Review: The Nowhere Inn. It’s absurd.

Carrie Brownstein and St. Vincent in The Nowhere Inn

The Nowhere Inn is a movie about making a documentary about a rock star. It was written by Carrie Brownstein and St. Vincent, who both play themselves in this movie about making a movie.

The Nowhere Inn is funny in the absurd and ironic way that characterizes everything Carrie Brownstein does. The plot is that Annie Clark, AKA rock star St. Vincent, wants a documentary made about herself on tour. She asks her good friend Carrie Brownstein to direct it. (The director of The Nowhere Inn was Bill Benz.)

Carrie Brownstein and St. Vincent at an event for The Nowhere Inn

They set off on a tour of sold out shows. The shows are fantastic, dazzling, cool, groovy, and thrilling. The rest of St. Vincent’s life is a yawn-fest. After a concert, St. Vincent plays word games instead of throwing parties. She sits around doing all sorts of things less interesting than watching paint dry.

Carrie keeps asking St. Vincent to DO SOMETHING that can be dramatic fodder for the movie.

St. Vincent begins to act out a life that is not her real life, but she thinks it’s interesting. She hires a lot of people in Texas to pretend to be her relatives. She has Carrie film it. She has a party in the tour bus – the first ever. She wants Carrie to film it.

Dakota Johnson, Carrie Brownstein, and St. Vincent in The Nowhere Inn

My favorite attempt at cool was when St. Vincent asked her friend Dakota Johnson to join her. They dressed up in sexy underwear and asked Carrie to film them having sex. While I truly, desperately, wanted to watch St. Vincent and Dakota Johnson squirm and moan on that big bed, all we saw was Carrie Brownstein’s agonized grimaces as she tried not to watch.

Carrie finally got fed up with St. Vincent pretending to be interesting instead of being real and threatened to leave with the movie unfinished. It took some zany antics to get to the end of the story, and I should warn you to watch to the end of the credits.

The Nowhere Inn is streaming on Hulu.


Discover more from Old Ain't Dead

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top
Consent Management Platform by Real Cookie Banner