Starring Michael Cera, Kat Dennings, Alexis Dziena, Aaron Yoo, Rafi Gavron, Ari Graynor, Jay Baruchel
Written By: Lorene Scafaria
Directed By: Peter Sollett
You’ve seen the endless trailers and commercials for this movie. Now Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist finally hits theaters and thank god for that. I don’t have to see the commercials for it anymore! I was dragged along to see this movie by my girlfriend, but it was either this or that stupid chihuahua movie. I chose this.

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist is about two people coming together for the love of one band. Nick (Michael Cera) broke up with his girlfriend Tris (Alexis Dziena) a few weeks ago, and his gay buddies decide to get him out of the house to play a show. They are in a queer band together called the Jerk Offs. They are in a band together and while he’s playing; Nick notices Tris at the show with another guy. Norah (Kat Dennings), who knows Tris from school and not really friends with her, decides to get back at her and pretends Nick is her new boyfriend. Soon after that, the duo continue to hang out and travel over New York City together. Their main goal of the night is to see their favorite band play a secret show, but they don’t know where the show is. While this is all going on, they have to deal with their ex’s, trying to locate Norah’s drunken friend who went missing, and other crazy mishaps.

I went into this movie with an open mind, and in the end; I just think this is for hipsters. Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist tried REALLY HARD to be cool. They end up going to Brooklyn, which is like the Hipster capital of the world. They talk about the latest Indie bands, random music references like straight edge(for someone who’s SxE, this made me cringe), go to a secret show, it just screams trendy hipsters to me. A lot of the scenes felt forced to me, especially the ones involving Nick’s buddies. Plus I hated that they were trying to find this secret show the whole night, and by the time the band went on, it would have been at like 5am? Who the hell would have a show that late! I just thought it felt unrealistic. If there is a positive about this movie, it showcases New York City in a nice light because it shows you can do lots during the middle of the night. The film wasn’t all bad, and I enjoyed some of it; I just think everyone involved was trying too damn hard to be cool or hip. The movie seriously felt like a bunch of hipster college students wrote this movie.

Nick and Norah actually feels like a movie I wrote back in college for a class. The plot was about a group of buddies getting to a concert, and all this crap happens to them as they try to get to the show. It was a secret Metallica concert at a small club. Hey, I would have made it a punk show but the other people in my group wanted Metallica. The people finally get to the venue but there’s a sign saying the show was canceled. So you can imagine how typical Nick and Norah felt for me since I wrote something similar! As you can tell by most of my reviews, I’m no writer either.

Michael Cera and Kat Dennings pretty much act the same. Both are awkward with their delivery and make the audience cringe. A lot of the movie felt cringy and awkward, but those are the kinds of roles Cera is drawn too. He wasn’t as awkward in this movie as I thought he would, like he was in his past roles (Superbad, Arrested Development). I just hope he tries something new next time and doesn’t get pigeon-holed. Kat Dennings was okay and felt realistic to me, but she reminds me of the way that Cera acts. Alexis Dziena can play annoying snobs (ie. Fool’s Gold) really well but she reminds me of a 8 year old dressed up in lots of makeup at a beauty pageant. There were some interesting cameos by Seth Myers, Andy Samberg, John Cho, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Kevin Corrigan and Devendra Banhart. Seth Myers’ cameo was probably the funniest and the best scene in the movie I think.

Besides that cameo, this movie isn’t really THAT funny. There were some typical drunk girl scenes that made me laugh, and some random scenes with Michael Cera and others. Other than that, this movie felt more like a hipster teen drama than anything. The movie screams Look at me! Look at me! We’re cool, we can discuss obscure music and check out my hip clothes! But with all that said, at least the movie doesn’t take place at some lame prom, and in the suburbs like every other teen movie. But I still suggest waiting for video for this one because it’s not worth seeing in the theaters.

Bottom Line: Hipster movie
Favorite Scenes: Seth Meyer’s cameo, the drunk girl moments
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 90 minutes
Overall Rating: