MOVIE REVIEW: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
I attended a private screening of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist last week and unbeknownst to me, the movie was receiving major comparisons to my favorite movie of all-time, Juno (*sarcasm* teehee). I feel like the shitheads who are comparing Nick and Norah to Juno are only doing so because of the sheer fact that both movies have Michael Cera in them. Genius guys, real fucking genius. That's like me comparing Good Will Hunting to Gigli because of Ben Affleck. Or Scary Movie 1 to Scary Movie 4 because of Anna Faris (TOTALLY DIFFERENT MOVIES, I TELL YA!). Luckily for me, I knew what I was going in for because not too long ago, I decided to put my difference with books aside and actually read the one that Nick and Norah was adapted from.
I enjoyed the book (titled the same as the movie) and it was quite a short read, which was even better! However, I always pictured a more 'rocker' type to play Nick. Michael Cera put a different tone of humor to the character and delivered amazingly, but I still wasn't fully buying him as Nick. Adam Brody or Joseph Gordon-Levitt would have been better picks, but hey, I don't blame Columbia Pictures for wanting to cash in on the Michael Cera fandom (Hi I'm Alanna and I'm a Michael Cera fangirl).
Either Cera was miscast, or his 'love interests' were; call me shallow, but I just couldn't buy the whole idea of both Alexis Dziena (who played ex-girlfriend Tris) and Kat Dennings (Norah) falling for him. Sure, Nick is in a band and has an amazing sense of humor, but those two attributes do not fully make for a ladies' man. Cera is just a little TOO awkward, self-conscious and boyish-looking to be Nick, or Dziena was a little TOO 'sexy' to be one of his former girlfriends. It also did not help that Tris' new boyfriend and Norah's ex were polar opposites of Cera; confident and masculine. But the one thing that neither d-bags had that Cera prevailed in, was personality, which I guess in the long run, can win even a supermodel over (see: Heidi Klum and Seal).
Norah's "bff" and complete and utter lush, Caroline (played by Ari Graynor), was given a much bigger role in the movie, which I have to say, was surprisingly well constructed. All of her scenes were vomit-inducing hilarity (naturally) and she was easily the biggest comic relief of the film (besides so many other things like the cameos made by two SNL feature players and Nick's amusing gbff's).
So, aside from the minor casting error (it's so minor I'm actually completely over it by now), I did manage to look past it enough to actually really like this movie. So much so, that I am pegging it the new Garden State. Hipsters will EAT this fucking movie up with a Pinkberry spoon. This will put Dennings on the map (move over Ellen Page, THANK GOD) and insert Michael Cera into even more indie-induced movies about awkwardly funny guys, cute girls and lots of rad music.
For a full synopsis of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, please head on over to its wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_and_Norah's_Infinite_Playlist
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