Nowhere (1997)

Rating: D-

Dir: Gregg Araki
Star: James Duval, Rachel True, Nathan Bexton, Chiara Mastroianni

The director seems to be aiming for the ethos of Repo Man, mixed with the style of Freaked, but tries so hard, he forgets to come up with any decent characters. His cast appears to have been selected purely for being young and pretty: the lead actor doesn’t just look and sound like Keanu Reeves, he has all the ability too i.e. not much. He and the other main inhabitants are drugged-up, fucked-up or blown-up halfwits of dubious sexuality and immensely irritating speech patterns — is everyone in LA actually this stupid?

Araki does score with some vicious digs at religion and fame, even if the latter are undermined by “stunt cameos” from the likes of Traci Lords and Shannon Doherty. Watching dumb people take drugs and be bitchy to each other is not really my idea of fun, and that is almost entirely what this is about — save a very bizarre subplot involving alien invasion, which probably provides the film’s best moment. One for Ryan Phillipe, Denise Richards and Heather Graham completists only.