Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
DIR: Peter Sollett • WRI: Lorene Scafaria • PRO Nicole Brown, Kerry Kohansky, Kelli Konop, Andrew Miano, Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz • DOP: Tom Richmond • ED: Myron I. Kerstein • DES: David Doernberg • CAST: Michael Cera, Kat Dennings

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist starts with Nick (Michael Cera) in his bedroom, surrounded by band posters, leaving a message on his ex-girlfriend’s phone while burning one in a long line of mix CDs that take the general heading ‘Road to Closure’. His ex has summarily dumped these CDs, a number of which have ended up in the hands of Norah (Kat Dennings), who has developed a fascination with her unknown ‘musical soulmate.’

Nick is the only straight guy in a band currently named The Jerk-Offs, who Norah sees playing one night. After being insulted by Nick’s ex-girlfriend, Norah – not knowing who he is – pretends she’s going out with Nick. Soon after, the two of them are driving through town in search of a surprise appearance by a band called Where’s Fluffy. They also spend a lot of the night searching for Norah’s best friend, who is a somewhat slutty alcoholic, a bit of an odd source of comedy, although it’s actually refreshing that there’s no judgement of the character. The film in general is like that. The one exception is Nick’s bitchy ex-girlfriend, who’s a bit of a stereotype, but in a way she has to be for this kind of story to work-– although we do see her making fun of Norah for coming from a rich family, which is a twist of sorts.

The fact that Norah loves Nick’s mix tapes and is then attracted to him without knowing who he is, is a bit convenient but it’s off-set by the awkwardness of much of their following interactions as they drive about in his little yellow car that people mistake for a taxi, including one very amorous couple. The jokes are pretty ‘adult’, as are many references, and there’s no talking down to the audience. The leads are very good and very likeable. Michael Cera will probably get a bit boring at some point, if he keeps playing variations on the same character, but so far, he would be hard to dislike.

This is a short, compact film, which contains familiar elements while managing to avoid being clichéd. The film manages the whole conceit of two people getting it together over the course of a night pretty convincingly. It’s sweet, pretty funny and romantic without being cloying. The music is also quite good.

Tim Hanan
(Read biog here)

Rated TBC (see IFCO website for details)
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist is released on 30th January 2009
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist – Official website