Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist causes deep-seated fear in my gut for the future of Michael Cera. Endearing throughout his span as George Michael in Arrested Development and then again as the rather unhip boyfriend in Juno, Cera has filled the awkward teenage niche like no other. If John Cusack was the brooding teen of the 80s and 90s, then Cera is the foot-in-his-mouth teen of the new millennium. Begging the question of what his life will look like when he can no longer fill the awkward teen shoes - Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist is a look into that future.
Nick (Michael Cera), of the fledgling, doomed for failure band The Jerk-off’s, recently found himself on the dumpage end of a relationship with unjustifiably popular girl Tris – but who hasn’t been there? It’s the beginning of the night they’ll remember forever and yet Nick appears helplessly alone with the ex-girlfriend closing in fast, what do you do? Apparently you say “yes” to any girl who asks you to fill in as her temporary 5-minute boyfriend. How low does your self-esteem have to be? Really? With his newfound girlfriend Norah (Kat Dennings), Nick sets off to find their drunken friend who's gone missing. Well, as missing as a drunken teenager in Manhattan can be while still trying to make this a comedy. If there'd been a body search in the Hudson as the comedic climax - the writers need help. Stumbling from unlikely scenario to some even stranger still, the characters and the movie seem to have a hard time making it all funny. In fact, as the title might suggest, the entire premise of the film seems nothing more than a gimmick film aimed at the tweenage generation with the intention of capitalizing on current music trends. That sounded pretentious – but goddamn, the entire movie reeks of this. What it comes down to is Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist is essentially a road trip movie that fails to cover any real ground both in plot and emotion.
While the concept behind Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist has me bored, it’s not to say that it’s completely without merit and comedic success. It’s just not as good as it should have been. You know how the film ends before you’ve even purchased your refreshments. You know the studio expects to recap any box office losses off the killer indy rock soundtrack they’ve compiled in an attempt to create the next must-have album. You even know that at some point Michael Cera will shed the awkward, outspoken façade for a moment of truth. I love the guy, but he’s really in a rut.
Kat Dennings proves to be, once again, a breath of fresh air in her generation of aspiring actors. Just like in Charlie Bartlett, she once again steals the show by being the one true young presence the screen has to offer for its 90 minute runtime. That’s another thing – while it wasn’t a laugh a minute, it did feel like it was over far too quickly. To its credit. But again, Kat Denning offers the best performance Nick & Norah has to offer as she seems the only one in this “ensemble cast” capable of acting. I have “ensemble cast” in quotes because, while there may be a rather large range of characters the two encounter, they’re all pretty much worthless cardboard throw aways.
I don’t need to say anything more about Michael Cera. I love him – but this is getting old.
Alexis Dziena, as Nick’s ex Tris, annoys me on virtually every possible level. Her face. Her voice. Her presence on screen. She’s a waste of celluloid. Or she would be if this had actually been committed to film, but considering it was probably digital she’s just a waste of pixels. She can’t act and can’t deliver a funny line to save her life; which is especially unfortunate because the script wasn’t that strong to start with – her failure to follow through on the funny only undercut the film further.
Maybe I can’t blame the young cast for the true failure of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Like the case of Alexis Dziena, maybe the real problem is just a script that relied all too heavily on the very formulaic dialogue that’s become all too common in the days leading up to and now following Juno. The pop-culture rich lines with a slightly sardonic bite. As much biting the socialite tendencies of New York as reveling in the culture they create. Nick & Norah suffers across the board and in this case Kat Dennings’s performance can’t redeem what is ultimately the empty shell of what could have been a heartwarming comedy about young love through the course of a crazy night. Instead it’s just an uninspired cliché riddled piece of junk.
Michael Cera…shame on you. Move on.
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