Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist Review

by Steve Rhodes (steve DOT rhodes AT internetreviews DOT com)
October 3rd, 2008

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.

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