Rent Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008)

Charming, inoffensive indie - Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist review by CP Customer

This is a rom-com for indie crowd. Like a Stereolab album a fun experience without offering anything new or offending anyone. Nick & Norah is a film about true love and breaking up, how music can unite characters from all backgrounds. With a backdrop of New York how can you not resist its charms?

Nick and Norah’s Charmless Borefest. - Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist review by CP Customer

‘Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist’ is based around the paper thin plot of a bitchy high school teenage girl named Tris who has a one-way on off relationship with quiet teenage guitarist in a local band called Nick who sends her mix CD’s which she sees as lame and weird. Her School friend, of sorts, Norah rates the unwanted mix CD’s and has been collecting them after Tris throws them away. During a night out in New York where they see a gig played by Nick’s band Tris turns up with her new boyfriend and begins to ridicule Norah for being single, trying to outdo Tris, Norah walks up to a stranger asks him to pretend to be her boyfriend and kisses him, the stranger just happens to be Nick. From there on the story entails a night of roaming the streets of New York trying to find Norah’s dim-witted drunk friend Caroline and finding a secret gig by the band ‘Fluffy’, all the while being pursued by Nick’s jealous ex Tris.

Aside from the likeability of the films two leads, Michael Cera and Kat Dennings and a fairly decent supporting cast, this is a film which has practically nothing going for it. The tale of two people falling in love over the course of one night in New York has been down many times before, and this film adds absolutely nothing new to that story. This is a formula driven film aimed directly at the demographic of 14 year old hipsters who think they’re far cooler than they actually are, and fans of films like ‘Juno’, ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ and ‘Garden State’ who are under the delusion that this type of thing is independent film. ‘Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist’ is little more than a bland inoffensive teen movie with dull dialogue, clichéd and unbelievable teen characters who seem able to have the freedom roam the night-time streets of New York until dawn, all wrapped up in a desperately trying too hard to be cool indie/alternative soundtrack and two lead characters that although likeable enough have absolutely zero on-screen chemistry. What could have been a sweet and charming film about two people who find each other through a shared love of music, is nothing more than a charmless, lacklustre and ultimately boring film.