Synopsis:
On a night destined to be his breaking free
evening from a heartbreaking breakup, high
school student Nick O'Leary, member of the
Queercore band The Jerk Offs, meets
college-bound Norah Silverberg and she asks him
to be her boyfriend for five minutes.
These five minutes inspire the entire evening's
events, sending both into a fast paced rush to
find their favorite band's secret performing
spot in New York City.
The Freak's
Rating: B- : I grew up in the 1980s and 80s
cinema is burned into my brain. As
pathetic as it sounds, whenever I was sad in
junior high, I would retreat to my room and
reminisce with cinema characters who "shared" my
pain. Whether relating to Ducky's
rejection from Pretty In Pink or Keith's
difficult choice over the girl he always wanted
and the girl he knew he should be with in Some
Kind Of Wonderful, John Hughes cinema captures
high school emotions like no other. Nick &
Norah's Infinite Playlist is a throwback to this
genre where the average looking lovable girl
actually has a shot against the gorgeous
cheerleader.
Michael Cera has had a good run cinematically as
of late, with Superbad
propelling him to the front of the comedic A
list. With N&N being his first major
headlining film, Cera's PR team has to be
thrilled with its opening weekend take.
The film cost next to nothing to make and has
already solidified him as a comedic/romantic
lead as far as the box office numbers are
concerned.
The
film's supporting cast is mediocre with the
exception of Kat Denning's Norah. Denning
is solid throughout the film, adding
believability and heart to Norah. Though
an amusing drunken performance is given by Ari
Graynor's Caroline, it is overdone after about
10 minutes like an SNL sketch gone bad.
Writing is genuine at certain moments of the
film, then incredibly overwritten (read
overdelivered) in others. Cera is as
likeable as ever, spouting off a few quotable
lines in the film and always making me laugh a
little with his subtle delivery.
Subpar acting/writing aside, N&N does deliver
solidly in a few areas, most notably the
soundtrack and thematic elements of romance.
Awkward high school heartbreak and the potential
of a new relationship are captured nicely here,
adding an emotional touch to the character
attachment one gets while watching. The
soundtrack is already on order for me and will
accompany me on my road trip vacation in a
couple weeks. The tunes are hits, one
right after another. Fans of John Hughes
will see the similarities right away and forgive
the problems in the film, most likely chalking
it up as a decent time at the theater.
Brian's Rating:
C : I got pretty much exactly what I
expected when seeing this movie. I urged Scott
to write his review to help me decide which to
take my wife to on one of our rare nights out
without the kids. I heard good things from one
group, but was skeptical. Scott's review pretty
much affirmed my skepticism. So we went anyway
since its one I thought Lisa would like, and
also, the other one started too late for the
babysitter.
Going into this, I heard it could be described
as "Juno-lite". I found that to be fairly
accurate. It had the same sort of sweet teenage
love story thing going on, but the lead actress
was not quite as cool, and there was not any
complicated social condition in this one.
It made my wife smile, and I was able to keep
from groaning. The 90 minute running time is a
definite plus, as I would have ended up dozing
off if there was another 30-40 minutes of
watching the drunken friend that was put in for
some unnecessary comic relief.
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