Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (Sony/Columbia)
Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material including teen drinking, sexuality, language and crude behavior.
Starring Michael Cera, Kat Dennings, Ari Graynor, Alexis Dziena, Aaron Yoo, Rafi Gavron, Jonathon B. Wright, Jay Baruchel.
Written by Rachel Cohn, David Levithan and Lorene Scafaria
Directed by Peter Sollett
GRADE: B
REVIEW
By Dan MetcalfFerris Beuhler lives. The teen romance, night-on-the-town escape from adult responsibility avant-garde soundtrack film is alive and well, thanks to Nick an Norah's Infinite Playlist, the latest adolescent comedy marketed for the raging hormones crowd.
Michael Cera plays Nick, a teen bass player in a nearly all-gay teen garage band in suburban New Jersey. Nick has been recently dumped by his girlfriend Tris (Alexis Dziena) and can't quite get over it.
Kate Dennings is Norah, a private school girl who is a classmate of Tris, and likes to collect the various CDs left by Nick which contain several songs or playlists he thinks will convince Tris to take him back. Norah admires Nick's taste in music and is secretly fond of him, although the two haven't met...so far. Norah also has issues with Tris, who is one of those 'mean girls' who has to put others down to achieve popular status.
One night as Nick's band plays in a New York City club (where teens can apparently drink tubfulls of booze) Norah shows up with her best friend Caroline (Ari Graynor) and in an effort to show Tris she has a boyfriend, approaches Nick and pretends to be his girlfriend. Tris becomes jealous, Caroline gets drunk, while Nick and Norah begin an all-night quest to find the secret location of their favorite band's 'unannounced' club appearance. As Nick and Norah look for the secret club, Nick's bandmates are left with the task of getting drunk Caroline home, a task at which they immediately fail.
What follows is a series of random encounters between Nick, Norah, Nick's band, Caroline, Tris and Norah's so-called and self-described boyfriend who is after more than just companionship with Norah.
The rest of the story follows a predictable teen-romance path as Nick must choose between taking the suddenly re-interested Tris back and Norah, who is obviously his soul mate.
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist is marketed for teens, but I have more than a few problems with that. As a parent, I worry that images of extreme teenage drinking, sex and other all-night adult pastimes reflect and promote teen fantasies rather than realities. To have clubs open for business where 17 and 18 year olds can drink themselves stupid doesn't seem all that likely, even in New York City. Such mayhem is usually done in private (or so I hear). The short sexual scene is also a little over-the-top for 13-year-olds (rated PG-13).
The chemistry between Cera and Dennings is genuine, and altogether sweet, while the rest of the cast delivers some hilarious and poignant moments during the all-nighter-party movie. The real star of the film, however, is its soundtrack, with contemporary avant-garde artists and a decent smattering of classic rock music. The movie's title alone should obviously make the soundtrack CD go platinum within minutes (or iTunes sales, or whatever) of its release.
