The Nowhere Inn

Greetings again from the darkness. Have you ever wondered what would happen if David Lynch and Fred Armisen collaborated on a contemporary reimagining of THIS IS SPINAL TAP (1984)? Well, me neither, and that has not happened. But it's the closest I can come to giving you some idea of this meta-comedy concept film from director Bill Benz and co-writers and co-stars Carrie Brownstein and St Vincent.

We are told that initially singer-songwriter-musician St Vincent has asked her friend Carrie Brownstein to direct a documentary on the singer and her tour. Brownstein envisions a blend of concert and offstage footage so that fans get to know the "real" St Vincent. It turns out the real St Vincent is Annie Clark, a woman who plays Scrabble and video games, and loves to shop for radishes at local Farmers Markets. The contrast between St Vincent's onstage red guitar riffs, giant video screen, leather outfits and her offstage calm personality is not just stark, but actually a bit boring.

Boring is not what Brownstein has in mind and it creates a rift between the two women, and flips a switch for St Vincent. The musician goes overboard in trying to manufacture the typical rock star image of cool and aloof. Brownstein is frustrated not just with the artificiality of the new approach, but also in the expanding distance between the two friends. Some of the vignettes are quite humorous - in a surreal way. St Vincent stages an intimate scene in her bedroom with a scantily clad Dakota Johnson, and then another sequence features St Vincent's "family" in a scene right out of "Hee-Haw".

The satire on public vs private life is a topic worthy of discussion. Often it's the fans who feel entitled to know more about their icons, while other times it's the celebrities who are trying to cultivate a public image and garner some extra publicity. In this era of social media, the bigger the personality - the more outlandish - the more publicity and the more followers.

Director Benz's film drags a bit in the middle, and the final act turns somewhat surreal as Brownstein and St Vincent both have their lapses from reality. Both seem to be confused about their public persona vs real life, so it begins to mimic what's happened with the original documentary concept. There is a terrific scene involving St Vincent singing on stage and working her way through red velvet stage curtains, but for the most part this isn't a biting satire - it's more like a soft-touch. The "Portlandia" connection is clear throughout (Benz, Brownstein, St Vincent) but I'm not sure the film is cohesive enough (mockumentary? Wry comedy? Satire?) for a mass audience ... it might work best as midnight madness.

In theaters September 17, 2021.

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!

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.

This movie has a good first part, but in the second part it gets confusing.

The film starts well and a bit funny, it begins by criticizing the audience and that we always want to see something interesting on the person behind the artist, it also states that it is very difficult for us as humans to open ourselves emotionally. It also argues that it is not necessary for the audience to know everything about our favorite artists and that by wanting to know that, we can easily be fooled into creating an identity of the artist that is not the same as that of the human being behind it. But in the second half it loses its sense of what it means with the metaphors, it is not known if the main character is exaggerating things or is just pretending, because of this that character begins to get fed up with its sarcastic and exaggerated way of acting, It's hard to understand the tone of this movie. The story is not told in the best way, just as the ending is overwhelming since it shows that sometimes we are afraid of opening ourselves emotionally to others and that sometimes we do not want to know ourselves, but it does so in a very intense and very sudden way.

It is not understood if it wants to be a fake documentary, or if something like this really happened or if they just did nonsense things and built a very crazy and intense story, I did nos like it and I would not recommend it, but if you are a fan of the artist which it is about, you may like it.