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| Wednesday, December 9, 2009 |
| Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist [2008] |
 directed by Peter Solette (2008)
A Hollywood teen romantic comedy usually would find it hard to carve a place in this blog, but Nick and Norah aren't your average MTV teenagers who scream on 'Twilight'. Their playlist comprises of lots of Indie alternative bands and they don't get drunk on prom night and jump to bed. In this adventure, they are aboard one night in Nick's gay bandmate's van as they search the New York city for Norah's lost friend while contemplating a chance to meet "Where's Fluffy?", their favorite alt-rock band.
The story isn't anything unusual. Nick and Norah goes through unusual and often hilarious experiences during the course of their search while falling for each other. What makes their story different is the use of intelligent sarcasm in the dialogue and rather credible performances by the lead actors. Michael Cera of 'Juno' fame plays Nick with nice conviction. His soft-spoken bassist character is still reeling from a break-up and simultaneously he falls for Norah, played in equally excellent fashion by Kat Dennings, a hit casting choice for her sarcastic no-nonsense yet rather introvert character. The writing is much better than expected in a film with such settings, with controlled use of mainstream humor, good pop culture references and overall intelligent but realistic dialogue. There are some hints of forced racial and sexual neutrality in creating the characters, but the writing tried its best to avoid the cultural stereotyping of those characters, which works well. Of course, there are some poorly-written cliched lines, but here you only appreciate the actors because the way they speak those lines make them feel like real conversations.
 Tom Richmond's cinematography is a hit. Shot almost entirely in the night, with the ever-astonishing backdrop of New York city during fall, the film absolutely gives a sense of warmth right from the beginning. The beautiful alternative rock soundtrack absolutely captures the mood of the film. Featuring indie bands like Bishop Allen (who make a cameo in the film), The Submarines or Vampire Weekend, the songs play on and sometimes attribute different meanings to the dialogue featured in the film. The film makes the viewer go to NYC, see small indie bands in small clubs, makes one want to be that teenager again who can totally trust his secrets to a complete stranger if they like the same band. Since the whole film is basically about a playlist, all I can say that I shall play it over and over again, happily turning the shuffle on. |
posted by Noisy Autist @ 7:36 AM  |
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