Movie Review: “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist”
Kat Dennings and Michael Cera in “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist.”
Rating: 68
“Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” looks like “Juno” but thinks like “Sixteen Candles.” This night ride through New York City’s indie rock culture is a strong showcase for stars Michael Cera and Kat Dennings, but then director Peter Sollett takes side trips into gross-out humor that don’t fit with Nick and Norah’s native intelligence.
Nick (Cera) just had his heart crushed by Tris (Alexis Dziena), a nightmare in a cheerleading outfit, and he’s dangerously despondent, sending Tris mix CDs that she throws in the trash. Norah (Dennings) has been digging them out as soon as Tris tosses them, and based on Nick’s immaculate taste, has fallen in love with the anonymous boy.
After finally meeting at a gig for Nick’s band, the two relative strangers fake a relationship for Tris’ benefit, and Nick’s bandmates (Aaron Yoo and Rafi Gavron) decide they should make it real. So they offer to drive Norah’s drunk friend Caroline (Ari Graynor) to the secret concert by the hot club band Where’s Fluffy and give Nick and Norah a chance to know each other.
But Caroline disappears, sending Nick and Norah through New York underbelly scenarios in pursuit of Caroline, Fluffy and each other. This is where “Infinite Playlist” plays like a hipster version of “Adventures in Babysitting.” Some gags, such as Caroline’s unflushable chewing gum, are more likely to elicit groans than laughter, but those are sideshows to the chemistry between Cera and Dennings.
As Nick, Cera performs a variation on roles he perfected in “Juno,” “Superbad” and “Arrested Development,” a sensitive guy with a heart on display for easy breaking. But while Cera is the known commodity, it’s Dennings who provides the revelation, bringing a sly reading to even throwaway lines.
By the time “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” reaches its penultimate stop at a landmark in rock ‘n’ roll history, the film saves itself from the goofier elements and focuses on the flowering of Nick and Norah’s love story. Thankfully, at that point it feels like the cool, smart and bittersweet love story it could have been if it hadn’t gotten sidelined by zany, madcap antics.
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Comments
Not exactly. I thought the location played well into the plot, and specifically the character of Nora. The dialogue in that scene in particular was sweet and honest, reminiscent of early Cameron Crowe. It’s so rare to see a film about teens that allows itself to not be ironic.
If they had allowed the rest of the story to breathe like that scene, they might have had something really special. Still, the good outweighed the bad, and the bad was mostly inoffensive (other than the unfortunate gum subplot, which served only to distract in later scenes).
Anyway, I’d recommend it as a rental. A nice piece of fluff.
Let me guess… a open-for-the-movie-only CBGB’s?
omfug indeed.