“Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist’ or “ If my iPod took screen writing classes, it would write something like this” (Review)
This is was of the most beautiful and charming films I’ve seen in quite a while. Ever since I saw the trailer for the first time, I wanted this film to be something special and not a throwaway film. Trailers more often than not give you that false promise of what a film could be, and typically not what they will end up being. Thankfully ‘Nick and Norah’s Infinite playlist’ is the wonderful exception to that. It outshined the promise of the trailer exponentially, and not since ‘Once’ have I vehemently rooted for an onscreen couple to get together.
I’m sure there will be comparisons of this film made to ‘Juno’ and ‘Superbad’ on the basis that Michael Cera is in this movie and doesn’t stray far from the character archetype he typically plays. The thing is… I don’t care. Michael Cera plays the awkward teenage role perfectly and is truly believable as that type of character. He has smart and appropriate dialogue, but it’s not too witty or clever. Like I said, it’s 100% believable. This isn’t comparable to either of the previously mentioned films. It’s closer to the movies of John Hughes or the few actually good teen movies of the late 90’s (Ex. ‘Can’t Hardly wait’) the best teen films adhere to one simple rule, the context of the story must happen in one day or over the course of a whole night. That is the single element that the best teen films share that makes them work.
The story of ‘Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist’ isn’t a deep story, there are no massive plot twists, no one is revealed to be someone they’re not. It’s a simple story about teenage love and finding someone to relate to in life and trying to make sense of all the chaos that is senior year. When the film opens we are immediately introduced to Nick (Michael Cera), and he’s been recently dumped by Tris (Alexis Dziena). Tris is the popular, outgoing and unobtainable girl that somehow Nick dated for six months, but now Nick has turned to moping around in a lovelorn funk. He’s leaving one too many messages in her voicemail and becoming a pathetic mess. He’s made her countless mixtapes into which he puts meticulous detail to the song choices and the handmade packaging. Tris could care less about Nick’s mixtapes and throws them away only to be picked up out of the trash by Norah (Kat Dennings), who sees herself as musical soul mates with Nick who she’s never met. Of course if you’ve seen the trailer for the film you know nick and Norah meet, but how they get together is the true story of the film. Through a series of events all of the characters end up in the hipster music scenes of New York City looking for a lost friend and on a scavenger hunt to find where their favorite the band ‘Where’s Fluffy?’ is having one of widely touted spontaneous late night concerts.
As much as I loved seeing the beginnings and subsequent payoff of Nick and Norah coming together, the real backbone of this film is the supporting cast. This is a film where the supporting cast is as good onscreen as the leads, and at times even steal scenes too. Norah’s best friend Caroline (Ari Graynor) is quintessential well meaning drunk-girl. Graynor could have easily portrayed this character as a shallow party girl, but Caroline and Norah share a deeper friendship that is only briefly glimpsed on film, but you know it’s there. Nick’s fellow band mates Dev (Rafi Gavron) and Thom (Aaron Yoo) are two of the best-portrayed gay characters on-screen this year. Typically if a character is gay they become a cliché gay stereotype. This film doesn’t pander to that concept. Here these are fully flushed out and true characters whose sexuality doesn’t define them, it just happens to be part of who they are. It’s a very nice change of pace. I’m so tired of seeing gay characters being caricatures of what some screenwriter assumes is the “gay arch-type.” ‘Nick and Norah’ is a fantastic example that characters sexuality doesn’t have to define who the character is.
And then there’s the music. You can’t talk about this film without mentioning the music. I loved this soundtrack and I feel like it will be a soundtrack people pass off to each other, very similar to the way of the ‘Garden State’ soundtrack, this will become that CD someone gives you a copy of and tells you “Just listen to this.” The music showcased here is for anyone who likes college radio and pure lighthearted indie-rock. If you’re a fan of bands like The Shout Out Louds, Vampire Weekend, Bishop Allen, Band of Horses, etc… then you’ll probably end up acquiring it after you see the movie. It’s a soundtrack that that seems like it was compiled just for me. The songs have been chosen in such a meticulous manner and suite each scene perfect. This is a movie as much as it is about the music as it is the characters.
If you’ve made it this far then it’s clear by now that I loved this movie. It left me with a warm feeling and not many movies do that anymore. This movie has minor faults that are all outweighed by everything else about it that is so simply wonderful. If I have to state something that is bad about the film, I would say it’s the unnecessary SNL cast member cameos. They come out of nowhere and are slightly jarring. There is no reason for Andy Sandberg and Seth Myers to be in this movie. No need whatsoever. Besides that annoyance, this film is a rare treat for people that love music and a superbly scripted movie about two people coming together. I was won over by just about everything in this film. The cast, the music, the loving shots of the New York City landscape, It all congealed into a perfect film about being dumped, awkward romance, music and friendship.
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jasonenglish
