Nowhere

Nowhere is a 1997 film by director and screenwriter Gregg Araki. It is a bleak depiction of mid-1990s youth. 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" by its fans, due to the tendency that it depicts urban teenagers as misery-ridden zombies. It is highly sexual and contains scenes of graphic violence. The film is notable in that it features a variety of actors who had, at the time, not yet reached their current level of stardom. Among them are Heather Graham, Ryan Phillippe, Mena Suvari, Kathleen Robertson, and Denise Richards.

Also in keeping with Araki's film making tradition, various celebrities from the past forty years make unexpected cameos. Included are Shannen Doherty, Charlotte Rae, Debi Mazar, Jordan Ladd, Christina Applegate, Jeremy Jordan, Jaason Simmons, Beverly D'Angelo, Eve Plumb, Christopher Knight, Traci Lords, Rose McGowan, John Ritter, Staci Keanan, Devon Odessa and Brian Buzzini.

"Nowhere" most resembles "American Graffiti" in the way it skips merrily around among its sprawling cast of restless teen-agers. Where the George Lucas classic found its characters in thrall of a benign media god (the rock-and-roll disk jockey Wolfman Jack), "Nowhere" gives its lost souls an evil, smarmy television evangelist (John Ritter) with an 800 number.

Visually, "Nowhere" exudes an inviting pop-art glow. As its parade of the beautiful and damned exchange their slurpy kisses, they are photographed in swooning love-comic close-ups. If it weren't so overpopulated and desperate to shock, "Nowhere" might have succeeded as a maliciously cheery satire of Hollywood brats overdosing on the very concept of Hollywood.