The Nowhere Inn movie review & film summary (2021)

Entrusted to direct the doc within "The Nowhere Inn," Brownstein brings some ideas to enliven the material. Intensely lit concert footage captured during a St. Vincent tour is peppered in, particularly in the first act, to contrast Annie and her alter ego. But while Carrie adores Annie’s less glamorous personality—they are friends after all—she feels as though such uneventful normalcy would not entice the fans.

To amend the course from boring to slightly more bombastic, Carrie asks Annie to present herself closer to her alter ego, even when not performing. This begins a monstrous transmutation, with St. Vincent allowing the vices of stardom devour all of her relatable traits, empathy included. The more they work on this project, the more St. Vincent wants control over how she appears on camera.

It’s curious but fitting that on IMDb the co-writer is not listed as Annie Clark, but St. Vincent. The name choice seems to make official the film's obsession with one’s curated image in the public; that it comes from the depths of the artist persona, not the depths of the person in non-plastic clothing playing Scrabble after a long day. It could also just be part of St. Vincent's grand performance. Either way, it’s the guessing that induces interest.

Whatever the case, “The Nowhere Inn” (its title taken from a song the co-leads write together in the film) thematically concerns the public’s demand for celebrities to maintain their eccentricity. People like to think the rich and famous are different than us, on a realm of luxury unbothered with the day-to-day preoccupations of the rest of us. They fascinate us because they are unattainable. But the movie fails to factor in current modes of star-fan interaction. Through Carrie, we observe how Annie is treated when she behaves as St. Vincent, as if floating above everyone. Annie's chaotic energy receives praise (and even romantic attention from Dakota Johnson), and she feeds off it.

By the same token, the creators attempt to manipulate reality, and ask us to pay mind to the line between embellishing and deceiving. Somewhere between whimsical and disturbing, Benz's directorial choices seemingly mimic the ones of his on-screen proxy. The choices can be visually inventive, and make it impossible to decipher what is real: transitions crafted from physical film burning; the reframing of memories as if they were on a miniature screen; a sequence near the conclusion that plays out like a series of dreams within dreams. 

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