Life is not easy for an angst-ridden bi-curious teenager and his fellow high school students in this uncanny early career film from 'Mysterious Skin' director Gregg Araki. The film opens with a striking scene in which the teen pleasures himself in the shower while conflicting thoughts of beautiful women and a boy who he fancies flicker on screen, signifying from early on his sexual confusion. 'Nowhere' is not, however, just a tale of a young man realising his latent homosexuality. Rather, it is about how he perceives his whole universe collapsing as a result of this realisation. As the film progresses, increasingly weird things start happening. There are UFO sightings, encounters with alien beings and one character gets abducted... but does this really happen or is the apocalypse merely in his mind? While often baffling, the sci-fi angle provides an unexpected edge, and frustrating as the weirdness may well be, there is never a boring with the idea of aliens just around the corner. What the film does not do so well is juggle all of its many subplots. James Duval is engaging as the protagonist, but no other character is fleshed out in much depth, and only one subplot (a date rape victim coming to worship a televangelist) really stands out. The film is riveting though whenever Duval is on screen. He brings a simultaneous confidence and vulnerability to his character, acting all cool but deeply worried just beneath. What exactly the aliens are meant to signify is anybody's guess, but this is a film that does not need to be understood in its entirety for its central human story to resonate.