to have that interaction – to think about themselves and also play out their fantasy. Like, I want to be the guy who doesn't care, that goes full-on and just takes it to the next level. Like, I want to have a haircut again. I'm just too scared to do it.
Schnabel: I really respect people who can just express themselves freely without feeling like they're going to be criticized. That’s the cinema I used to watch when I fell in love with film. Like Verner Hertzog and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. They embraced their fucked up characters and dysfunctional qualities. You're a passenger to all these different experiences, and that's so rich, and it adds so much to you. It's amazing when you watch a film and it changes you forever. That's why I do it.
O’Harris: Young people, for better or for worse, an entire generation of people have come to love movies through social media, and like Letterboxd. But because so much of the discourse about movies is like thumbs up, thumbs down, five stars, one star, I do think some people feel crippled by the lens their film or their story will have once it meets an audience. And I want us to get back to that place that a lot of people were in in the early 90s in the 70s, where they were sort of like, let's throw shit at the wall because we don't even know who's gonna see it, like, half our audience will never meet us.
C/O Listen Up Biz
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