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"NICK & NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST"
(2008) (Michael Cera, Kat Dennings) (PG-13)

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QUICK TAKE:
Comedy: While longing for his ex-girlfriend, a teen ends up spending the night traveling around New York City with a girl he's just met who's trying to find her intoxicated friend.
PLOT:
Nick (MICHAEL CERA) is a normal teenage guy -- save for the fact that he's the lone straight member of the gay band The Jerk-Offs that's comprised of Thom (AARON YOO), Dev (RAFI GAVRON) and new follower Lethario (JONATHAN B. WRIGHT) -- who's fixated on and longing for his ex-girlfriend.

She's Tris (ALEXIS DZIENA) who's grown tired of him continually sending her CD mixes of songs and his verbalized thoughts about her. Her schoolmate Norah (KAT DENNINGS), however, thinks the mixes are good even if she's never met their creator. Yet she eventually does just that, albeit by dumb luck, when Tris is showing off her new boyfriend and making fun of Norah for not having one, considering that her ex, Tal (JAY BARUCHEL), is now just a "friend with benefits."

In a moment of desperation, she spots Nick and asks if he'll be her boyfriend for five minutes, all to get Tris off her back. His band-mates think they'd make a cute couple and hate seeing him pine away for Tris who they can't stand, so they agree to take Norah's drunk friend Caroline (ARI GRAYNOR) home so that Nick and Norah can get to know each other.

As they spend the rest of the night and early morning together bickering and traversing their way through New York City looking for their favorite band's next guerilla performance and then Caroline when she ends up missing, the two teens start to develop feelings for each other and must decide who they want in their romantic lives.

OUR TAKE: 6 out of 10
All genres have their staples, conventions and clichés, but few are as riddled with them as the romantic comedy. It might be a formula -- mixing characters who don't get along, then fall for each other, then break up and pine for each other (during, natch, one of many montage sequences) and finally get together, all as whacky friends/sidekicks/manifestations of conscience get the best lines, and popular songs, often vintage in orientation, play on the soundtrack -- that works for diehard fans, but let's be honest, it's getting a bit old for the rest of us.

Thus, anytime a new film comes along and manages to put any sort of spin on those ingredients, it earns a few points in my reviewing book. "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist" is one such flick. While it meets all of the necessary requirements, it seems fresh and thankfully charming enough that it's worth a viewing, both for fans of the genre and those who could live a lifetime and never need to see most any such pic again.

That's mainly due to the efforts of Michael Cera and Kat Dennings in the lead roles. Sure, there's the hip sounding, presumably contemporary teen-speak dialogue -- courtesy of screenwriter Lorene Scafaria -- that's like a minor league version of that heard in "Juno." And the plot, revolving around a wild and zany night traversing the neighborhoods and streets of Gotham while encountering an interesting array of characters, is fun if reminiscent of other similar offerings such as Scorsese's "After Hours."

Cera, who's become something of this generation's Anthony Michael Hall persona (at least back in the "Sixteen Candles" era), and Dennings, who captures the snarky indifference of the teen girl despite being years beyond graduation herself, simply create credible, charming and sympathetic characters that draw us into their little world and drag us along for the ride.

Sure, they're still following the romantic comedy blueprint for such creations (meeting cute, bickering, falling for and then having a falling out, etc.), but they do so in a manner that's both winning and somehow manages to avoid feeling recycled from this genre or that of the regular teen comedy. Simply put, we like these two souls and want to see them get together and director Peter Sollett manages to stoke that desire throughout the film's 90-some minute runtime.

The sidekick characters are appropriately amusing, with the usual singularly gay one being joined by others, and while there's the usual risqué material, there are also some decent and genuinely human moments. While she generates some laughs, Ari Graynor is more of a caricature as the partying, drunken teen, and a running gag of what could be called "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Chewing Gum" pushes the boundaries of what's acceptable in terms of gross-out comedy material.

While I might be too old and/or un-hip to find the soundtrack (that which supplies part of the title) as much fun as teens likely will (and as I did for films of old when I was that age), I can certainly appreciate the film's likeable, charming and funny characters, dialogue and overall story. If you're looking for a flick that should leave you with a warmed heart and smile on your face, you might just enjoy listening to (and watching) "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist." It rates as a 6 out of 10.




Reviewed September 11, 2008 / Posted October 3, 2008


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