Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist
A Review of the Latest Misfit Teen Movie, Staring Michael Cera
Oct 14, 2008
With the success of movies like Superbad and Juno, it seems that the big screen’s newest young protagonists are not football players or cheerleaders, but scrawny nerd-boys and sarcastic, bookish girls.
Admittedly, this trend is not completely new; in the 1980s, many popular youth-oriented films, including Revenge of the Nerds and Pretty in Pink, centered on characters that were poor or unattractive or just generally unpopular. It seems that Hollywood is currently revisiting the figure of the Lovable Loser.
Charmingly Geeky
In Nick and Norah, the hero and heroine are not exactly losers, but they are not without their charmingly geeky tendencies. Nick is lanky and lovelorn. He plays in a garage band with two gay friends and a plastic drum machine, and, predictably, he tends to get made fun of. He’s also obsessed with a sexy ex-girlfriend who ignores both him and his pathetic attempts to get her back. Norah is an alt-rock loving girl with an occasionally violent temper who’s only kissed one guy in her life. She harbors a somewhat envious resentment for Nick’s ex, who can get guys to swoon for her with little to no effort.
Stars Michael Cera and Kat Dennings
Nick and Norah’s strong point is its casting. Nick is played by Michael Cera, who also stared in both Superbad and Juno. Cera, who came of age on FOX’s cult fave Arrested Development, seems to have cornered the lovably-awkward teen market. With his trademark stammer and big brown eyes, Cera is still the confused man-child with a hopeless crush that he was on Arrested Development, and he is thoroughly beguiling and believable as the oft-pathetic Nick.
Nora is equally charming as played by Kat Dennings. Dennings may be recognized from The 40-Year-Old Virgin or last year’s indie Charlie Bartlett. Her performance is fun and funny, and she makes the most of Norah’s quirky sense of humor. She also seems to grasp the subtler, sadder side of Norah’s personality, and she justice to the film’s more sensitive moments.
Nick and Nora’s kooky friends provide ample laughs, particularly Nora’s friend Caroline, played by Ari Graynor. Graynor is appropriately gross as the drunken Caroline, and she’s also laugh-out-loud hilarious.
...But It's Not Perfect
This is not to say that Nick and Nora is without its problems. It should be noted that some moviegoers might be growing tired of Cera’s sensitive-nice-guy-shtick. Anyone who has seen Juno (or Arrested Development, for that matter) will have a pretty good idea what Nick is like before even seeing Nick and Norah. Cera is a very talented actor, but he needs to start diversifying his roles before he becomes irrevocably pigeonholed. And Nick’s scheming ex Tris, played by Alexis Dziena, seems to be a character that the audience is supposed to love to hate. Unfortunately, she’s so ruthless and generally obnoxious that it hurts to look at her after awhile. It is more or less impossible to understand why Nick ever dated her, let alone is still obsessed with her. It is equally hard to understand why she would have dated him; in real life, girls like Tris like to feel spoiled, so they date guys with nice cars and lots of money, not skinny bassists who drive yellow Yugos.
In general, though, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist is a smart, amiable addition to the Misfit Teen Renaissance that the movie world is currently experiencing. It will almost undoubtedly prove to be a major turning point in the professional lives of both Cera and Dennings. After all, the film captures them both at the end of adolescence, and, hopefully, at the beginning of long and well-deserved careers.
 |
