‘Nick & Norah’ not infinitely good

If one were to take a dumb movie like ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ and mix it with ‘Superbad’ and ‘Juno,’ the result alone would be quite something. But when you hand such a spicy combination over to someone who loves indie-rock music, you just might be surprised. Director Peter Sollett doesn’t pull enough strings to expand the addressed audience, but he does reach out to the cult of this genre, and makes quite an impression on something that is usually nailed with clichés.

After lashing out relentlessly on several crap jobs, I was hoping that my responses would start to take a detour from the blender at the dawn of Oscar season, but in the closing week of Hollywood’s slow period, I had to give the “pulse” button one last round as I drove home from ‘Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist.’ Being not such a huge fan of romantic comedies, I didn’t expect this movie to fascinate me, but I will give the film its due; it’s well paced and it doesn’t suffer from any mushy slow points. It balances laughter and drama fairly well, and because I’m just a sucker for simplicity, I actually enjoyed following it as it all happens in the span of one night.

Super nerd Michael Cera plays Nick, a high school bass player who has just been dumped by his girlfriend Tris (Alexis Dziena) and is not really in the mood to play with his punk band (they’re called The Jerk Offs, believe it or not). Nick would rather stay inside and make a bunch of mix CDs trying to convince her to take him back, but Tris just gives them away to her close friend Norah (Kat Dennings), who absolutely loves them.

Nick and Norah run into each other at the show later that night and quickly realize that they share a lot of common tastes in music, among other things. Once the musically obsessed duo hear that an underground sensation called Where’s Fluffy is playing somewhere in town, they embark on a journey to see the performance before the night is over. This journey, however, quickly turns into a wild goose chase as they encounter a jealous Tris and also try to help Norah’s friend Caroline (Ari Graynor), who needs a ride home. That’s where Nick’s fellow band members come into play… unfortunately, Caroline is too drunk to stand up and too absent-minded to know the difference between Jesus and a person sporting a beard.

Due to the fact that nobody has been praising it in recent weeks, I didn’t get around to reading the book before seeing this one on screen, but in this particular case, I don’t think it made a difference. In my experience, stories like this are meant to be told on the big screen, and according to most book reviews, I don’t think any die hard readers were disappointed by the adaptation because much like ‘Juno,’ ‘Nick & Norah’ is one of those films that can be good enough without really trying to be. And for the sake of playing the same character over and over again, Michael Cera certainly doesn’t have to try very hard when getting into his roles.

While all the young talents bring their best efforts to the table (or in this case, track list), ‘Nick & Norah’ doesn’t really live on performing as much as it does music. Even if an unaware viewer declared it to be a complete disaster, no one can deny the importance of the songs as they play throughout the film’s duration. And with several moods being addressed in such a short reel (90 min.), it shouldn’t be too hard for any teenager, or college student, to relate to at least one of these characters and understand the feelings they deal with.

Just as a reminder, I am not a follower of the sort of cult, which this film speaks to, but judging it on the broader scale of romantic comedies, I was very satisfied with how it held my attention, and how real the atmosphere was in terms of what it’s like to be a teenager looking for a careless good time when all your personal chips are down. It may be a little too magical to believe that all of this could happen in just one night, but at this rate, until you’ve seen Michael Cera play a dorky character, you haven’t fully lived out your movie going days.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 3 2008. Filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry