# Nowhere (1997 film)
**Nowhere** is a 1997 American black comedy-drama directed, written, and edited by [Gregg Araki](https://www.edgepedia.org/gregg-araki), following a group of Los Angeles teenagers through a single surreal day as they prepare for the End of the [World Party](https://www.edgepedia.org/world-party) on the day the world is foretold to end. It is the final installment of Araki's Teen Apocalypse Trilogy, after *[Totally F***ed Up](https://www.edgepedia.org/totally-f-ed-up)* (1993) and *The Doom Generation* (1995), and it was released theatrically by Fine Line Features on May 9, 1997.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nowhere) • [2](https://filmmakermagazine.com/122873-gregg-araki-teen-apocalypse-trilogy/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writer | Gregg Araki, who also edited and co-produced with Andrea Sperling[3](https://www.criterion.com/films/34330-nowhere) |
| Release | May 9, 1997 (theatrical, Fine Line Features); rerelease November 3, 2023 in a 4K restoration[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nowhere) |
| Runtime and rating | 82–83 minutes; rated R[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nowhere) |
| Trilogy position | Third and final film of the Teen Apocalypse Trilogy, following *Totally F***ed Up* (1993) and *The Doom Generation* (1995)[2](https://filmmakermagazine.com/122873-gregg-araki-teen-apocalypse-trilogy/) |
| Lead cast | James Duval (Dark), Rachel True (Mel), Nathan Bexton (Montgomery), Kathleen Robertson (Lucifer)[3](https://www.criterion.com/films/34330-nowhere) |
| Box office | $172.7K gross in the United States[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nowhere) |
| Reception | 53% on the Tomatometer (15 reviews) and 76% on the Popcornmeter (5,000+ ratings)[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nowhere) |
## Spoilers
### Premise and plot
The film takes place over an intense 24-hour period in the lives of dozens of Los Angeles college students, on the day the world is foretold to end.[4](https://wexarts.org/film-video/nowhere) The moody Dark Smith ([James Duval](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-duval)), his bisexual girlfriend Mel ([Rachel True](https://www.edgepedia.org/rachel-true)), her lesbian lover Lucifer ([Kathleen Robertson](https://www.edgepedia.org/kathleen-robertson)), and their shy gay friend Montgomery (Nathan Bexton) plan to attend the wildest party of the year, surviving drug trips, suicides, trysts, rapes, mutilations, and alien abductions along the way.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nowhere)
Araki described the film as "Beverly Hills 90210 on acid," and it deliberately twists common teenage television and movie tropes: soap-operatic relationship drama is crossed with blasts of science fiction, pop-art visuals, and apocalyptic dread.[4](https://wexarts.org/film-video/nowhere) • [3](https://www.criterion.com/films/34330-nowhere) [The Criterion Collection](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-criterion-collection) synopsis lists the film's ingredients as bisexual lust, vaporizing Valley girls, sinister televangelists, nipple-ring S&M, and murder by Campbell's-soup can, folded into what it calls an anarchic orgy that brings the trilogy to a caustic close.[3](https://www.criterion.com/films/34330-nowhere)
## Cast
James Duval plays Dark, a role Araki wrote for him with the idea that he would be the center of the three trilogy films, reprising a protagonist position similar to his Jordan in *The Doom Generation*.[2](https://filmmakermagazine.com/122873-gregg-araki-teen-apocalypse-trilogy/) The supporting cast includes Rachel True as Mel, Nathan Bexton as Montgomery, Chiara Mastroianni as Kriss, Debi Mazar as Kozy, and Kathleen Robertson as Lucifer.[3](https://www.criterion.com/films/34330-nowhere) John Ritter plays the televangelist Moses Helper, and Christopher Knight and [Eve Plumb](https://www.edgepedia.org/eve-plumb), both of *The Brady Bunch*, appear as Mr. and Mrs. Sighvatssohn.[3](https://www.criterion.com/films/34330-nowhere) • [5](https://blog.uclfilm.com/2024/09/25/nowhere-1997/)
The film is also a time capsule of actors on the way up: [Ryan Phillippe](https://www.edgepedia.org/ryan-phillippe) (Shad), [Heather Graham](https://www.edgepedia.org/heather-graham) (Lilith), [Scott Caan](https://www.edgepedia.org/scott-caan) (Ducky), Mena Suvari (Zoe), Christina Applegate (Dingbat), Jordan Ladd (Alyssa), and Jeremy Jordan (Bart) appear, with guest spots by Beverly D'Angelo as Dark's Mom, Traci Lords, Shannen Doherty, Rose McGowan, and Denise Richards.[3](https://www.criterion.com/films/34330-nowhere) • [6](https://strandreleasing.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/nowhere-restoration-presskitv2.pdf) Unlike the non-professional cast of *Totally F***ed Up*, *The Doom Generation* and *Nowhere* were cast through full casting sessions with up-and-coming actors of the period; Araki has said that people like Matt Damon and Sarah Michelle Gellar came in because they were not yet famous.[2](https://filmmakermagazine.com/122873-gregg-araki-teen-apocalypse-trilogy/)
## Place in the Teen Apocalypse Trilogy
Araki made *The Living End* in 1992, a story of two HIV-positive gay men on a violent road adventure, and then the three films that cemented his status as a major voice in independent queer cinema: *Totally F***ed Up* (1993), *The Doom Generation* (1995), and *Nowhere* (1997).[2](https://filmmakermagazine.com/122873-gregg-araki-teen-apocalypse-trilogy/) The trilogy was not originally planned as such; it grew out of the festival response to the low-budget *Totally F***ed Up*, and Araki has called *Nowhere* "definitely the most ambitious" of the three.[2](https://filmmakermagazine.com/122873-gregg-araki-teen-apocalypse-trilogy/) • [6](https://strandreleasing.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/nowhere-restoration-presskitv2.pdf) Taken together, the films have been read as a course correction to the sanitized teenage rebellion of the John Hughes-inflected cinema of the 1980s.[2](https://filmmakermagazine.com/122873-gregg-araki-teen-apocalypse-trilogy/)
Araki is identified as a central figure of the New Queer Cinema movement that surged through the 1990s in the aftermath of the AIDS epidemic, and the film's openly queer and polyamorous characters were part of that wave's unashamed representation of non-heterosexual relationships.[5](https://blog.uclfilm.com/2024/09/25/nowhere-1997/)
## Music
The soundtrack is dense with 1990s alternative music, including Blur, Hole, Massive Attack, Portishead, and Slowdive.[4](https://wexarts.org/film-video/nowhere) One retrospective review counts more than 30 songs in the 82-minute runtime and describes the film as powered by an immense '90s soundtrack.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nowhere) A critic at Vague Visages called the film "the cinematic equivalent of shoegaze music," dreamy and disorienting in equal measure.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nowhere)
## Reception and reappraisal
Contemporary reception was mixed. Rotten Tomatoes records a 53% Tomatometer from 15 reviews against a 76% audience score from more than 5,000 ratings.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nowhere) Many 1997 critics dismissed the film as shock-value excess, but it has since been reappraised, with Sightlines calling it the crown jewel of the Teen Apocalypse Trilogy.[7](https://sightlines.media/film/1811/nowhere-1997) The film grossed $172.7K in the United States.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nowhere)
## 4K restoration and legacy
For years the film was accessible mainly on VHS and pirated copies.[8](https://www.strandmagazine.co.uk/single-post/chronic-youth-festival-film-festival-presents-gregg-araki-s-nowhere-discussion-on-film-music) In May 2023, Strand Releasing announced a 4K restoration, the final addition to the restoration of Araki's 1990s Teen Apocalypse Trilogy, with scenes omitted from the original theatrical release for MPAA rating purposes restored in a new director's cut.[9](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119809/news/) The restoration received a theatrical rerelease beginning November 3, 2023, when Araki introduced a screening at the Wexner Center for the Arts in [Columbus, Ohio](https://www.edgepedia.org/columbus-ohio).[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nowhere) • [4](https://wexarts.org/film-video/nowhere) The trilogy joined the Criterion Collection in a 4K UHD and Blu-ray box set, and the film streams on the Criterion Channel with a 2024 commentary track featuring Araki and cast members.[3](https://www.criterion.com/films/34330-nowhere) • [10](https://www.criterionchannel.com/nowhere)
Araki reported that at 2023 restoration screenings he asked audiences how many had never seen the films before, and the answer was always at least 60 to 65 percent, sometimes 80 percent, showing that the trilogy had found a new, young audience.[2](https://filmmakermagazine.com/122873-gregg-araki-teen-apocalypse-trilogy/) In 2015 the [French fashion](https://www.edgepedia.org/french-fashion) house Kenzo commissioned a short film from Araki for its fall/winter campaign, titled *Here Now*, which serves as a sequel to *Nowhere* set not long after the film's events.[11](https://www.netflixmovies.com/nowhere-1997)
## References
1. [Nowhere, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nowhere)
2. ["It's Disturbing to Me How Relevant They Are": Gregg Araki on New Restorations and His Teen Apocalypse Trilogy, Filmmaker Magazine (2023)](https://filmmakermagazine.com/122873-gregg-araki-teen-apocalypse-trilogy/)
3. [Nowhere, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/34330-nowhere)
4. [Nowhere, Wexner Center for the Arts](https://wexarts.org/film-video/nowhere)
5. [Nowhere (1997), UCL Film & TV Society Journal (2024)](https://blog.uclfilm.com/2024/09/25/nowhere-1997/)
6. [Nowhere restoration presskit, Strand Releasing](https://strandreleasing.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/nowhere-restoration-presskitv2.pdf)
7. [Nowhere (1997), dir. Gregg Araki, Sightlines](https://sightlines.media/film/1811/nowhere-1997)
8. [Chronic Youth Film Festival Presents Gregg Araki's Nowhere, Strand Magazine](https://www.strandmagazine.co.uk/single-post/chronic-youth-festival-film-festival-presents-gregg-araki-s-nowhere-discussion-on-film-music)
9. [Gregg Araki's 1997 Cult Film 'Nowhere' Gets 4K Restoration, Variety via IMDb News](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119809/news/)
10. [Nowhere, The Criterion Channel](https://www.criterionchannel.com/nowhere)
11. [Nowhere (1997) facts and trivia, NetflixMovies.com](https://www.netflixmovies.com/nowhere-1997)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Coming-of-age films › Coming-of-age films released before 2000*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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