NICK AND NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST

Director: Peter Sollett

Stars: Michael Cera, Kat Dennings, Aaron Yoo, Rafi Gavron, Ari Graynor, Alexis Dziena, Jonathan B. Wright, Jay Baruchel

Year: 2008

Rating: PG-13

Nick O'Leary (Superbad's Michael Cera) is a high school senior who plays in a punk/grunge band called The Jerk Offs with his best friends Thom (Aaron Yoo) and Dev (Rafi Gavron) - both of whom are gay. He lives either in Jersey or a borough of New York City, and has just been dumped by his girlfriend of six months, Tris (Alexis Dziena), with whom he was madly in love. He still makes mix tapes for Tris, which he sticks in her locker at school, and even leaves phone messages on her cell, just to see how she's doing. None of the attention is returned.

Meanwhile, Norah Silverberg (Kat Dennings) hangs out in Tris' circle of girls, but really can't stand the vapid good-time girl. She's pulled most of Nick's mix tapes out of the garbage, not knowing who he is by sight, and is tripping over the great music he's put together for the ungrateful Tris.

When Nick's band plays at a club one evening, Norah - attracted to Nick without knowing who he is - is stuck in a situation where she has to pretend to Tris that she's got a boyfriend. Walking up to Nick, she asks "Could you be my boyfriend for five minutes?" - and invariably opens up a can of worms that makes Tris jealous and possibly plotting a comeback.

Add to this an extremely popular (almost at a cult level) underground band called Where's Fluffy? -a band who never announces ahead of time where or when they're playing, only giving out clues via radio stations instead - and you have a night in which Norah and her very drunk friend Caroline (played hilariously by Ari Graynor), get caught up with Nick and his friends on a drive into New York City, to try to track down just where Where's Fluffy? is playing. What follows is a funny, romantic and engaging road trip/comedy that has a van full of teenagers on a wild night of adventure, all in the name of music.

Cera and Dennings, as Nick and Norah, have great on-screen chemistry and work really convincingly together as a couple. Aaron Yoo and Rafi Gavron (along with Jonathan B. Wright, who plays a beefy hunk that Gavron's character has picked up for the ride) play gay without the slightest leaning toward parody, stereotyping, or femininity; indeed, they play gay ... straight! The film's story is at times crazy and tender, touching and hilarious, and by the end you think you know where things are going, but there are a few simple, sweet twists on the way there.

I really liked this film, which has a great soundtrack, excellent acting, and a smart, funny script. It's a nice romantic comedy that made me think of something that 80's director John Hughes (Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller's Day Off) might have made today. Thoroughly enjoyable. ***1/2 - Reel Cool-Reel Awesome