A lonely and sad wannabe musician accidentally meets a girl, similar to him, with whom he slowly falls in love. Their adventure takes place during a very busy night in which both were searching for a hard to find concert. A lot of difficult and awkward situations take place but the two manage to keep it together, while their feelings for each other get more and more powerful.It's an enjoyable story which features a combination of emotion, laughter and drama. The two get together nicely although they seem to have nothing in common, and until the end, they manage to overcome their fears and let love take its course. As a downside, it is a bit too superficial in many aspects while inserting some boring and predictable moments from time to time. It ends well so I will recommend it especially to teen movie lovers.

I really enjoyed this film.I wasn't an indie band fan when I was a kid, and I never lived in NYC, and gay culture wasn't nearly so commonly accepted in the 80's, but I definitely remember one or two nights like Nick & Norah's. -That is, being shy and confused and alive and in love and following a bizarre series of events with little meaning until dawn, doing stupid things with friends because I had the energy and, 'it felt right at the time'. -I remember euphoric madness warring with the pull to be adult and responsible. This film captured that well, I thought.I feel like I knew those people.Yes, yes, yes, this film *was* filled with cliché. Real life has more subtleties and layers, and with smart people it also contains a meta-awareness, a self-observation. But I think this film WAS the meta-awareness and self-observation. -It had a need to pull a bunch of brief and random treasures together into a 90 minute narrative. (Treasures like sidewalk gawkers cheering when the car door was unlocked; Observations likely collected from genuine experiences). I can forgive a bit of contrivance to get that job done, especially when the treasures were sweet and the contrivances were smooth and earnestly performed.But here's a strange thing: I notice that this film has touched more than one nerve or two; there are some very strong reactions in the reviews for this movie which don't seem to stem from legitimate literary criticisms, but rather something more personal. -Which seems odd, given that nothing terribly intense happened. With the exception of a couple of garden-variety selfish jerks, the characters were quite harmless and kind.Anyway, I'd give this film a chance. It may strike a chord with you, as it did with me. If it doesn't, well.., just stop watching.

How can you make a movie with a title like Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, with a "meet cute" plot-line sparked by painstakingly decorated, home-made, lovelorn mix CDS being collected by a different girl than they were meant for and then...not have a single memorable tune in the soundtrack? Boy, the music director on this film really missed a great opportunity there. Nick's Cure ring-tone, all five seconds of it, was the catchiest hook in the entire film.Check out the track listing on the soundtrack if you don't believe me. There was no scene in which music was well-matched with the mood so as to build emotions, and no great songs chosen, so all you ever hear, in cars, in clubs, is just a few blasts of innocuous music here and there. But nothing memorable. I blame the writers as well as the music director for not having created a believable underground music scene or scene-goers at all.Another scene that demonstrated writers' Cohn & Levithan's ignorance of what it is to love music or be a musician was the totally absurd scene in the recording studio! Firstly, we'll just overlook the fact that the owner of Electric Lady (or any other pro recording studio) is not going to let his teenage daughter bring people over there on random social visits when the studio's not in use at night (and why isn't in use BTW?), and we'll even be so kind as to further overlook how rather unlikely it is that the daughter of a studio boss would necessarily have recording engineering skills herself, in fact we will even be extra-generous and overlook the impossibility of Nick dating someone who had a friend whose Dad owned Electric Lady without said item of teen gossip ever having reached his ears; yes, we'll swallow all that and just skip straight to the scene where she offers to record something, even letting him play a priceless Strat that is just lying around(?). OK, so swallowing all that too; there they are, all set up, got sound in the cans, guitar is plugged in, all Mic-ed up. Yeah! Maybe we are finally going to get to hear an actual song maybe? Nope, denied! For inexplicably, mere seconds after hitting record, Norah suddenly decides this is the ideal moment to leave the control booth, go in the live room, discuss Judaism briefly, and then get down on the sofa. Leaving tape rolling. Oh yeah, with the live Mic right next to the sofa. I have rarely seen a more improbably twisted set-up for a lame comedic moment (moment being camera panning from them making out on couch to the peak meters going red in the control room).Can I tell you why this scene stank to high heaven for anyone involved in music? Well, I am a singer-songwriter myself, and no matter how much I liked a guy, if he's invited me to an after-hours recording session at one of the best studios in the world, and we've set things up and I'm just about to play my song, I am going to be super annoyed if he suddenly emerges from the control room and starts getting talkie then sexual, at the top of my first take! What? Ridiculous!Any musician is gonna be (yeah even a guy would be) taken aback and say: "Um, excuse me, aren't we rolling tape? What are you doing out here? Is something wrong?" It is not romantic for her to join him in the live room just then, but doesn't make any sense at all! In no way is it credible that any musician, including Nick, would just take it in stride and similarly have amnesia about the fact he was supposed to be recording something. I kept waiting for him to say: "Um, do you mind if we lay down the track before we, uh, lay down ourselves? Or at least stop recording?" Then it might actually have been not only a funny scene, but closer to the way people respond to situations in real-ish life. (That cheezy pun, by the way, is a hilarious gem of wit compared to the jokes in the script.)The only good thing about this film was the giddy performance of Ari Graynor as Caroline. The whole movie should have been about her drunken night of misadventures!

In my review for "Tonight You're Mine", I mentioned that the music in that film was like listening to an eclectic mixtape you haven't heard in a while. I guess I must have had a mixed feeling about that mixtape while watching "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist". Reader, that mixed feeling of mine was washed away as I got caught up in this hilarious and somewhat heartfelt teenage romantic comedy. To be clear, I never read the book by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan that the movie was based on. Had I read it and watching the film after that, my thought should've been: "Oh, well, despite some differences and an added subplot, it remains true to the book." It seems like it does remain true to the book, and while I'm still scratching my head thinking about that, the movie benefits really well from three leading performances, a superb supporting cast, a cool soundtrack, a funny and authentic script by Lorene Scafaria and terrific direction by Peter Sollett (Raising Victor Vargas). The always funny and charming Michael Cera plays Nick, a New Jersey teen who was dumped by the cold-hearted Tris (Alexis Dziena) and plays in a "queercore" band known as "The Jerk-Offs" (He's the straight guy playing guitar with two gay friends). The supremely outrageous Kat Dennings plays Norah, a Jewish girl who loves music, has a drunk best friend, Caroline (Ari Graynor) by her side and a "frenemy" in Tris and also has been burnt by love. It all changes in one night, when the two are on a mission to search for a very surprise show in New York for a band called "Where's Fluffy?". Along the way, Nick desperately (and secretly) wants Tris back, but she's with Gary (Zachary Booth), a slightly boring fellow, in order to make him jealous. Even Norah has a problem trying to keep her on-again, off-again FWB Tal (Jay Baruchel) in check. Throughout the movie, Nick and Norah travel in a yellow taxi-cab-like car known as the "Yugo", trying to find Fluffy and to also find Caroline, who, being the drunk best friend that she is, disappears from Nick's friends' van. Also, they learn about themselves, fall in love and also that a night like this should carry a playlist for when to start ahead. "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" does have its ups and downs at some levels, but 90% of the ups are more better than the 10% downs. Keeping a mellow, but edgy PG-13 vibe (the book, I guess, was more edgier) to make every 13-year-old being capable in going for a night like this, the movie has its charms and it also has a very real feel to it. Can you imagine 18-year-old teenagers going out to indie shows or to see someone you know play in a band? Sure, you can. I like Cera and Dennings here, their chemistry is spot-on sweet and funny as Nick and Norah. Ari Graynor is the scene-stealer perfection, especially when she has scenes by herself (including that scene when she's in a Port Authority bathroom and while she's chewing on a already-used gum) that shows a very unique, but drunk quality to it. The supporting cast is terrific, from Ravi Gavron and Aaron Yoo as Dev and Thom, Nick's gay friends to Jay Baruchel as Norah's Boyfriend with Benefits, who still loves her, but he wants his music career to blow up. (Did I ever tell you that Norah is the daughter of a record producer?) The one tiny misstep is Alexis Dziena as Tris. Don't get me wrong, Dziena is pretty and likable here, but to put her in as a mean girl with a somewhat semi-established personality about why she is who she is, it kind of threw me off. But still, I enjoyed the movie. It rocks on so many levels, and it is a night you won't forget. So, turn up the music and believe in the magic. Trust me on this one.