Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Written by: Lorene Scafaria (screenplay), Rachel Cohn (novel)
Directed by: Peter Sollett

We follow a bunch of quirky teens on their awesome Friday night in the great city of New York. Nick (Michael Cera) is getting over the horrible break up between him and Tris (Alexis Dziena ). His bandmates Tom and Dev decide that he needs to get out of the house which is difficult until they overhear their favorite band Where’s Fluffy is going to be in the city doing a random show at some random hour sometime that night. Awesome.

Norah (Kat Dennings) and her friend Caroline (Ari Graynor) are also super psyched about going to see Where’s Fluffy so they plan to hit the town. Tris asks about their plans because she plans to go out as well. Then she gossips to Caroline about her loser ex and his sappy mix cds he keeps making her. Unbeknownst to Tris, Norah thinks they are great and has been swiping them from the trash everytime Tris chunks them.

As fate should have it all the kids end up at Nick’s band’s gig. Tris has a new guy on her arm and she makes fun of Norah for being alone…again. Norah fakes having a boyfriend and randomly picks the bassist from the band, our buddy Nick. Caroline is off getting trashed so Dev and Tom offer to take Caroline home while Nick and Norah get acquainted. Which works great until they lose her. The rest of the night involves gay male cabaret, throw up, and a trip to Electric Lady studio, among other things. If you’ve had a night that lasted till 6am before, you know you end up seeing some ridiculous things.

For some reason I thought this movie would be more focused on the music. I suppose it’s the “Inifinite Playlist” part. Yes Nick is in an indie rock band and they see another band and chase another band all around town, and even listen to The Cure on the ipod in the car. But there wasn’t much soundtrack wise. At least not that I was paying attention to.

Michael Cera plays the character that he is great for playing. That awkward kid we met as George Michael on Arrested Development. That is him. And he is good at it. And I won’t get tired of watching it. Kat Dennings is good at the odd man out teenage girl. I don’t know who Ari Graynor is but she is hilarious and plays drunk as good as an actual drunk. The supporting cast of teens is pretty accurate. I suppose. I don’t know any teenagers. And if you are into any indie hipster anything, there are a few cameos that you will love.

Luckily this movie was not as…trendy…as Juno was. A lot of people had issues with the dialogue in Juno, which could very well be accurate, but again I know no teens. These kids seemed real to me though. They were into their music and that’s all they wanted to do. They were funny and sincere and had great close friendships. Well at least friendships you could really relate to. I would call this a slightly less cool teen version of Garden State. Yes. That’ll do.

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