By Blake Penfield, Student Writer
People always are coming up to me and asking, “How can I be sure that I have a soul?” Just constantly. It’s ridiculous. Well, now I have an answer for them. If you can sit through Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist without smiling, then you have no soul.
Remember those John Hughes’ movies from the ’80s? Ferris Bueller? Sixteen Candles? The Breakfast Club? Mix those with the indie vibe that propelled Juno to absurd heights of success and you’ll get this movie. Now, I didn’t say the movie was great – but it will certainly get you smiling.
Superbad’s Michael Cera stars as Nick, and Kat Dennings stars as Norah (hence the title). The film tells the story of two high school seniors in New York who have never met but are, of course, destined to be together. While the story in itself isn’t really the draw here, it does a good job of facilitating what makes Nick & Norah so enjoyable.
This is a movie about how people relate with people. Gasp! A teen romantic comedy about relationships? Seriously, this movie goes a lot further into how people connect to one another than almost any other teen romantic comedy I’ve seen. It’s not just about sex, and that’s really a major point of the entire movie. The premise of the flick is people want to be seen by others as people – not just as a means to sex. This isn’t Bring It On or How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days. This movie’s got some brains, and the points it attempts to make are admirable.
The only problem with pursuing these lofty ambitions is the demands of the market. The movie builds its point about relationships by displaying the more marketable mistakes people make in such relationships. Not that this is a terrible thing, but it does seem to make the overall theme a little schizophrenic. The ending of the film also is problematic for what it tries to achieve. The movie critiques the cultural idea that sex is the ultimate goal in any heterosexual relationship, yet it can find no other way to cement its central relationship without sex. It really dampens the point the movie attempted to drive home.
Michael Cera plays the same character he has portrayed since Arrested Development’s George Michael Bluth. He is beginning to show himself as a bit of a one-trick pony. That being said, it’s still a really funny, honest and immensely enjoyable trick. Cera will make you laugh in this movie and he really does a great job acting as the sympathetic, confused, sensitive male lead.
Kat Dennings is an actress I had never even seen before this movie, and, wow. I have no idea where she originated but I hope she is here to stay. It is hard to overstate how much charm, wit and immediate magnetism she infuses into her character. You will wish you could walk onto the screen just so you could grab some dinner with her and make fun of the waitress together.
As the title would suggest, the movie’s soundtrack is undeniably awesome. The collection of tunes the creators brought together work perfectly to coalesce the varied events of this one night into a dream-like quality. Constant barrages of excellent songs slam into your eardrums and hypnotize you into a gleeful stupor.
The camerawork keeps the pacing smooth throughout the movie. Night shots of New York streets laced with traffic lights and shining billboards bring out the Friends-style of the Big Apple the rest of the country has grown to love. Again, the cinematography achieves an effect that best can be described as dreamlike. The bright lights blur and act as a terrific context to the characters the film portrays.
If you liked ’80s teen flicks, go see this movie. If you liked Juno, go see this movie. If you can get past the film imploding on its own theme, I absolutely have no problem recommending this one to you. Go see this movie.
