Nowhere (film)
| Nowhere | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Gregg Araki |
| Produced by |
Gregg Araki Andrea Sperling |
| Written by | Gregg Araki |
| Starring |
|
| Cinematography | Arturo Smith |
| Distributed by | Fine Line Features |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 85 min. |
| Country |
United States France |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $194,201[1] |
Nowhere is a 1997 American black comedy drama film written and directed by Gregg Araki. It stars James Duval and Rachel True as Dark and Mel, a bisexual teen couple who are both sexually promiscuous.
The film is part of a series of three films by Araki nicknamed the "Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy". The other films in that trilogy are Totally Fucked Up (1993) and The Doom Generation (1995), with Nowhere being the third and last. The film is highly sexual and contains scenes of graphic violence. The film is notable in that it features a variety of actors who had, at the time, not yet reached their current level of stardom, including Heather Graham, Ryan Phillippe, Mena Suvari, Kathleen Robertson, and Denise Richards.
As in other films by Araki, various celebrities from the past 40 years make cameos, including Shannen Doherty, Charlotte Rae, Debi Mazar, Jordan Ladd, Christina Applegate, Jeremy Jordan, Jaason Simmons, Beverly D'Angelo, Eve Plumb, Christopher Knight, Traci Lords, Rose McGowan, John Ritter, Staci Keanan, Devon Odessa, Chiara Mastroianni, the Brewer twins and Brian Buzzini.
Plot
Dark Smith (James Duval) is an alienated, 18-year-old young man struggling with daily life, fluctuating romantic status with his bisexual, polyamorous girlfriend Mel (Rachel True) and conflicting feelings for a shy gay classmate, Montgomery (Nathan Bexton). The day starts off normally enough with Dark meeting up with his friends which include the intelligent Dingbat (Christina Applegate), Montgomery, Mel and her purple-haired, acid-tongued lesbian lover Lucifer (Kathleen Robertson) for breakfast at their local coffeehouse hangout, The Hole. Various mentions of a party at Jujyfruit's (Gibby Haynes) along with plans for a drug-fueled game of kick-the-can are made and the story segues into portions of the goings-on of the lives of other characters.
The story progresses towards the oft-mentioned party at Jujyfruit's house, a bacchanalian orgy of excess, drinking and drugs. Here the tone changes from the innocuous and normal beginning to seemingly hallucinatory visions and surrealistic visuals and events, before reaching a chaotic finale where some of the issues come to a head. Dark and Mel argue about her desire to have an open relationship and Dark's desire for commitment. Zero (Joshua Gibran Mayweather) and Zoe (Mena Suvari) are ambushed by the Atari Gang on their way to Jujyfruit's house and their car, belonging to Zero's mother, is stolen while they are left helpless on the side of the road.
Egg (Sarah Lassez) and Bart (Jeremy Jordan), separately watching the same televangelist, Moses Helper (John Ritter), both decide the world is too messed up to live in and they commit suicide to reach heaven. Ducky (Scott Caan) receives word of his sister's death and attempts to drown himself in a swimming pool, but is saved by Dingbat diving in and pulling him out. Bart's drug dealer Handjob (Alan Boyce) is beaten to death by Elvis (Thyme Lewis) for selling them cut drugs, and Dark, covered in blood as a bystander, returns home.
Montgomery – who claims that he escaped from aliens that had abducted him during the game of kick the can – comes to Dark's home. He appears at the window and asks if he can come in. Dark and Montgomery discuss their mutual attraction for one another and Montgomery asks Dark if he can spend the night. Dark agrees but makes Montgomery promise he will never leave him. After a momentary loving embrace, Montgomery begins coughing uncontrollably. As Dark shakes him to try to get him to stop, Montgomery explodes in a shower of flesh and blood. A cockroach-like alien who had apparently been using him as a host, turns to Dark and says, "I'm outta here," before crawling out the window, leaving Dark covered in blood and staring at the audience.
Peripheral characters
- Cowboy (Guillermo Díaz) is another one of Dark's best friends; he is a gay rock musician struggling with balancing his band duties and his bandmate/boyfriend Bart (Jeremy Jordan), who is heavily addicted to drugs supplied by Handjob.
- Kriss (Chiara Mastroianni) and Kozy (Debi Mazar) are drug dealer Handjob's two S & M mistresses.
- Alyssa (Jordan Ladd) and Elvis (Thyme Lewis), are another couple touched on only briefly. In contrast to her brother's rather indicatively violent nature Alyssa is more demure, coquettish, and sweet. Her boyfriend Elvis, a biker, is apparently flaky in his romantic commitment to Alyssa. Elvis has a sadomasochistic streak, capable of extreme violence.
- Egg (Sarah Lassez) is a young girl who becomes starstruck, resulting in an inadvertent meeting with a nameless heartthrob television star (Jaason Simmons), who rapes her. Egg, along with Dingbat and Alyssa, have eating disorders: (binging and purging, anorexia, and drug-induced appetite suppression.
- Shad (Ryan Phillippe) and Lilith (Heather Graham) are a nihilistic couple, crazed with sex and lust for life, and their short segments serve little else except to illustrate this. Shad is Alyssa's twin brother.
- Zero (Joshua Gibran Mayweather), Mel's younger brother, and Zoe (Mena Suvari) are high schoolers, implied through dialogue to be sexually active though underage. Zero wants to impress Zoe by taking her to Jujyfruit's party but has some difficulty.
Availability
- USA: Available in VHS format. There has never been a Region 1 DVD released.
- UK: a Region 2 DVD exists; it has no special features.
- UK as with The Doom Generation in 2013 Second Sight rereleased Nowhere featuring a commentary track with Gregg Araki James Duval, Rachel True and Jordan Ladd.
- France: Region 2 DVD, with either French audio or original audio with French subtitles (depending on the DVD player, it can be difficult to turn the subtitles off). It has no special features except for a French trailer.
- Australia: Region 4 DVD.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack of the film, Nowhere: Music from the Gregg Araki Movie, was released on Mercury Records.
See also
References
- ↑ Nowhere – Box Office Mojo Retrieved 2010-05-27.
External links
- Nowhere at the Internet Movie Database
- Nowhere at Rotten Tomatoes