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Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

I liked this film, in the way I liked 200 cigarettes. It's a "late night people partying" flick. I thought the cast was great, though not exceptional. I've like Michael Cera since Arrested Development, he was awkward and funny then and much more self assured here. I also liked the gay entourage that tagged along. Although the female lead was attractive, there wasn't more to her character, or for that matter the male lead. Neither of them really were the attraction. I found myself looking forward to the moments of weirdness provided by their friends the great drunk girl and the gay entourage. I did however love Kat Denning's animated outtakes on the DVD. Those were great and really added some personality to the whole experience.
I did think the title is misleading, you'd expect a great list of music. Alas, not so. The music was mediocre and not memorable. Also, when a song is in a hit movie already and memorable in that movie, it's hard to top. The use of Hot Chocolate's You Sexy thing was painful to watch after it's great sendup in The Full Monty. I'll always think of it there first. The music was lacking. I can think of a dozen movies with better more memorable soundtracks and for a movie centered around two musically centered people this was lacking.

The main bitchy lead - Ari Graynor was truly grating, which was to be expected, but there was again, nothing new brought to the table.
I really like the gayboys though, they were new and neat and rightfully funny. Everyone should have partners in crime like this.

Oh, and the whole gum thing made this movie memorable on a level I would never have expected it to be if the gum scene wasn't in it, truly disgusting but memorable. Also, it made both my husband and I squirm in a way I don't think any of the horror movies we've watched in the last 2 years did. Really, I've never seen him turn away from the tv before, and he's unflinchingly watched Cannibal Holocaust.

As for the drunk girlfriend, she was interesting and decent, not particularly great.
This really is just a date movie for teens, with a smidge more intelligence that most of the other teen movies out. I was hoping for more because Michael Cera was in this and he was pretty awesome in Juno, we will see what his future holds.
Also - I was hoping for some stereotypical beautiful New York scenery, but there wasn't any. It was just kids out for a late night searching for a band and each other. I thought a little beauty wouldn't have hurt this movie.

2 comments:

  1. Such a great blog idea... I enjoy your thoughts, keep it up!

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  2. I wouldn't say that I "unflinchingly" watched Cannibal Holocaust... that movie was really sick, like 100 % on the "Joe Bob Briggs Barf Meter".

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