The Nowhere Inn

Playing versions of themselves, Carrie Brownstein (Portlandia) and Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent) hit the road to explore the absurdities of fame in this music mockumentary about creativity, friendship and the eternal struggle to be your authentic self.

Clark is touring to promote the St. Vincent album Masseduction and asks Brownstein, her good friend and a budding film director, to make a documentary about her life on and off the stage. But when Clark comes across as boring in the resulting footage – playing Scrabble and eating radishes are her favourite pastimes – Brownstein suggests that her pal ‘play it up’ for the camera. Will this be the musician’s biggest performance yet … and one she might end up regretting?

Revelling in both absurdity and profundity, this psycho-thriller mockumentary, co-written by Brownstein and Clark and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Bill Benz (Portlandia, Kroll Show), turns the lens on the perversities of fame as well as (a version of) Brownstein and Clark’s friendship. The identity crisis that develops as Clark transforms in the name of art is mirrored in the friction that emerges between the two women, while The Nowhere Inn itself unspools into a darkly twisted tale that ponders whether celebs can ever match the fantasies of their own creation.

“A mesmerizing seriocomic descent into the madness of modern fame … In the process of poking at the neurotic discomfort of revealing the person behind the art, Clark and Brownstein have crafted a shrewd celebration of exactly that.” – IndieWire

The Music on Film strand is presented by Triple R