Queer cinema has undergone quite a journey, its sometimes surprising to remember that there was a time in which even the vaguest suggestion of queer content in a film was considered too deviant to have a place in the mainstream, and was often shoved into the arthouse or independent scene instead. Most filmmakers didn’t have any problem with being considered subversive for Hollywood, with the entire New Queer Cinema movement being built from the fragments of perversion that were seen as inappropriate for general audiences. One of the most important voices in this movement, if not the most vital based on his output over the past quarter-century, is Gregg Araki, who has positioned himself as the heir apparent of John Waters, particularly in how he openly embraces making films that are radical and daring, and (most importantly) unimpeachably and proudly queer, in terms of both concept and execution. Without any sense of hyperbole, he helped define LGBTQIA+ content on screen, making the films that many wanted to see, but could never find the funding or even the artistic motivation to set the wheels in motion. By the time he conceived of Nowhere, which he has family referred to as “Beverley Hills 90210 on acid” (a very appropriate description for several reasons, both thematically and stylistically), Araki had made a few well-received films and had clocked in about a decade worth of work, working on projects that were underseen by the mainstream audiences but had an immediate cult following, enough to prove that he was a director worth watching. A landmark of queer cinema at a time when it was gaining momentum, and was pushed to entirely new heights as a result of this film and its celebration of many themes directly relating to the experience of a community that had never been fully portrayed on screen in a truly positive way until that point, which makes this so much more than just merely an attempt to scandalise and shake the conventions of art.

Araki’s creative process seems to be built on taking a common idea or very simple concept and filtering it through his distinct artistic lens. In the case of Nowhere, we find the director tackling a subject that is often seen in his work, that of the experience of young people as they try and find their place in a world in which they seemingly don’t belong. The difference here is that Nowhere seems to be taking place in an entirely different reality, one where sexuality is not something that is hidden, but rather overtly celebrated as being intrinsic to the identity of these characters, rather than being a source of internal conflict. This may seem like a very intuitive way to explore these ideas, but for a film made nearly thirty years ago, it strikes a chord as being massively ahead of its time. Nowhere is a film that can appropriately be described as a perverted coming-of-age story, at least in terms of how it explores the underlying connections between these characters. The film focuses on about a dozen people, all of them at that age where they are stuck in that ambigious space between adolescence and adulthood – they’re old enough to have a taste of the responsibilities they will have to carry with them throughout their lives, but still too young to actively be equipped with the necessary skills to navigate this challenging part of their lives. We watch as they navigate sometimes treacherous territory, overcoming obstacles that mostly start from within, carefully observing them unearth details about their own identity that they didn’t realize was a part of them until it emerged at a particularly opportune moment. It’s a fascinating concept, and one that we find sets the foundation for quite a lot of the ideas that are embedded deep within this film, which is an unnerving but hilarious examination of sexual identity and internal questioning, as conveyed by a group of fascinating but deeply troubled protagonists.

To bring this story to life, Araki casts quite a few fascinating actors, almost all of whom were mostly unknown, but would go on to have storied careers, using their work here as the foundation to get them into the industry they would soon begin to explore at a much closer level. Several unexpected names make their way through the film, with the ensemble consisting of the likes of Christina Applegate, Mena Suvari, Jeremy Jordan Chiara Mastroianni, Deni Mazar and Ryan Phillippe, all of whom would have exceptional careers in later years. The film is led by James Duval, Rachel True and Nathan Bexton, who are surprisingly among the few members of the cast who did not become much more notable names, despite their clear talent being displayed throughout this film, as well as the emphasis on the story gives to their characters. However, regardless of their later work, the central trio are brilliant in this film. It could not have been particularly easy to explore some of these ideas, especially as a relatively untested unknown who was thrust into a film helmed by a charismatic agent of chaos who made it very clear that he wanted to push his actors to the brink of their talent, not to mention their comfort level. Nowhere is a traditional character study, but it does intend to explore the minds of these individuals as they navigate the challenging adolescent years that tend to feel endless but still tend to be over much faster than we may have expected. To be able to extract such complex, vulnerable performances from a group of mostly untested or still novice actors is a skill, and it is one of the many reasons Araki is such a fascinating filmmaker, and why Nowhere feels like a genuinely subversive piece of cinema.

Yet, the sprawling nature of the cast, coupled with the story that they are telling, is only successful because of the work Araki puts into developing this film as more than just a one-dimensional dark comedy. An element of his work that is sometimes overlooked, primarily as a result of the seemingly easygoing nature of his creative process, is that Araki is a genuinely groundbreaking director, someone who works on films that are filled with complex ideas, and rather than feeling intimidated by the weight of what these narratives are discussing, he crafts films that move at a mile-a-minute, being fast-paced, genre-bending masterpieces that not only challenge the status quo but tear it apart entirely. Much like his forerunners in the history of queer cinema, Araki’s entire modus operandi was to reinvent cinema as something nasty and perverse, and to do that, he was required to put in a lot of work, proving that it takes an abundance of effort to make something this chaotic and unconventional. In terms of tone, the film is impossible to pin down – it is outrageously hilarious in one moment, then melodramatic in another, and followed by a sense of genuine terror. The director proves that it is more than possible to make a film in which genre is not a consideration, since it’s nearly impossible to categorise this film in any logical way, which is why it sometimes feels so genuinely compelling. Araki also subscribes to the idea that logic is not something that ever needs to factor into a story to any considerable degree – as long as we have strong, well-defined characters, a film can be as wild as it desires, granted that it never ventures too far from being comprehensible. The entirety of Nowhere feels like a drug-fueled fever dream, and there is never a moment where anything makes sense, except the moments in which we feel the pangs of longing and desire bubbling beneath these characters. The confusion of adolescence is brilliantly conveyed throughout this film, which manages to be daring without needing to push itself too far to be rational, instead functioning on a much more subtle, nuanced level of storytelling.

Many consider this to be Araki’s defining film – not necessarily his most popular or well-formed (which would likely be awarded to something like Mysterious Skin or Smiley Face, which are generally considered the most memorable of his works), but rather the one that showcases exactly who he is as a filmmaker, covering his artistic sensibilities and his interest in pushing boundaries further than any of his peers. Nowhere is neither his first film nor the one that most people associate with him, but instead exists as a slightly off-kilter, almost repulsive dark comedy that uses sexuality and violence as weapons against the status quo, conveying the undying belief of everyone involved that the biggest threat to the youth of the world is bigotry and close-minded beliefs, which makes this film unquestionably timeless, particularly in how it is essentially a series of vignettes that are only loosely connected in terms of narrative, but convey a sense of incredible consistency and an urgency that we simply don’t find occurring very often. There’s something very compelling about this film. Even at its most prickly and controversial, there’s a sense of compassion that lingers behind every shot, almost as if it was made by someone with a genuine sense of pathos, which did not define the way he made the film, but rather guided him to push boundaries in challenging and unorthodox ways. A complex and engaging work of New Queer Cinema that is both brilliant and subversive, ambigious and extremely meaningful, Nowhere is an exceptional and captivating film and one of the many exquisite films that make independent cinema so exciting.