The Nowhere Inn

I didnt know a thing about st Vincent coming into this but she seems like a down to earth person. I wouldn’t consider this a documentary at all, it was just a fun film 3.5

If you like Portlandia, True Stories (Talking Heads) and Spinal Tap you may love this movie. Instant Cult Classic! I laughed I cried. " Better than Star Wars better than E.T. "

“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!

Love St Vincent, very hilarious mockumentary and even funnier bit with Dakota Johnson

I absolutely loved this film, I was laughing so hard at the absurdity of it all. It has a very psychedelic feel to it, but still manages to focus on a plot, which is constantly twisting and turning. The whole concept they created of mocking a tour film is genius and who better to do it then Carrie and Annie- both being fantastic musicians who have a long history of touring. The cinematography was top notch and both Carrie and Annie were performing at their absolute best, I enjoyed every minute ❤️ Go see this movie, you won't regret it.

It's as if Andy Warhol and Andy Kauffman got together to write the character St. Vincent and then they found a college graduate who loves David Lynch movies to direct the picture. It was hard to watch at times and is more of a fake-u-mentary. Her music I still find to be bland after watching the movie. Loved the texas scene.

I found this to be a hilarious dark comedy. I'm glad I saw it, but the ending didn't tie things up in a satisfying enough way for me to give this 5 stars.

Okay, some background to my position vis-a-vis this movie: I have been to 2 St Vincent concerts and I loved her work since the first album. At the first concert I went to circa Actor, I went by myself, I was in my late 20s, and that era of St Vincent in concert was loose and classic rock concerty. There was eventually an extended moment where Annie shredded her guitar on her knees by a monitor out on the apron of the stage and I had a sort of cosmic epiphany about feminism and the planet. It's not really effable, so I'm gonna leave it at that. But I guess what I'm trying to say with that is: I understand from a specific place the desire for a St Vincent concert film. At the second concert (eponymous album tour) in London, we walked into our balcony seats and there was one seat that was reserved with a sign for "CARRIE BROWNSTEIN" and my partner and I were like !!!! THE Carrie Brownstein?! And sure enough, just before curtain THAT Carrie Brownstein showed up and sat, for about half the time. And one dude walked up to her and she was clearly polite to him, and then a few more, and I knew I did not want to join that crowd, so I did not attempt to say hello or have a selfie with Carrie Brownstein. That second concert was so much more choreographed than the first one I went to. And all that brings me to this movie. Which I really like. I haven't read "professional" reviews yet, but I've seen headlines along the lines of "doesn't hold together" and "too many ideas" and sure, it definitely gets very shaggy near the end. But I think it would be really interesting to survey the genders of those reviewers, because something about this film's concerns with selfhood and celebrity and human connection are, I think, *saturated* in gender considerations. It is a deeply feminine problem to have to agonize over whether being nice or being a Bitch is the worse choice. The shagginess, the zig-zagging camp to camp horror to mind-bending surrealism to Lynchian red curtains all just work for me as a pretty straightforward (I mean, haha) analogy of the minefield that is being a person, a persona, a self, entangled with other selves close and far.

The Nowhere Inn is a very strange and unique movie. The film tries to do so much. It’s part concert film, part mockumentary, part comedy, and part horror. The mashup of these genres truly make the film stand out. The film has some good commentary on fame and identity. The direction is very strange, and pretty influenced by Lynch in my opinion. While the film isn’t flawless, it’s definitely compelling. It also doesn’t hurt that I’m a big fan of St. Vincent’s music. Overall, I thought this was very interesting. If you love St. Vincent’s music like I do and you can handle films that are very weird you’ll have a great time with this.

Loved every minute of it.