Movie Review: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
Brandon Fibbs - The Gazette
Oct 03, 2008
"Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" is a film about love, friendship, music and one well-traveled piece of gum.
Brazen yet bashful, "Infinite Playlist" is a delight of a film, leavened with a phosphorescent soundtrack and enough quirky performances to last the rest of the year.
Michael Cera ("Superbad," "Juno") and Kat Dennings ("The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Charlie Bartlett") star as forlorn teens who make a love connection over the course of one very long, very surreal night prowling the streets of New York City. If the movies are to be believed, New York City is a place of magical sights and sounds, and infinite romantic possibilities. And so it is.
Cera is Nick, the only straight guy in a rock band, whose unfaithful mean-girl girlfriend Tris (Alexis Dziena) has dumped him for a clueless college jock.
Although the dumping occurred weeks ago, Nick continues to make Tris uberhip mix CDs of their favorite songs, hoping to draw her back.
Dennings is Norah, the daughter of a wealthy music producer who wants nothing more than to be a normal teenager. She spends most of her time baby-sitting her best friend, Caroline (a very funny Ari Graynor), who doesn't know the meaning of the word "moderation."
Although Nick and Norah have next to nothing in common except their taste in music, a chance encounter at a club where Nick is playing is transformed into an all-night quest to find their mutual favorite band's secret show, rescue a drunken friend, and somehow conjure some meaning in their college-bound futures.
"Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" is "When Harry Met Sally" with teens, compressed into a single, magical, bleary-eyed night. Nick and Norah scour New York, brushing against a cornucopia of funny characters and outlandish situations.
Yet no matter where the story goes, director Peter Sollett and writer Lorene Scafaria (who based her screenplay on the novel by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan) never lose focus of Nick and Norah's budding relationship. What begins as a madcap roller coaster ride transforms into a tender, quiet, contemplative and deeply satisfying meditation as dawn's rays inch above the horizon.
"Infinite Playlist" boasts two terrific leads, the prince of awkwardness and unrequited love in Cera, and Dennings, who is quickly breaking the mold for what we expect to see in teenage female characters -- a type both beautiful and bright, sultry and sweet.
"Infinite Playlist" contains moments of pure joy -- smeared light, melodic poetry and visual enchantment.
The scene in which a character locks herself inside a car is as straightforward and uncomplicated as it is beautiful and reflective.
Composer Mark Mothersbaugh, best known for his Wes Anderson scores, creates a delicate, unobtrusive complement to the action.
"Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" is effortlessly funny and charming. Despite the modern urban jungle and the ultrahip music, the film resonates on a timeless level. I dare you to leave the theater without a smile on your face.
NICK AND NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST
Starring: Michael Cera, Kat Dennings, Ari Graynor, Aaron Yoo
Rated: PG-13 (for mature thematic material including teen drinking, sexuality, language and crude behavior)
Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Grade: B+
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Copyright 2008 by The Gazette
