The Nowhere Inn 2021

While traveling by limo, a lone St. Vincent (Annie Clark) suddenly discovers that the driver has run off.

In interview footage, Clark recalls the time she tried making a music documentary to cover her life both on- and off-stage. She hires her best friend, Carrie Brownstein, to direct the film in the hopes of getting a more intimate perspective. However, Brownstein quickly finds herself frustrated by the aimless, slice-of-life nature of the footage, Clark’s bandmates’ lack of knowledge about her, and the disparity between St. Vincent’s aloof, emo persona with Clark’s introverted, down-to-earth actual personality.

To create a narrative, Brownstein asks Clark to write a song over time. Clark accepts on the condition that Brownstein contribute a guitar solo. With this avenue into influencing the film, Brownstein suggests Clark act more like St. Vincent in the offstage footage. Although she is initially hesitant, a series of frustrating events, along with thinking that Brownstein does not find her interesting despite their friendship, convinces Clark to commit to the bit before, during, and after a concert. This produces better footage but makes Brownstein concerned.

One night, St. Vincent calls Brownstein to her room, where she forces Brownstein to film St. Vincent with her girlfriend, Dakota Johnson, on the bed wearing lingerie with her iPhone. Brownstein becomes extremely uncomfortable when St. Vincent and Johnson begin having sex right in front of her. Clark also continues playing St. Vincent whenever the cameras are not filming, and refuses to let Brownstein take a day off to visit her father, who is battling cancer. To try and wring back her normal personality, Brownstein invites a fan named Kim to meet her backstage. However, when Kim relays the story of how Strange Mercy helped her cope with the death of her boyfriend, Clark spontaneously begins crying and is comforted by a baffled Kim.

St. Vincent begins pushing Brownstein away, including cutting her off from working on the song. Hurt, Brownstein quits. As she gets on the bus to leave, though, she is confronted by her uncle, who tells her to finish the movie on her father’s behalf. Brownstein obliges, but discovers that her rejection of Clark has caused her to fully embrace her St. Vincent side. After lashing out at her and the concert’s board, St. Vincent freezes on stage, causing the crowd to attack her. Brownstein returns to the bus to discover that St. Vincent is throwing a party where everyone, including the band members, is wearing a wig in Clark’s hairstyle. Horrified, she flees, escaping paparazzi in the process.

Brownstein interviews St. Vincent and Johnson simultaneously, the latter wearing one of the wigs. Johnson is distraught when St. Vincent requests that they stage a public breakup to get further into character, and actually breaks up with her. Angered, she decides to stage the entire documentary, hiring actors to play her family as a stereotypically Texan blended family. Finally reaching a breaking point, Brownstein takes St. Vincent to the jail where her dad is kept. This only ends up hurting Clark, who angrily says that she makes music to get away from her real world problems, not reflect on them.

Brownstein and St. Vincent record the music video for the song, “The Nowhere Inn”, where Clark imagines her singing behind a ghoulish version of herself on stage. Afterwards, Brownstein turns around to discover everyone encountered in the film, including her father, is a paid actor. St. Vincent takes her away in the limo from the beginning, which begins driving increasingly fast. As they confront each other over the situation, Brownstein has the limo stop and flees into the desert. After the limo driver is also gone, the camera pulls back to reveal the limo was also part of a set. Clark then immediately walks over to where she was recording the main interview, and claims it was Brownstein, not her, who lost sight of the goal.