The Nowhere Inn

I wanted to love The Nowhere Inn, because I'm a fan of Carrie Brownstein, and I like mockumentaries. This is more of a drug-addled, surrealistic reaction to the superficiality of celebrity, classism, and the reality of the fakeness of filmed reality. There's a lot of interpersonal cruelty between Annie & Brownstein which is frustrating & anxiety-inducing while it is couched in what feels like a nightmare. What I like about The Nowhere Inn is it's a reaction, one of disgust, which is appropriate. The objective of a mockumentary is to be satirical, sarcastic, comedic, and slightly absurd - and while there are a few really funny moments, the story gets buried under layers upon layers of mess. All said and done, I asked myself if viewers of The Nowhere Inn are supposed to feel like they were on the outside of an inside joke. That is where that film has left me.

As "The Nowhere Inn" (2020 release; 91 min.) opens, Annie Clark a/k/a St. Vincent is in the back of a stretch limo that is driving through the dessert. The limo driver tells Annie he has no idea who she is , "and I've driven a lot of celebrities!". At some point he stops the limo and abandons Annie in the middle of the dessert. We get some concert footage, and then Annie introduces her good friend Carrie Brownstein (Sleater-Kinney; Portlandia) and informs us that Carrie is going to make a documentary about Annie... At this point we are 10 min into the film.

Couple of comments: this movie is very much a labor of love from Annie Clark and Carrie Brownstein, who co-wrote and also co-produced this. The film's director is Bill Benz, best known for his work on that other Brownstein project, "Portlandia"). Please note: "The Nowhere Inn" is NOT a documentary, but a fictional film brought to us as if it were a documentary. It's a mix of concert footage, fictional scenes, and interviews, all of it served up in a big mix of weirdness and self-conscious art. Normally, I'd be totally up for this, but truth be told that in this particular case, it simply landed with a dud. It's not for a lack of trying. Clark and Brownstein play up the question of where Annie Clark ends and St. Vincent begins. "We are not so different, me and her" observes Annie at some point. Certainly the movie suffers because there really is no plot to speak of, raising the question: what is the point of this film? So that Annie/St. Vincent can let us have a glimpse as to who she really is? If that is the case, she failed miserably as I haven't anymore a clue now that I've seen this, as compared to before.

"The Nowhere Inn" was filmed 2 1/2 years ago, and premiered at the 2020 Sundance film Festival, yes, pre-pandemic. Now 20 months later, the film was released in select US theaters. Being the St. Vincent fan that I am (I saw her on her very first tour in 2007, when she opened for the National, it was simply St. Vincent and her electric guitar, no backup band), I just had to check it out. The Sunday early evening screening where I saw this at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati turned out to be a private screening: I was literally the only person in the theater. I cannot imagine this will play much longer in theaters. If you are a St. Vincent fan, I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it in the theater (if you still can), on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

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.

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]

'The Nowhere Inn': (No Spoilers here!)

Think David Lynch, meets Spinal Tap, meets 'Eraser Head'...Very entertaining on all fronts: Musically, Visually, Storytelling, Editing, and Fun-tense character arcs...very creative!

I didn't expect much, I didn't know much about it before watching, and I even hesitated to watch it because i didn't want to hate it since I really like St. Vincent...But I was surprised!

Well written, very well acted, lots of creative use in the editing that rides the line of 'too much' but never seems to cross it. The story is clear, so I didn't have to work to stay with it: Expectations meet Reality...Glamour meets Simplicity...Trust meets Freedom...Friendship meets Challenge and Sanity meets Unravelling. These are some of the wonderful conflicts and resolutions in the film.

I was entertained throughout and yes, I definitely felt that i got to know St. Vincent - Annie Clark (and Carrie Brownstein!) a little better...well done!