‘Nick and Nora’ just another Juno
Michael Cera, who is better known as the girl hungry senior from Superbad, and the head over heels in love sap from “Juno”, returns to play a slightly stale role in “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist”. While his character Nick is highly reminiscent of both previous characters of his two bigger blockbusters, this doesn’t seem to hold the movie back.
Think Juno without the pregnancy. The bass guitar totting, goofy teen Nick is recovering from a previous relationship with his now ex-girlfriend Tris. The first portion of the movie revolves around his depressed and completely yet to be recovered state in which he still obsesses over his former lady.
Nick burns her countless mix CD’s which inevitably end up in the trashcan only to be saved by the soon to be lovebird Norah, played by Kat Dennings.
This mysterious CD burner seems to mirror her musical tastes entirely, and Norah grows a crush on the unknown Nick.
After going to a local band’s show, Norah asks a band member to act as her boyfriend to show off in front of her snobby friend Tris (GASP! Nick’s ex!) and this event is really what starts the whole movie.
After seeing Michael Cera chase a girl in his last two movies, the plot of “Infinite Playlist” is fairly overplayed.
Juno was a romantic comedy about pregnancy and teen relationships.
The formula for this remix of “Juno” is music and teen relationships as Nick and Norah spend their time either in a recording studio, searching for an elusive band that is playing a show in their town, or raving about their favorite artists.
Speaking of music, the soundtrack for this movie is simply amazing with the likes of great bands like Modest Mouse, Band of Horses, and Devandra Banhart. The music playing in the background of the movie was enough to keep my attention.
It is rare that a new movie has a fantastic group of songs that play along with it, but with a name like “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist”, the music better be stellar.
At the same time, the choices seem to be a bit of the stereotypical “indie” bands and it’s pretty noticeable. I won’t complain though because I love nearly every song featured in the movie and soundtrack.
The whole movie revolves around a search and feels a bit like the love story takes a backseat. Norah is searching for her drunk friend Caroline, who has wandered to various unknown places and Nick and his bandmates tag along.
Not only are they searching for Caroline, but they’re also looking for the group’s favorite band, Where’s Fluffy who is playing a show somewhere and no one knows where it is. I never thought one could base a whole movie around a scavenger hunt.
In the end, the plot of “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” could be considered to be somewhat watered down and seems to be a recycled product of movies that are golden compared to this.
Like the rest of the movies who use the “Superbad guys”, this movie is targeted at teens and judging by the audience in the theater they succeeded.
Nick and Norah have seen a lot of success so far, so I suppose everyone who wants to see as many Juno rehashes as possible would really enjoy this movie.
