Review: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008)

[Steve Rhodes]

NICK AND NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2008 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****):  **

Michael Cera may be very popular, but he is a one-note actor.  With his 
always sad, distance smile, you feel sorry for his characters before you 
even know their stories.  His limitations work when opposite strong female 
leads, as when he played opposite Ellen Page in what I think was the best 
film of last year, JUNO.  He becomes a nice foil for his co-stars' emotions.

But, in NICK AND NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST, Cera is asked to carry the show 
equally with his female lead, Kat Dennings as Norah.  His performance 
constantly falls flat, and hers isn't much better.

A romantic teen comedy, NICK AND NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST did nothing for 
me.  I didn't laugh.  I didn't even smile.  I just never cared.  And 
cinematographically, the film is much uglier than any television series 
watched at home for free on your HDTV.  Why filmmakers expect viewers to pay 
twenty bucks for a pair of tickets and then provide them with something so 
dingy is a mystery to me, but many movies these days are making that 
mistake.

By Peter Sollett, whose last film was the equally disappointing RAISING 
VICTOR VARGAS, NICK AND NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST happens one night in New 
York City.  Nick and Norah spend most of the night driving around, as they 
try to find Caroline (Ari Graynor), Norah's very drunk best friend who is 
lost somewhere.  Nick drives a yellow Yugo -- which frequently doesn't go --  
and many New Yorkers decide his car must be a cab.

Caroline, a constant gum chewer, does not like to lose her gum.  When she 
spits her gum on a wall or throws it up into a puke-filled toilet in a very 
dirty, public restroom, she always retrieves it and puts it back into her 
mouth, as the audience groans loudly.  Caroline and Norah are such best 
friends that they swap this same piece of gum.  Yes, it is just as 
disgusting as it sounds.  Actually, it is even worse.  And there are other 
such moments in the movie, including one with a cell phone floating in 
vomit.

In a story you've heard a hundred times before, Nick pines for his 
ex-girlfriend Tris (Alexis Dziena), who never loved him and still mentally 
abuses him.  Although Norah has a boyfriend, she and Nick spent most of the 
movie not realizing the obvious that they were they were made for each 
other.  Of course, by the time the night is over and the film ends, they 
will come to know what we know and will finally be together -- all very 
predictable.

Much of the story is filled with music references.  Nick is the only 
straight guy in a gay band.  Actually all of his friends are gay.  His main 
skill in life appears to be his ability to create really good mix CDs. 
Norah, who goes to the same Catholic, uniformed high school that Tris does, 
knows of Nick from the great mix CDs he prepared for Tris as a way to woo 
her.

A recurring subplot has all of the kids in the story searching for an 
elusive band called "Where's Fluffy" or just "Fluffy" for short.  The band 
is playing at some secret location in the city.  This is very apropos since 
the movie is nothing but fluff.  And, not very enjoyable fluff.

NICK AND NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST runs 1:30.  It is rated PG-13 for "mature 
thematic material including teen drinking, sexuality, language and crude 
behavior" and would be acceptable for teenagers.

The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, October 3, 2008. 
In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century 
theaters and the Camera Cinemas.

Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
Email: Steve.Rhodes at InternetReviews.com

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