The Nowhere Inn

I am a fan of St. Vincent and have been for years now. I am also a huge Portlandia fan; Carrie Brownstein's off-beat humor is something that I can and have enjoyed. Because of that, I was excited to watch this film, and truly thought I could handle whatever oddities were thrown my way. I was stupid to think so highly of myself. I felt out of step with this film as soon as it started and never really fell into rhythm with whatever was going on. I loved the music sequences and really enjoyed seeing Annie Clark acting (even if she was playing herself)

I want to start off this review by saying that I was not familiar with St. Vincent or her music. This was the first time hearing of her and therefore there might be something I am missing. In fact I rated the movie as a neutral viewer that enjoys horror movies.

It's certainly an interesting premise and I have to give major props that they did a movie like this. However I think there are pacing issues and the movie was not able to entertain throughout. I feel like this whole thing would have worked better as a short movie instead of a feature film. At times it was confusing and felt surreal which in my opinion doesn't make much sense and just felt out of place. It's a decent movie that has its strengths but I don't think it has enough entertainment value for it to be 90 minutes. [4,7/10]

Look, I think you have to a) like st Vincent and b) get her a little bit. Honestly, I had fun thinking about how much fun they must have had, while filming some of the more "outrageous" scenes! You get a little live footage, you get a little of what you think she's like bts and her friendship with CB and then, you also get to laugh with what she created in order to become "more interesting" bts for the documentary. I liked it a lot! I don't know what to call it, but I don't need to. It's not a movie, it's not a documentary, it is really fun though. Also, i loved the cinematography. I rated it with a 6/10, just because I've rated films that I like higher, but this is not a filmy film...whatever, just watch it if you like her! Bye.

"This is how actors play rock stars in movies."

St. Vincent sets out to make a documentary about her music, but when she hires a close friend to direct, notions of reality, identity, and authenticity grow increasingly distorted and bizarre. The Nowhere Inn is an absurd, comedic, and thriller that I'm still trying to wrap my head around. It's hard to pinpoint the genre, but whatever it is, it's working. This played apart of the midnight selection at Sundance 2020, and I remember it looked interesting (all of the midnight ones did that year) but I didn't understand what it was about. Even watching the trailer, it barely covers what it's about. St. Vincent (Annie Clark) and her real life friend Carrie Brownstein wrote and starred in the movie, of course. They have this amazing chemistry that didn't need any building beforehand. Everything you see is genuine. Though they're playing themselves, they have a unique character that we know isn't how it's like in real life. St. Vincent does fantastic with the transformation she goes through. It's so fun to watch her go through it all. And Carrie Brownstein, who I haven't really seen much before has really good acting skills. Had those two not been cast in their own movie, and I'm not sure if they originally started out writing themselves in, I don't think they could've pulled it off.

The story is extremely satirical. Once you start to realize what the movie is about, and it makes a point to it, you can see some of what will unfold. It pokes fun at documentaries and rockstars and performers and they way it's done is really cool and fun. When you consider the movie as a whole, then it gets a little more confusing. It's like a movie within a movie within a movie (I think that's right). What we mainly see is a mockumentary style story. There's different aspect ratios and styles to differentiate what story or movie we're focusing on. And the cinematography is pretty good. There's sequences shot on film, mostly the concerts, that are beautiful to look at. And it's edited really well. There are many achievements to be noted. With how trippy it is, it can be hard to figure out what the movie is trying to say. But that's also a point made in the movie where someone says something along the lines of "I don't think she really understood the movie we were making." A little more clarity would've helped, but I like having the mystery there. For a little bit the same things keep happening and I wanted a little more variety. It's one of those things where I thought they'd move on and show something else, but they keep going back to it. As a character, it's frustrating for Carrie but she lets it happen for some time. Nevertheless, this is a really fun movie. I was in the middle of watching it when my apartment building had a power outage so I had to watch it in halves. You need to be attentive and ready for anything when watching. By the end it goes completely off the rails and I'm not sure how to interpret it. Maybe a little more reading will help. Overall, The Nowhere Inn is a surprising movie that I would like to revisit again. It does land with everything, but for a psychological movie (that's the genre I'm going with) it has great craft and great start for Bill Benz to make more movies!

The film has striking visuals, but that's about all the nice things I can say about it. There is no story. The film is basically a self-indulgent, narcissistic expression of "look at me, me me me me". If this film was made for the singer to promote herself, I'm afraid it didn't work. I'm actually put off by it.