Nowhere movie storyline. 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. Mel’s younger brother Zero (Joshua Gibran Mayweather) and his girlfriend 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.
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.
Cast and Characters
Kriss (Chiara Mastroianni) and Kozy (Debi Mazar) are drug dealer Handjob’s two S & M mistresses.
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.
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) 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.
Nowhere (1997)
Directed by: Gregg Araki
Starring: James Duval, Rachel True, Nathan Bexton, Debi Mazar, Chiara Mastroianni, Kathleen Robertson, Jordan Ladd, Christina Applegate, Sarah Lassez, Guillermo Díaz, Heather Graham, Mena Suvari
Screenplay by: Gregg Araki
Production Design by: Patti Podesta
Cinematography by: Arturo Smith
Film Editing by: Gregg Araki
Costume Design by: Sara Jane Slotnick
Set Decoration by: Jennifer M. Gentile
Art Direction by: Dan Knapp, Pae White
MPAA Rating: R for scenes of strong violence, sexuality and drug use involving teens, and for strong language.
Distributed by: Fine Line Features
Release Date: May 9, 1997
Views: 295
