the plot

Nick is barely hanging onto his doomed relationship with Tris, his "girlfriend" that he has been with for the passed six months.  Tris is the private school, beautiful-yet stuck-up nasty type of girl, who for the whole six months has been cheating on poor Nick.  Still, Nick sends her mixed CDs in an attempt to win her back with his creative form of self-expression.  His heart goes into each of the 11 mixes he sent her, but she never even listens to them, instead she tosses them in the trash after making fun of him behind his back.  That's when Norah comes in, she attends the same private school as Tris, and she usually grabs these mixed CDs from this unknown Nick after Tris discards them.  Norah gets Nick, and seems to understand what Nick is about just from these CDs.

Nick is a bass player in a band called The Jerk-offs.  Tonight he has a gig with his band in the city even though they still lack a drummer.  He doesn't want to go, but when he finds out that his favorite band Where's Fluffy is playing somewhere to be announced in the city tonight, he agrees to play the gig in hopes to see them.  The Jerk-offs are a militant gay band (except for Nick) with songs that include I Wanna Screw That Man.  Tris shows up to the gig with her new boyfriend, and Norah is also there with her friend Caroline.  When Tris kind of ribs Norah that she is at a club alone without a man, Norah lies and says that she is here with the bass player from The Jerk-offs, and she walks up to him and kisses him. 

This kiss sets off Tris who now shows a jealous side and wants to win back Nick's adulation by the end of the night.  Meanwhile the two gay members of The Jerk-offs try and nurture this potential relationship between Nick and Norah, and so their night's agenda besides finding out where Where's Fluffy is playing tonight is to make sure that Nick and Norah end up together.  Nick is still confused about his feelings for Tris, and Norah is interested in Nick, but not in being second choice to Tris.  Caroline is the drunken friend who gets plastered way too early and needs to get home, but even this is a challenge as she disappears very early in the night.  What we have is just another magical night of adventure and love that could only be created in New York City.


the breakdown

What is there about the very affable Michael Cera that's not to love?  He's the ultimate underdog in just about every role he's been in, a shy, introverted youth whose real qualities are hidden just below the surface.  What is the main quality you find out about the characters he plays?  That he's just as horny as every other kid his age.  The ‘Nick' character is slightly different from that same mold he casts in every film.  Although his character is just as withdrawn, here he hides a quiet, musical poet that seems to stir up the waters of Norah (Kat Dennings), a girl who searches for this quality in her men.  Norah is the complete opposite of Tris, Nick's current girlfriend.  Tris seems to search for males with the quality in them, which would fill her need to be appreciated, while Norah searches for the boys who will fill her need for inspiration.  In short, Tris needs to feed her ego, and Norah needs to feed her soul.  Nick seems to fill this role effortlessly, but it's not without the stumbling block, which is Tris. 

The intimacy that Nick and Norah share is kind of magical.  For instance, the scene when Nick and Norah are in the  Electric Lady Studios, and she tells him about a small yet very personal conviction she has about Judiasm, and when Nick not only compliments what she says but then adds to it, she needs to be closer to him, even touching him.  When he made this intimate part of her even better, she had a need to show him how she feels by physically being intimate with Nick.  It's poetic, almost a tangible entity.  This of course is my own interpretation, but what I'm trying to get across is that at the heart of this film, there's a powerful love story that incidentally feeds my soul.  

Living in New York, it was easy to identify with this film.  The fact that the city is relatively small, yet so much to do, and so much could be done without driving all night and wasting half the night to get to all of these destinations in one night is plausible.  Of course, no one here had trouble parking their car or van in front of any place they needed to go, including Penn Station is something you have to overlook.  NYC looks so inviting here, and is truly portrayed as the "city that never sleeps". 

The worst thing to do is check out all of the extras on the blu-ray.  It very nearly diminished some of the enchantment of the finished film watching the scenes that were cut from the movie.  Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist is one of my favorite films of all time, but if even two of these dopey cut scenes were left in, it would have easily been an annoying crapfest.  Nick and Norah would have ended up feeling more like a gay indie film instead of this more relatively easily digestible finished version.  One blu-ray extra I enjoyed is Kat Dennings puppet show version of the movie, very funny.

I'm not sure if I got this point across to you, but I loved this movie.  The casting was spot on, the cinematography is realistic and flattering, the amazing soundtrack compliments each and every scene, and the story is filled with magical dialogue.  In fact, Nick and Norah may have the best last lines in a movie that I could remember right now.  I recommend that you buy this movie on Blu-Ray or DVD right away, but maybe stay away from most of the extras. 


Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
Directed by: Peter Sollett   
Written by: Lorene Scafaria, Rachel Cohn, David Leviathan
Starring: Michael Cera (Superbad, Frequency), Kat Dennings (The House Bunny, The 40 Year Old Virgin), Aaron Yoo (Disturbia) Rafi Gavron (HBO's Rome), Ari Graynor (An American Crime, Whip It), Alexis Dziena (Broken Flowers)
Released: 10/03/2008
Rated: PG-13 (some language, adult themes, teenage drinking)
Length: 90 minutes
Rating: 5 stars


Veiwing Format:
Blu-Ray



Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Good Date Movie
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older