The Nowhere Inn, a mockumentary film written and starred in by Annie Clark (St. Vincent) and Carrie Brownstein, will open in theatres and streaming platforms this September. The official trailer depicts Carrie Brownstein’s character directing the behind-the-scenes “documentary” of Annie Clark’s life, which is often confused with her St. Vincent performance. While Carrie plays the filmmaker in The Nowhere Inn, the film was actually directed by Bill Benz (Portlandia).
The film, which premiered at the 2020 Sundance festival, explores how entertainers’ real identities and personalities conflict with who they perform on stage. Annie Clark admits in the trailer that she’s the quiet, nerdy type off-stage and that, in order to make the documentary intriguing, she has to perform even when she’s “being herself.” There’s a pressure to live up to what people expect, blurring the line between St. Vincent and Annie Clark.
Performing Self
Watching the trailer made me think of the ways social media operates like a self-directed mockumentary. Performance and reality aren’t only complicated in entertainer lives. Carrie, who knows Annie, notices when she acts incongruous to the real her in the documentary. We also notice when our friends change, add, and subtract from the real them online. A performer must create an “interesting” personality to sell their image, which is a part of their work. A teacher must dull themselves down on social media, not be too controversial, because their job requires they sacrifice personality. Different expectations but similar performative requirements.
The question of “Who am I?” haunts humans. The Nowhere Inn challenges the line between real and performance: who we are and what we’re performing. Do we always know the difference? “I wanted people to know who I really am,” Clark says in the trailer. “One of the reasons why I wanted to make a documentary in the first place is I would finally be in control of the narrative…A small part of me was starting to second-guess myself. All I can say is, somewhere along the way, things went terribly wrong.” Performing becomes preferable for Annie’s character in The Nowhere Inn: “I can be St. Vincent all the time so that I can be a little more interesting,” Annie says in the trailer.
Because Carrie and Annie play characters based on themselves in the film, it begs the question: how much of their “character” is based on the “real” them? What did they decide to leave out? What did they decide to add? Do we all have an alter-ego, a performance-self, like Annie Clark has St. Vincent? Like most, if not all, performers change on stage? Is performance limited to the stage? Are we all performers?
The Nowhere Inn’s website further blurs the line between reality and performance, describing the movie in a way that’s not entirely clear whether it is completely fictional or not:
“Carrie Brownstein takes us on tour with her friend Annie Clark to capture a glimpse of the “real Annie” behind superstar songwriter St. Vincent in this hilariously absurd mockumentary…[a] metafictional account of two creative forces banding together to make a documentary about St. Vincent’s music, touring life, and on-stage persona. But they quickly discover unpredictable forces lurking within subject and filmmaker that threaten to derail the friendship, the project, and the duo’s creative lives…A densely woven, laugh-out-loud funny and increasingly fractured commentary on reality, identity, and authenticity. A story of two close friends who attempt to wrestle the truth out of a complex subject before the hall of mirrors that is their artistic lives devours them completely.”
Fantasy?
Even the most fantastical films are played by real people. Pornography involves monetizing real people’s sexual consent too, despite its popularity being justified as “just fantasy.” The trailer touches on how sex can be a performative measure to make someone more “interesting,” too. Perhaps indicating the way the entertainment industry expects women to perform for the male gaze in a pornographic way, St. Vincent begs Carrie Brownstein to record Annie and Dakota Johnson on the bed, in matching lingerie, with an iphone.
The Nowhere Inn depicts a “descent into madness” that performers experience on the road. “It’s not just champagne and groupies,” Carrie Brownstein mentions. It’s highly possible the metafictional, psychological thriller will reflect Carrie and/or Annie’s critical view on aspects of the entertainment industry.
Carrie Brownstein isn’t keen on dangling awards, like carrots, in the face of performers. “I think there’s something a little arbitrary about awards,” she said to Variety. She doesn’t think looking to corrupt institutions to empower women is the answer to liberating women, “There were actually so many great movies this year, many of which were directed by women, but I think looking to institutions as the first place for validation is not necessarily where we need to be…We need to change the institution,” she said. “It’s frustrating. Let’s get a new Academy going or something.”
Annie Clark agreed, despite winning a Grammy last year for best rock song, calling awards “specious.” However, director Benz joked they’d welcome prizes for The Nowhere Inn.
