"Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" brings the John Hughes' teen comedy/romance into 2008. Like the classic films, "The Breakfast Club" and "Sixteen Candles," awkward teenage love is established during a single wild day, and the characters learn a hell of a lot about themselves along the way with the obligatory indie-rock soundtrack playing throughout the whole ride. Director Peter Sollett takes on the screenplay by Lorene Scafaria (based on the beloved novel of the same name) that centers around --¡ guess who -¡- two lost teenaged souls named Nick and Norah. They are interesting, modern and entertaining characters.
Meet Nick O'Leary (Michael Cera): Nick is a broken-hearted musician who serves as the only straight guy in a "queercore" band. He's still hung up on his trashy, controlling ex-girlfriend, Tris (Alexis Dziena), for whom, by the beginning of the film, he has made 12 mixed CDs since their breakup (which apparently went down on his "b-day").
Meet Norah Silverberg (Kat Dennings): Norah is a major music lover whose dad just happens to be a major recording studio owner. Norah is a smart-mouthed but nurturing bombshell who can't seem to make a real connection with a boy.
When Nick, Norah, Tris and Norah's gloriously drunk friend Caroline (Ari Graynor) run into each other at music club, feelings get hurt, egos are bruised and Norah - in an act of desperation asks Nick a fateful question: "Will you be my boyfriend for five minutes?" Thus begins a rather long and crazy night in Manhattan that includes a wild goose chase with Nick and Norah's favorite band "Where's Fluffy?" and Caroline, who takes off barfing all over the city. Graynor rocks as Caroline and gives probably the most hilarious, honest and lovable performance ever of a drunk chick.
Nick and Norah predictably deal with their exes, contemplate their futures, bond, fight and fall in love during their adventures. The movie gets a bit cliché at times, which is its biggest flaw. But the contemporary dialogue and truthful portrayals of the 18- to 20-year-old age group make the movie something special. It's a hipster version of "Superbad" without the gross-out comedy. An R-rating seemed to be something this movie desperately wanted and probably should've received. Thanks to the unfortunate PG-13 rating, bad language is minimal and sex is merely fully clothed, heavy breathing. It can make the audience feel slightly cheated, but it is enjoyable nonetheless.
The actors in the film are spot-on, specifically the infinitely cute Cera and Dennings. Cera continues to build his image as the thinking girl's heartthrob with his bone-dry wit and adorable shyness. Anything Cera does is worth watching because of - what this writer likes to call his "Cera-isms." For example, when Norah worries about Caroline getting sexually assaulted in the van with Nick's band members, Cera (as Nick) responds in uncomfortable seriousness: "Yeah, they're gay ... gay every day, all the time. If somebody's going to get raped in that van tonight ... it will be a guy." Totally worth the price of admission.
Dennings, however, is the star of the show. She is beautiful, sarcastic, powerful and vulnerable all at the same time - she is impossible not to fall in love with. She garners more laughs than Cera, and that is saying something. Her naturalism and too-cool-for-you quips are the best parts of the movie. Cera and Dennings are perfectly cast and have biting chemistry.
It bares mentioning that the actors who play Nick's band members (Aaron Yoo, Rafi Gavron) and their new love interest, Lethario (Jonathon B. Wright), wonderfully portray honest and substantial gay men. They are not the stereotypical lisping, hyperactive gay sidekicks who are used for comic relief, but rather wise and compassionate friends of Nick who happen to be gay. Scafaria and Sollett deserve major props for breaking down such an irritating and unrealistic movie tradition.
"Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" is a sweet movie with a sharp, modern outlook on teenage love. Like every single end to a 1980s Hughes teen romp, we can all guess how this movie ends, but it is always fun to be a part of the journey.
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