dispatch from the inside of st. vincent's gay little lynchian mind
dispatch from the inside of st. vincent's gay little lynchian mind
and something about adèle haenel's new haircut
Welcome to this week’s dispatch from the lesbian internet, a mid-week news roundup from Paging Dr. Lesbian. If you like this type of thing, subscribe.
Frankly, there was not a ton of sapphic news this week, so I’m going to start by giving you my unfiltered thoughts about the new trailer for Nowhere Inn, which is St. Vincent and Carrie Brownstein’s Lynchian faux-documentary-meets-concert-film. The trailer opens with St. Vincent in front of a marquee with her name on it as Carrie films her smiling for the camera. Ominous music quickly filters in, and we are met with St. Vincent in a confessional saying “Why was the movie never completed? Let’s start at the beginning.”
St. Vincent then tells us about the conceit of the film (or the film-within-a-film, I should say), explaining how she “Wanted people to really know who I am, so I asked my best friend to direct it.” Said best friend, of course, is Carrie Brownstein, who, if you didn’t know is also an ex-girlfriend of St. Vincent – in “real life” at least. (St. Vincent also produced Sleater-Kinney’s 2019 album The Center Won’t Hold). What follows is a brief illustration of how it all begins to fall apart, with St. Vincent (or, Annie Clark?) becoming increasingly concerned about how she will be perceived on camera, at one point even saying “I need more say in how other people are going to act.” “It’s a documentary,” Carrie replies.
The most thrilling moment of the trailer (for our purposes, at least) occurs when Carrie opens the door to a hotel room to find St. Vincent and none other than Dakota Johnson lying on the bed in black lingerie. St. Vincent, of course, directs Carrie to film them for the documentary. (This seven-second clip may have truly broken some people’s brains). After this, things only get more nightmarish, surreal, and of course, Lynchian – at one point there are two St. Vincents facing one another – with Carrie becoming more and more alienated from her friend and St. Vincent seemingly collapsing the boundaries between real and fake.
I have no idea if this film will actually be any good, but at the very least we get more St. Vincent music, Dakota Johnson existing ostensibly for the purposes of being sapphic eye candy, and Carrie Brownstein as a gay little best friend. Hello, let’s celebrate that.
In other news, French lesbian icon Adèle Haenel has gotten a haircut (see below). The sapphic sleuths of Instagram discovered this information following a theater production in which Haenel was photographed with her new look. Importantly, the other star of the show was Ruth Vega Fernandez, who, if you didn’t know, is the star of a (good!) Swedish lesbian film called Kiss Me. Adèle Haenel stans are geniuses and I love this new (gay) haircut on Adèle. This is your reminder to watch (or re-watch) Kiss Me or Portrait of a Lady on Fire this month. (You can borrow my blu-ray).
In other Instagram news, Niecy Nash has continued (over)share about how great (sexually) it is to be gay married, posting this photo (below) with the caption “Babe this weekend was epic! So much fun we couldn’t even post any of it!👅 #IfTheyOnlyKnew 🤣#TheBetts#BettsOfBothWorlds#MarriedLife ❤️💍.” Frankly, I hope she never stops.
Lastly, check out Kristen Arnett’s (who I interviewed earlier this month) new column in Catapult Magazine, which is all about Dad culture (it’s good y’all). And, although I have no more (coherent) thought about the new L Word, I once again urge you to read Xena Worrier Princess’ (who I also interviewed about her great book) weekly recaps for some actual good thoughts, including some great ones about polyamory.
That’s all for this week, folks! Stay tuned for more. I will leave you with this to chew on.
