Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist [2008] is a romantic comedy about two similar people whose lives are entangled but they’ve never met until one fateful night their interests, and disinterests, bring them together.
Michael and Kat’s Infinite Career: The two main characters of this movie (Nick O’Leary and Norah Silverberg) are played by Michael Cera and Kat Dennings, two of this generations greatest up-and-coming actors in my opinion. With movies like Juno, Superbad and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World under his belt Michael Cera is a great comedic actor (he’s not just a Jonah Hill offsider!) and he brings his cute geeky smile charm to this little love story. His love interest in the movie is the lovable Kat Dennings – my favorite role I’ve watched her in would have to be Max Black of 2 Broke Girls. I see a similar charisma in Nora as Max and it’s the telltale sign of a Kat Dennings character, bad ass with a hint of softness deep down inside. They make for a great team in this movie – unexpected but great.
Where’s Fluffy? This movie kind of reminds me of a game of cat and mouse, it revolves around a group of friends that have a similar interest in music that brings them together on a night that turns out more adventurous than they were expecting.
The Jerk-Offs: I’m a lover of shaking things up – especially when it comes to characters and their stereotypes or backstories. In this film we see a straight male in an ‘all gay band’, the popular girl is the one getting left behind and the rich-but-doesn’t-act-rich girl uses her fortune to get what she wants. It’s a nice offset to the usual story of everyone being in their cliché’s and all going off in their own happy little endings.
Improv is often best: One of the most memorable scenes in the movie is with Caroline (portrayed by Ari Graynor) where she’s highly intoxicated in a bus terminal trying to get back to her friends – an interesting fact about one of the bus terminal scenes is it was entirely improvised by Ari. The actress, who auditioned for both the role of Caroline as well as Norah, stated that ‘I’ve had many nights as Caroline. And I’ve had many nights as Norah looking after Caroline.’, and she really hit the nail on the head with her scenes – letting her improv them was a great decision by the director.
If you’re ever thinking about going on a search party through New York and it’s surrounding areas,
or if you’re just in the mood for a good laugh and a heartwarming feeling,
check out Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist!
