Nowhere 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.5

Nowhere 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov September 16, 2024

Gregg Araki's "Nowhere" (1997) arrives on 4K Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the release include exclusive new audio commentary by Gregg Araki, and actors James Duval, Rachel True, Nathan Bexton, Jordan Ladd, Sarah Lassez, Guillermo Diaz, and Jasson Simmons; Q&A session with Gregg Araki; and trailers. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

The tripper

More than two decades ago, a single, unplanned encounter with Nowhere was enough to transform me into a Gregg Araki fan. It remains one of the strangest viewing experiences I have ever had. Since then, I have revisited Nowhere many times and gone through periods when I genuinely believed that in some ways it is a better film than David Cronenberg's Naked Lunch. It is without a shadow of a doubt a more beautiful film.

The bulk of what takes place in Nowhere is seen through the eyes of Dark (James Duval), who is physically in Los Angeles but mentally in another, very odd place. Dark is fully aware of the split, but is neither confused nor alarmed. He likes the odd place because his mind roams free there and frequently allows his wildest dreams to penetrate it, like the one in which two kinky girls dominate him. Also present in the odd place are his adventurous girlfriend, Mel (Rachel True), some of her friends, and some of their friends.

Fascinated by the contrasts between Los Angeles and the odd place that his mind constantly registers, Dark often uses his camera to preserve special moments from his exploration of the former. It is during one of these exploration trips that he finally engages Montgomery (Nathan Bexton), whose mind is tuned to a similar frequency, and begins falling in love with him. However, at the same time, Dark also spots a giant lizard that attempts to engage him. Several hours later, as everyone around him prepares to attend a giant party, Montgomery disappears, the giant lizard reappears, and all hell breaks loose.

Nowhere is a large collection of MTV-esque episodes that even the people who ran the original, uncensored MTV would have never considered airing because there is just too much sex, drug use, and violence in them. However, Nowhere is not an incoherent film. It drags Dark through several cycles of self-made madness for a very particular reason.

If the glitz and cool music are removed from it, Nowhere visualizes the destruction of America’s youth glorified as a perverted interpretation of freedom. But except for Dark, whose mind occasionally uses the giant lizard to disrupt the vicious social matrix in which he exists, no one notices how bizarre everything is, and that self-destruction is inevitable. For this reason, spending a little over an hour with the characters of Nowhere is quite an experience.

The use of garish colors and intense lighting makes a comparison with John Waters’ work unavoidable. However, there is a sea of difference between Araki’s creativity, which is often breathtaking, and Waters’ pseudo-creativity, which routinely produces repetitive kitsch. Before the mayhem begins, for instance, there are numerous sequences with chic stills that easily could have been used in various prestigious fashion magazines. And later, when Araki switches into kitsch mode, plenty of the graphic material looks very impressive, too.

Participating in the mayhem are many rising and future stars, like Heather Graham, Ryan Philippe, Christina Applegate, Denise Richards, Debi Mazar, Scott Caan, and Chiara Mastroianni. Old pros John Ritter, Beverly D’Angelo, and Traci Lords have small parts as well.

For my money, Nowhere has the most ambitious and diverse soundtracks of all feature films Araki has directed. Included in it are great tunes from Nine Inch Nails (“Memorabilia”), Filter (“Take Another”), Portishead (“Mourning Air”), Blur (“She’s So High”), Marylin Manson (“Kiddie Grinder”), Radiohead (“How Can You Be Sure?”), The Verve (“Grey Skies”), Massive Attack (“Daydreaming”), and The Future Sound of London (“Papua New Guinea”), among others.

Nowhere 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Criterion's release of Nowhere is a 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack. The 4K Blu-ray disc is Region-Free. However, the Blu-ray disc is Region-A "locked".

Please note that some of the screencaptures that appear with this article are taken from the 4K Blu-ray and downscaled to 1080p. Therefore, they do not accurately reflect the quality of the 4K content on the 4K Blu-ray disc, including the actual color values of this content.

Screencaptures #1-29 are from the Blu-ray.
Screencaptures #33-40 are from the 4K Blu-ray.

The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this release:

"These new restorations of the Teen Apocalypse Trilogy were supervised and approved by director Gregg Araki. The 4K restoration of Nowhere was created from the 35mm original camera negative, with a 35mm interpositive used for some scenes. The original 5.1 surround soundtracks were remastered from the original magnetic tracks.

Colorist: Gregg Garwin, Roundabout Entertainment, Burbank, CA.
Image restoration: Roundabout Entertainment.
Restoration postproduction supervisor: Beau J. Genot.
Audio restoration: Trip Brock/Monkeyland Audio, Los Angeles."

The quality of the visuals ranges from very good to excellent. In a couple of darker sequences, I noticed minor fluctuations in the dynamic range of the visuals, so I assume that these are some inherited fluctuations from the interpositive. The native 4K presentation is not graded with Dolby Vision or HDR, but the visuals are consistently so lush and vibrant that I cannot see how they could have looked dramatically benefited if they were. Grain exposure could have been slightly better, but all visuals have a solid organic appearance. Color reproduction is very good. All primaries and supporting nuances are balanced very well. In a few areas, highlights could have been managed marginally better, but I think that what I saw is a residual effect of very small limitations retained from the interpositive. (In the same areas, sharpness drops a bit as well). Image stability is excellent. I noticed a few white specks, but there are no distracting cuts, debris, warped or torn frames to report.

I sampled large areas of the 1080p presentation as well. It is very convincing, too. However, the native 4K presentation produces slightly sharper visuals with superior fluidity. The difference is not big, but on a larger screen it becomes easy to tell that the native 4K presentation is stronger.

Nowhere 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The strength of the lossless track is immediately recognizable. During the shower sequence in the very beginning of the film, the music floods the speakers with a fullness and lushness that are quite impressive. After that, it only gets better, with the most impressive material emerging in the second half of the film. The dialog is always clear and easy to follow. However, during mass scenes, you will notice some unevenness.

Nowhere 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

4K BLU-RAY DISC

• Commentary - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by Gregg Araki, and actors James Duval, Rachel True, Nathan Bexton, Jordan Ladd, Sarah Lassez, Guillermo Diaz, and Jasson Simmons. It is a light, often quite hilarious commentary with plenty of recollections about the shooting of many 'difficult' sequences, the chemistry between different actors, the balance between the ugly and hilarious, etc. The commentary was recorded in 2024.

BLU-RAY DISC

• Commentary - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by Gregg Araki, and actors James Duval, Rachel True, Nathan Bexton, Jordan Ladd, Sarah Lassez, Guillermo Diaz, and Jasson Simmons. It is a light, often quite hilarious commentary with plenty of recollections about the shooting of many 'difficult' sequences, the chemistry between different actors, the balance between the ugly and hilarious, etc. The commentary was recorded in 2024.

• Academy Museum Q&AS - presented here is a Q&A session with Gregg Araki, moderated by Gus Van Sant and Andrew Ahn, which was recorded at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles in 2023. The bulk of the comments address the conception the Teen Apocalypse Trilogy, casting choices that were made, and the creative environment at the time. In English, not subtitled. (30 min).

• Trailers - presented here are three remastered trailers for Totally F***ed Up, The Doom Generation, and Nowhere. In English, not subtitled. (5 min).

• Booklet - 34-page illustrated booklet featuring writings on the Teen Apocalypse Trilogy and technical credits. In English, not subtitled. (31 min).

Nowhere 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Is Nowhere a crazy trash film, or a bold challenger of Naked Lunch? I think that it is a little bit of both, and more. It is obvious to me that it was made by a director in a special state of mind, but its mayhem is a pretty accurate visualization of the glorified self-destruction of America's youth. It is a genuine hard-hitter, so it will resonate differently with different viewers, but I think that it is a very unique, very well-made film. It is included in this three-disc 4K Blu-ray box set. An identical three-disc Blu-ray box set is available here as well. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.