Nowhere

Nowhere Information

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, in order, Totally Fucked Up (1993) and The Doom Generation (1995), with Nowhere being the third and last. It 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. Among them are Heather Graham, Ryan Phillippe, Mena Suvari, Kathleen Robertson, and Denise Richards.

In keeping with Araki's films tradition, various celebrities from the past 40 years make unexpected 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 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 along with plans for a drug-fueled game of kick the can are made and the film segues into portions of the goings-on of the lives of the other characters in the film.

As all of these plot lines develop, the story progresses towards the oft-mentioned party at Jujyfruit's house. A bacchanalian orgy of excess, drinking and drugs. Here the film descends from the innocuous and normal beginning with natural lighting and balanced visuals to very sureal, sharply contrasted and/or colored lighting, and seemingly hallucinatory visions and surrealistic visuals and events as well as chaotic and improbable happenings and reaches 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 and Zoe 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 and Bart, separately watching the same televangelist (John Ritter), both decide the world is too messed up to live in and they commit suicide to reach heaven. Ducky receives word of his sister's death and attempts to drown himself in a swimming pool, but is saved by Dark and Dingbat. Bart's drug dealer Handjob is beaten to death by Elvis for selling them cut drugs, and Dark, covered in blood from his proximity to it, returns home, where Montgomery, who claims that he escaped from aliens that had abducted him during the game of kick the can, comes to Dark's window and asks if he can come in. The pair 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. They are seen in a momentary loving embrace before Montgomery begins uncontrollably coughing. As Dark shakes him to try to get him to stop, Montgomery explodes in a shower of flesh and blood and 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 camera while the credits begin to roll.

Cast

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.
Egg (Sarah Lassez) is a young girl who becomes starstruck, resulting in an inadvertent meeting with a nameless heartthrob television star (Jaason Simmons), who sexually assaults her.
Shad (Ryan Phillippe) and Lilith (Heather Graham) are a nihilistic couple, crazed with sex and lust for life, and their segments are little more than clips that serve to illustrate this. Shad is Alyssa's twin brother.
Alyssa (Jordan Ladd) and Elvis 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 (Thyme Lewis), a biker, is apparently flaky in his romantic commitment to Alyssa. Elvis has a sadomasochistic streak and as is exhibited towards the end of the film, capable of extreme violence.
Zero (Joshua Gibran Mayweather), Mel's younger brother, and Zoe (played by Mena Suvari in her first film role) 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, in addition to further difficulties that arise in regard to arriving at the party.
Cowboy's boyfriend Bart's interaction with his drug dealer Handjob and his two S&M mistresses, Kriss (Chiara Mastroianni) and Kozy, who mutilate Bart despite his extreme state of drug intoxication.
Dingbat's airheaded social butterfly role coupled with her crush on Ducky (Scott Caan) makes her a major supporting character and keeps her involved throughout the story. She is friends with Ducky's sister Egg and she, along with Egg and Alyssa, have eating disorders (binging and purging, anorexia, and drug-induced appetite suppression).

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.
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.