Michael Cera has made a career out of being the cute, aw-shucks kind of guy. And in Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, he succeeds somewhat in letting that go. Here he plays Nick, a hapless teen who has girl problems. Well, girl problems in the sense that Tris has broken up with him, and he’s having difficulty dealing with that. He spends endless days leaving phone messages and making mix-CD’s for her and pining after pictures of her on his wall, which could come close to stalking.
His bandmates, Thom and Dev, try to bring him out of his funk -because they have a gig to play - but when they discover that an indie-rock band they all love will be playing at a secret location somewhere in New York, a road trip begins.
At there gig, Nick finds both his ex, Tris, and Norah (who knows Tris from school, and hates her). Norah (the delightful Kat Dennings), blanching at the idea that Tris will see her alone, goes up to Nick and asks to be his boyfriend for “five minutes” (Norah unaware that Nick is Tris’ ex).
Thus, as it turns out, both love this indie-band and spend the rest of the movie sparring, trading insults and trying to find Caroline, Norah’s friend who is drunk as a skunk and who at first thinks Nick’s bandmates are out to rape her. She, of course, is wrong as both Dev and Thom are gay (which brings up the coolest aspect of the film. In other films, these band members would’ve slowly faded in the background, but here they become central to the plot -they’re the first to realize that both Nick and Norah really belong together and work towards making sure they stay together).
While the story is slight, it beams with delightful performances from Cera and Dennings, along with Aaron Yoo and Rafi Gavron as Nick’s fellow queercore band members. Ari Gaynor almost steals the film as the drunk Caroline who seems to never want to give up the gum she chewing -and you’ll remember what she does with it forever. And while Jonathan B. Wright has little to say as cute guy Dev picks up, his looks - sort of a blond, beefier version Josh Hartnell -kept me hoping that Dev and him would kiss.
His bandmates, Thom and Dev, try to bring him out of his funk -because they have a gig to play - but when they discover that an indie-rock band they all love will be playing at a secret location somewhere in New York, a road trip begins.
At there gig, Nick finds both his ex, Tris, and Norah (who knows Tris from school, and hates her). Norah (the delightful Kat Dennings), blanching at the idea that Tris will see her alone, goes up to Nick and asks to be his boyfriend for “five minutes” (Norah unaware that Nick is Tris’ ex).
Thus, as it turns out, both love this indie-band and spend the rest of the movie sparring, trading insults and trying to find Caroline, Norah’s friend who is drunk as a skunk and who at first thinks Nick’s bandmates are out to rape her. She, of course, is wrong as both Dev and Thom are gay (which brings up the coolest aspect of the film. In other films, these band members would’ve slowly faded in the background, but here they become central to the plot -they’re the first to realize that both Nick and Norah really belong together and work towards making sure they stay together).
While the story is slight, it beams with delightful performances from Cera and Dennings, along with Aaron Yoo and Rafi Gavron as Nick’s fellow queercore band members. Ari Gaynor almost steals the film as the drunk Caroline who seems to never want to give up the gum she chewing -and you’ll remember what she does with it forever. And while Jonathan B. Wright has little to say as cute guy Dev picks up, his looks - sort of a blond, beefier version Josh Hartnell -kept me hoping that Dev and him would kiss.
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